HONOLULU SYMPHONY

ORCHESTRA PART OF FABRIC OF HAWAI'I'S LIFE

There's a perception that classical music is dying. Really?

Listen to commercials on radio or TV, check out the credits on movies screens to see how many graybeard composers wrote the themes hundreds of years ago.

Maybe one day, "Hawaii Five-0" or "Grey's Anatomy" themes may be considered classical: that's perspective. However, we in Hawai'i are now faced with a situation in which classical music is in danger, maybe even of dying.

No matter what your perspective, classical music influences your life probably more than any sensory perception. It enhances a fine meal, expands vision beyond the eye's periphery, calms the mind, can make toes tap and fingers drum involuntarily.

The Honolulu Symphony orchestra is more than men and women, instruments and a conductor. It is a vital and critical thread — woven into the fabric of our community.

The Honolulu Symphony services schoolchildren, senior citizens, youth music organizations, music students of all ages, concertgoers, the Neighbor Islands, and tourists with programs ranging from teaching children at youth concerts, to jazzy and rockin' Pops series, to innovative contemporary compositions as well as the MasterWorks classical genre.

It is essential that this organization continue as it has for the past 107 years in Hawai'i.

The perception is wrong. Placing the issue in proper perspective: The Honolulu Symphony is not dying, and it's not an option to lose this vital part of our cultural richness.

Join us in support with your donations — no matter how large or small — and become season subscribers.

GOVERNMENT

DEMOCRATS INTEND TO MICROMANAGE OUR LIVES

This letter is in response to Gary Anderson's letter (Jan. 13). Mr. Anderson pleads with our government to not micromanage our private lives.

I'm sorry, Mr. Anderson, but as long as we have Democrats in power in this state it is their intention to micromanage our lives.

They want to redistribute your income, take more of your money (raise taxes), tell you what kind of car to drive, tell you to trust them with your health and tell you what type of bag to use to carry your groceries.

MAINTENANCE

CHEST-HIGH WEEDS ON VINEYARD AN EYESORE

Speaking of maintenance deficiencies (UH, potholes, parks, etc.), let me add the disgraceful condition of chest-high weeds on Vineyard Boulevard from Punchbowl to Palama streets. We're looking like a third-world country.

ROADS

CALL TO CITY'S POTHOLE NUMBER GOT RESULTS

I took the advice of Laverne Higa and called the city pothole hot line the other day to report some potholes on 21st Avenue between Luawai and Harding. Much to my satisfaction, the potholes have been filled.

I also have noted that Harding, University Avenue and Ala Wai Boulevard have all been redone, and are a nice smooth surface under my tires.

I know that not all city and state roads are perfect, but they certainly are not as "third world" as some people suggest. I just want to thank Mayor Mufi Hannemann and the city workers, who I know are out there every day taking care of what needs to be done for our streets, our sewers and our parks.

ENERGY

IT IS FOLLY FOR HAWAI'I TO IMPORT PALM OIL

Your article, "Setback for Hawai'i biodiesel refinery plan" (Jan. 4), failed to mention the global ecological disaster of the palm oil industry, especially in rainforest destruction and endangered species habitats in Southeast Asia, Africa and South America.

Numerous Hawai'i environmental organizations have sought to raise public awareness of the folly of importing yet another fuel.

Particularly misleading in the article is the sentence that reads, "Imperium's biodiesel plant would help the state cut down its dependency on imported oil and is slated to produce diesel from palm oil and other feedstock."

In fact, this would put us at the mercy of the rapidly rising prices of another imported fuel, in addition to petroleum and ethanol.

Worldwide scientific and scholarly dissertations are exposing the fallacies of a major shift in our agriculture production from food to fuel.

Let's help our public utility and our decision-makers nip these proposals in the bud, and pursue bona fide efforts for locally renewable energy resources.

HECO

BURYING POWER LINES BORDERS ON THE ABSURD

Recently, I sold my price-depressed HECO stock following its latest series of weather-related fiascoes.

This included an interval during which the line voltage to my home dropped 40 percent (to 75 volts at wall outlets) for several appliance-destroying hours. There is no telling how much yet-to-be-discovered damage was caused by this.

There is something clearly amiss at HECO. It has repeatedly demonstrated its inability to maintain utility poles capable of surviving leeward winds that were well below hurricane strength.

So, in response to criticism, HECO makes a grand gesture — bordering on the absurd — to bury its problematical lines at $12 million per mile, for up to 17 miles. $204 million for 17 miles! That's almost $2,300 per linear foot.

Will these new lines be made of spun gold? Who will pay for this? Will HECO request even greater increases in O'ahu's electric rates — rates already more than twice the national average?

Will other HECO preventive maintenance be deferred resulting in even less-dependable service than we have now? Will the taxpayers subsidize this? No matter what the plan, it will lighten the wallets of everyone but those in HECO's management.

It would seem that for a very small fraction of $204 million, HECO could install 17 miles of power lines and poles that could withstand a Class 5 hurricane. Florida has thousands of miles of such lines; why not Hawai'i? Get real, HECO!

UH ATHLETICS

ISN'T DOING LOUSY JOB CAUSE TO BE FIRED?

I just don't get it. One would think that doing a good job would be a basic job requirement for just about any job.

I know, I know, many people would qualify that statement by adding "private sector," but let's keep the bar high and include even public employees.

If Herman Frazier was doing a good job, why was he fired? If he was not doing a good job, how could he be fired without cause? Please enlighten me.

Doesn't doing a lousy job qualify as cause for being fired?

Are the University of Hawai'i regents and president so afraid of Mr. Frazier's attorneys that they can't tell it like it is? Or maybe that would be like the pot calling the kettle black?

I consider myself a UH fan — football and many other sports — but I don't care whether Mr. Frazier stays or goes.

But, I do care — very much — when he gets to walk away (from doing a bad job) with $312,510 of our money. I just don't get it!

COACH GAVE FANS AN UNFORGETTABLE SEASON

Aloha, coach Jones. Thank you very much for a job well done. Impossible mission accomplished.

You walked into the UH football program at its darkest hour nine years ago and finished your UH coaching era with the WAC championship, an undefeated regular season, BCS bowl game, Heisman finalist and, most importantly, gave the UH football fans an unforgettable season.

I went to the Sugar Bowl feeling this was a historical divine moment in the history of Hawai'i. There were another 13,000 or so UH fans who also went on the Sugar Bowl pilgrimage.

I do not think there was ever any single Mainland one-day event attended by so many Hawai'i people in the history of the state.

The credit also goes out to your assistant coaches, players, some divine intervention and, of course, the fans. But it all had to start with a leader who had a vision, experience, perseverance and believed it could be done. We all "believe" now. It's been a great ride!

Hawai'i's loss is SMU's gain. I wish you the best at SMU and pray you can pull their football program out of the dungeon and give them the same joy your efforts brought to Hawai'i football fans.

EDUCATION

PHYSICAL TRAINING CRITICAL FOR YOUTH, NOT ATHLETICS

I know scholarship will never get even 10 percent of the attention given ball games. I just wish the few voices who get to speak for scholarship would stop repeating the fiction that athletics are an important part of a well-rounded education.

It's physical training, not athletic programs, that is important for a quality education.

What do athletic programs teach 95 percent of students? In a society with increasingly obese children, athletic programs teach most children to sit, watch and eat. In an increasingly discourteous and uncivil society, the unsupervised crowds assembled by athletics programs breed increasingly unruly behavior, because that is what crowds do — people behave in mobs as they would never do standing alone.

And, $2 million spent for a single coach to serve a handful of elite does nothing for education. Hiring 25 physical training instructors to involve all children would.

So let athletics keep millions of dollars of electronic score boards to honor winners and shame losers. Just stop prohibiting teachers from posting grades on even a handwritten sheet on a cheap bulletin board in a decrepit hallway of a poorly maintained school to give Hawai'i's best scholars the same recognition and its worst scholars the same incentive to improve.