JUDICIAL NOMINEE

LIBERAL COLUMNIST RIGHT TO CREDIT MIERS

If anyone had told me I would ever agree with Newsday columnist Sheryl McCarthy about anything, I would have been appalled.

My, how times have changed!

I must say McCarthy seems possessed of keen insight to have identified Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' supposedly "inferior" academic credentials as the basis for much, if not all, of the criticism now leveled at her. ("Tales of Miers' brass earn her some respect," Oct. 10)

Instead of Hahvahd or some other designer-label "prestige" school, Miers, in the words of McCarthy, "attended modest old Southern Methodist University."

Despite McCarthy's hope that Miers, if confirmed, will turn out to be another Constitution-as-taffy judicial activist using whatever passes for "the law" as a club to grant imaginary new "rights" to this or that politically favored group, her charge of nauseating inside-the-beltway snobbery (of which nominal conservatives and so-called progressives stand guilty) is right on target.

President Bush is right to have nominated her. Because Miers is not a member of the elite is reason enough for her to be on a court that all too often seems far removed from the concerns of "flyover country" and the normal people of this country.

GOING PRO

WIE ISN'T A QUITTER; SHE TOOK A STEP UP

I believe Gerilyn Manago (Letters, Oct. 6) should realize the level in which Michelle Wie is "quitting" from. What would happen had she stayed on the high school level? Other prominent student athletes would have been relegated to her shadows, thus not giving them the highlights that they deserve. Tiger Woods also did a similar thing, leaving Stanford early and opening up a scholarship position for another worthy athlete.

You speak of her giving up, but I believe you forget what makes Michelle Wie the exception: her drive to play with worthy competitors. Her dream of finishing Punahou and going off to Stanford followed a path that many had started on, but something happened: her game got better.

Michelle became a better golfer beyond her years and so it was not about quitting, but reaching for more. I wonder if you believe ice skating champion Michelle Kwan should have waited till she was of age or if the Williams sisters played high school level tennis when they were winning championships around the world?

Do you really believe we should fault Michelle for going on to the next level? I think you need to learn the lesson that quitters are those who don't play at all.

MINIMUM WAGE

LABOR THEORY OF VALUE NOT NEEDED IN HAWAI'I

Rep. Kirk Caldwell's defense of minimum wages falls short (Island Voices, Oct. 10). Ultimately, he and other defenders must answer this: If raising the minimum wage 50 cents is good, why isn't raising it to 10 or 20 (or more) dollars an hour better?

Caldwell doesn't directly address this question; instead, he invokes Karl Marx's Labor Theory of Value as justification. Without saying it, it appears that Caldwell accepts the Marxist idea that the price of goods includes an "excess value" that represents the exploitation of labor. Otherwise, if you increase the cost of labor (such as with a minimum wage), the cost of the goods created with that labor would simply increase as well with no benefit to the worker.

Caldwell sees the role of government as repairing that exploitation through minimum wages. The record of governments attempting to put Marx's theories into practice has been dismal. The minimum wage does nothing to correct that record. Caldwell should dump these discredited Marxist class warfare theories, and instead work to provide better opportunity for all — workers, business owners and investors.

SATIRE

REAL DANGER IN POLITICS IS NO SENSE OF HUMOR

In Jerry Burris' Oct. 9 column ("The joke that reflects the reality"), he writes: "It is dangerous when people begin treating politics as a joke." But truth is told in jest, and sometimes satire is the closest thing any of us come to in politics not buried under political correctness, rhetoric and doublespeak. Throughout history, every time people have been persecuted, the last defenders of the freedom of speech were those who dressed their disdain in witty, urbane and, yes, satirical oratory.

Missing a sense of humor, on the other hand, is the real danger in politics; no tyrants are past the point of return until they can no longer imagine not taking themselves seriously. That last sentence was a triple-negative, but at least I can be honest about it with myself. For I, unlike Burris, take my humor seriously.

SERVE RIDERS

BUS SHOULD FOCUS ON PUNCTUALITY, DRIVING

The bus company has to consider what you do. TheBus in Hawai'i has never come on time. It is unusual. Many people use it to go to school and work, so TheBus has to keep to its schedule. It is not impossible. Most people have experienced being late.

One of the reasons why TheBus is late is traffic jams. TheBus should use special roads and appeal to drivers to not interrupt them. Besides traffic jams, problems are caused by the bus drivers. Talking on the phone and stopping to take a break must be a private action.

Lastly, the bus company had better employ drivers carefully. Some of them cut other drivers off forcibly. Some of them do not use blinkers. Some of them use blinkers and move at the same time. These actions will cause a big accident some day, so TheBus company must think deeply about what it does.

CRIMINALS

MAINLAND PRISONS A GOOD DETERRENT

When I was a kid, my mother told me if I broke the law, I would go to jail and I would eat bread and water and wear a black-and-white striped jail uniform. Worse than that, if I did break the law, I would have to own up to my mom.

Today's criminals are whining because they have been sent to a Mainland prison; they aren't eating bread and water or wearing black-and-white striped uniforms. Maybe they should be.

Maybe they should think about going to a Mainland prison before they commit these crimes.

Maybe this would be the deterrent they need.

Too bad they didn't know my mom.

CONTRARY TO STAGE REVIEW, KIDS FOUND 'POOH' CHARMING

At nap time, the Iolani kindergartners, enchanted with the stories from A.A. Milne, try hard not to fall asleep lest they miss any of the action and explanation from the original text of "Winnie the Pooh," written in 1926. These 5- and

6-year-old "Pooh professors" were thrilled to attend the Honolulu Theatre for Youth's production of "Winnie the Pooh" — and dismayed with Joseph Rozmiarek's Oct. 7 review.

"They did a really good job!"

"The actors worked really hard!"

"The actors moved the puppets with umbrellas and sticks."

"It was good, good, good, good, good, good, good!"

"A.A. Milne would be sad (with the stage review) because they did a good job and they sang songs."

To justify what Rozmiarek wrote, the kids thought that perhaps "maybe when he was typing in the letters, he typed the wrong letters." The script of the play was delightfully close to the subtly clever writing in the book, which is often lost in the Walt Disney versions. The young children were able to understand that the father (who actually was Christopher Robin's storyteller in the book), the mother, the nanny and Christopher Robin all had dual roles, as actors and also as puppeteers for the children's favorite stuffed characters.

For us, the play was charming, and, in my opinion, the concept worked well, allowing the stuffed animals to stay stuffed. I do believe that the more familiar you are with the original stories, the more you would appreciate what the director was trying to accomplish.

It saddened us that, based on the review, people might choose not to attend. They would be missing out on a delightful, inventive and theatrical winner.

TRIATHLON

CRASH CAME ON UNSAFE STREETS

This past weekend, O'ahu residents were treated to the sights of triathletes from around the world competing in the International Triathlon Union JAL Honolulu World Championships. It was a sight that drew many of us living along Kalaniana'ole Highway to the streets to marvel at powerful cyclists zipping along the freeway with amazing speed.

The sight also made many of us wonder how police officers stationed at intersections were going to be able to direct traffic while keeping cyclists safe. How were officers going to be able to keep their eyes on both cyclists and cars, turning in different directions? How were drivers going to cross Kalaniana'ole Highway without getting in the way of cyclists approaching at a mind-boggling speed?

We assumed that police officers were properly trained to judge the speed of the cyclists, and that they were following clear procedures on how to best direct these difficult traffic situations.

Unfortunately, on Sunday morning, I was one of these drivers assuming that the traffic situation was in control of the police. I was waiting in a line of cars to make a left turn into 'Aina Haina Shopping Center. A police officer waved us through, and I followed his instructions. Suddenly, a cyclist crashed into the back of my car, fell off her bike and onto the street. My heart still pounds as I write this. How could this happen? Why was I told to go when it was clearly not safe?

The cyclist was taken to the hospital, traffic was cleared and the racers kept coming. Yet, I couldn't believe what had just happened. Why did I trust the officer's instructions? Why didn't I make absolutely sure that there was no cyclist in sight? These questions will haunt me for a long time.

But in the meantime, I am amazed that there seems to be no clear procedure at hand. Cyclists were repeatedly yelling at officers to clear the streets for them. We heard news of another cyclist crashing into a car further down on Kalaniana'ole Highway. My husband saw similar situations barely being avoided.

Finally, when a kind couple who had witnessed my accident offered to drive me home, we were waved by another police officer onto oncoming cyclists. Having learned our lesson, we refused to go and waited until there were no cyclists in sight. Had we followed this officer's signals, who knows how many more cyclists would have gotten hurt?

This horrific experience leaves me wondering how well we are providing for the safety of triathletes. Honolulu prides itself in hosting international events such as these. We are made aware days in advance to "expect traffic delays."

But what about safety? We seem to be telling athletes that their right of way is being guaranteed by police officers directing traffic. At the same time we are telling drivers such as myself that they need to follow police directions.

But as had been made clear to me Sunday morning, officers are understaffed and unprepared to handle difficult traffic situations such as these. If there is a city or county policy dictating the amount of security necessary for an event of this size, then it is time we revisit it.

I do not know what has happened to the cyclist who crashed into my car. I held her hand as we waited for the ambulance, trying to calm her crying. I wanted to assure her that she will be safe and taken care of.

But I no longer feel confident that we can invite the world's top athletes to come to Hawai'i and tell them that we can guarantee their safety. It is time we spend whatever time, training and funds it takes to ensure that athletes and drivers can both safely use our streets.