Mountain’s sacredness seems a recent thing

I see that another roadblock has been thrown in front of the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (“Back to square one for TMT,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 3).

As a former resident of the Big Island, I spent much time hunting and hiking on Mauna Kea during the 1970s and 1980s. It would seem to me that during that time I would have come across a group of Hawaiians engaged in whatever sacred practices were necessary to guarantee the largess of the “gods” of sacred Mauna Kea. But I did not. I saw only other hunters and, of course, the prey.

Jump ahead to the present and suddenly Mauna Kea is sacred beyond measure.

Has the intervening time caused some change and these current Hawaiian activists have become privy to the change and deem themselves the protectors of the sacred Mauna Kea? I think not.

If TMT is stopped, it will be another opportunity lost in reinforcing the idea that Hawaii can become the center of astronomical research for the planet Earth.

The original settlers of Hawaii were explorers. It appears this spirit has died in their current descendants.

Joe Laszlo

Manoa

City has been diligent in patching potholes

Hitting a pothole is always nerve-wracking, but on a weekly basis, city Department of Facility Maintenance crews patch between 500 to 1,500 potholes islandwide (“City administration neglecting potholes,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Dec. 8).

From weather, staff and equipment availability, the number of potholes repaired each week is dependent on a number of factors, including calls to the city’s Pothole Hotline and reports to the city’s website.

Since the start of the year, city crews patched nearly 46,000 potholes across Oahu, and DFM remains committed to filling potholes as soon as they appear.

We ask the community to call the Pothole Hotline at 768-7777 to report them as soon as they appear, or go to http://www.honolulu.gov/dfm/pothole to complete a form.

The city will continue patching potholes to ensure drivers have a smooth surface to ride on until the remaining 570 lane miles of the island’s worst roads are repaved.

Meanwhile, DFM is rolling out a preventative maintenance program utilizing slurry seal and seal coating to keep roads in good condition.

Ross Sasamura

Director, City and County Department of Facility Maintenance

Na‘i Aupuni election paid for by Hawaiians

Keli‘i Akina and his Grassroot Institute have opposed justice for Native Hawaiians since before Rice v. Cayetano in 2000.

The Na‘i Aupuni election is a political issue relating to the theft of our Hawaiian nation, and not a racial issue.

Akina says that justice will destroy the aloha spirit. Many kanaka maoli, who give us the aloha spirit, endure dismal social conditions — with a skyrocketing cost of living amid a tsunami of multimillionaires.

The Na‘i Aupuni election is not publicly funded. As an Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee (1984-1996), I negotiated with the Waihee and Cayetano administrations for a percentage of the ceded (seized) land revenues. Consequently, 20 percent earned from seized Hawaiian lands now goes to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which funded the Na‘i Aupuni election.

Na‘i Aupuni is funded by us Hawaiians.

Moanike‘ala Akaka

Hilo

Tax increase would reward inefficiency

A great majority of Hawaii residents support better education and increased teacher pay in this expensive paradise, and the receipts from the recently proposed general excise tax increase to 5 percent seem to be targeted to education (“HSTA urges increase to help fund education proposals,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 9), but I hate to consider awarding poor overall government performance with a “pay increase.”

Specifically, dedicating 1 percent of the GET toward education would reduce the need for other general fund allocations to education, thereby enriching the budget for other functions of government, hardly any of which are run efficiently. In other words, throw more money into an inefficient money pit? I hate the thought.

In case this unfortunate idea gets traction, I would suggest a much smaller increase, maybe 0.25 percent. Starve the beast to leanness; don’t fatten it.

Richard Stancliff

Lower Makiki

Better schools for kids worth a tax increase

I was thrilled to read that the Hawaii State Teachers Association is submitting a bill to the Legislature that may finally address the issues that have been plaguing our schools for years.

Our public schools are grossly underfunded and our children are routinely subjected to obscene amounts of standardized testing and test preparation, while being forced to spend their days in hot and crumbling facilities and denied access to the arts and electives that foster creative expression, critical thinking and personal growth.

Yes, there would be a cost involved with properly funding our schools, to the tune of a slight general excise tax increase.

But if we truly care about educating and caring for our keiki, then shouldn’t we put our money where our mouth is? Aren’t our children worth it? Mine are. I’ll gladly pay.

Mike Landes

Kihei, Maui