GOVERNOR INSPIRES, PROMOTES WOMEN

Criticism of Gov. Linda Lingle's record of appointing women is off base, misinformed and political.

Gov. Lingle does not use a quota system for female appointees, as the Hawai'i Democratic Women's Caucus and Democratic legislators seem to be advocating. She evaluates candidates' skills and experience and what they can contribute to improving our state.

Gov. Lingle appointed the eight of us to serve in her cabinet, alongside nine women deputy directors and hundreds of women she appointed to boards and commissions. She selected us from an unlimited pool of candidates and was not constrained by a small list prepared by a commission, like she is when appointing judges or university regents.

Gov. Lingle is committed to inspiring women leaders and mentoring the next generation. She founded the annual International Women's Leadership Conference, which has inspired women and girls to make the most of their abilities to meet goals and become leaders.

She worked directly with women inmates, female youth offenders and homeless women to give them tools to gain a better life.

She strongly advocates for young women to enter male-dominated fields such as science, technology, engineering and math, and encourages women statewide to run for elected office.

Gov. Lingle demonstrates that elevating women to positions of leadership is more than just appointing them when a vacancy occurs.

FEDERAL DEFICIT

MONEY SPENT ON CENSUS OUTRAGEOUS

The government is literally throwing money away under the guise of stimulating the economy. Case in point: The Census Bureau has hired an employee to sit at a sidewalk table near the Hau'ula Post Office to help people who have questions regarding the census form.

Give me a break. The form asks only for names, addresses, birth dates, ages and race. How difficult can that be? Do we really need a $17-per-hour job for someone to sit and look busy?

And look at the millions of dollars being spent on TV and other media advertisements to encourage people to fill out the form. Is this how we want our deficit tax dollars to be used?

Remember, these deficits will be paid by our children and grandchildren — if our nation does not go bankrupt before that time.

HEALTH INSURANCE

EQUAL, PRE-APPROVED POLICIES UNREALISTIC

You can no more offer equal, affordable health insurance for all — regardless of a person's ability to pay or pre-existing conditions — than you could offer auto or home insurance without considering the price of the policy and preconditions.

No insurance company (but the "government") could stay in business insuring cars and homes at affordable prices for all after the cars and homes had already been wrecked or were on fire.

Expect sky-high premiums and taxes, and lower health care services soon.

NEED FOR CHANGE

FORCE TERM LIMITS; VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT

"We The People" are the first words in our nation's Constitution. We need to let our elected officials know that we, the people, are the reason they are civil servants. We have broken federal and state governments, but we can repair them. We need to get to the voting booth and vote.

We have term limits for our president, our governor and our mayor, yet our representatives and senators have none — on both the federal and state levels in Hawai'i.

Why? They are aware of this and will not make any change. We need to vote out any representative with more than four terms and any senator who has been in office more than two terms.

You want change? You must vote. Our elected officials will never pass a law that will limit their term of office.

Do you have the guts to vote them out of office even if you think that they are doing a good job? It was not the intent of the Founding Fathers that these officials serve for life.

SIT-INS

PROTESTERS APPEAR TO BE PART OF PROBLEM

While I admire the persistence of the parents who sat in at the governor's office, I wonder why they are not as inspired to work for quality education rather than just quantity of school days.

And I resent, and many others likely do too, being asked to burn through $92 million to end the furlough days. That is a cost of about $45 from every man, woman and child in the state.

What will we get in return for this? More ineffective DOE babysitting.

Sorry, parents, but I think we would all better off if the kids just hit the library on furlough days.

SHIP OR DON'T SHIP?

COUNCIL IS REVERSING POSITION ON TRASH

I recently read that the City Council has taken a 180- degree turn from where it stood earlier on the issue of shipping trash.

If my memory serves me correctly, it was the City Council that basically forced this decision to ship trash down the throat of the city administration because it wanted keep trash from going to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill.

Now that this shipping company is struggling to secure its required permits, the Council is considering ending the contract and using the money to fund other items in the budget for next year. This is not a sound business decision.

These are the same officials that we put in office, who now want to waffle on their original decision.

I can't help but remember a phrase someone once told me about politicians: "If they are not kissing babies, they're stealing their lollipops."