OFFICIAL NAME IS ONE PROPOSED FOR CHANGE

City law says a park may be named for a person who has achieved significant recognition on a national or international level. Certainly, that describes our native son, President Barack Obama. His election was historic. He's been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He's announced that when the United States hosts the international APEC Summit in 2011, it will be held in Honolulu. It is fitting and appropriate that his hometown name a city park in his honor.

There seems to be confusion, however, about this proposal. What we have proposed is changing the name of the area we all call Magic Island from Äina Moana Beach Park to President Barack Obama Beach Park. Äina Moana is the official name, and the one we're suggesting be changed. The media and others seem to think there's a proposal to change the name Magic Island; there is no such proposal. In fact we'll recommend that the council change the Äina Moana name to President Barack Obama Beach Park at Magic Island so we can include "Magic Island" in the official name.

That's really all there is to it. This is not political, not Republican, not Democrat. This is simply a city letting the world know it is proud to be the hometown of the president of the United States.

And you can still call it Magic Island.

MUFI HANNEMANN | Mayor, City & County of Honolulu

RAIL TRANSIT

FOCUS ON THE BEST SYSTEM FOR PEOPLE

Last Sunday's editorial came across as somewhat dictatorial. It called for Gov. Lingle to be well focused. By blindly approving the city's rail plan?

The governor's not ignorant about rail and its draft environmental impact statement, as the mayor would like everyone to believe. The DEIS is over a year old, yet its myriad problems and shortcomings identified by concerned organizations and community groups have not been addressed.

The editorial noted Lingle has voiced her concern on the financial plan, and rightly so. It added that the FTA holds the prospect of federal funding in its hands, but overlooked the fact that Hawaii citizens and property owners will have to shoulder the colossal financial burden when federal money and GET tax collections likely fall well short of funding the mayor's pipe dream. Transit construction must not begin until the FTA has clearly committed construction funds, which won't be known until 2011 or later.

Voters must become educated on the huge mistake of proceeding with this over-built and excessively costly elevated system, and on the need for evaluating realistic, affordable alternatives virtually ignored in the DEIS.

The editorial stated: "The people elected to serve the taxpayers' interest need to keep their focus on delivering a well-planned and carefully executed improvement to Honolulu that in the end will benefit all of Hawaii." That's exactly what we want, with a far more flexible, convenient and affordable integrated at-grade transit system.

MICHELLE SPALDING MATSON | Honolulu SCOTT WILSON | AIA

REG WHITE | Honolulu

ROBERT CRONE | AIA

GERALD CHANG | Moiliili

PETER VINCENT | AIA

GEORGE FOX | Advocates for Consumer Rights

NANCY L. HEDLUND | Honolulu

CLIMATE CHANGE

FORGET THEORY; TAKE ACTION ON SYMPTOMS

I am not sure which is more presumptuous: to think that we are causing the planet's climate to change or that we can do something about it. Listening to both sides of the political rhetoric, the planet is either warming or cooling. Nonetheless it seems there are some changes happening, and that there are potential vulnerabilities. Although I am all for cleaning up our act and polluting less, the arguments and global initiatives regarding climate change are misguided, in my opinion.

Rather than reacting to the theory that the industrial world is causing climate change, the leaders who are meeting in Copenhagen should focus their efforts on how to mitigate the effects of a changing environment, i.e., changes in coastal sea levels. The world is better served by addressing the factual symptoms of changes to the environment rather than the theoretical causes.

JOHN HANSEN | Waipahu

NOBEL

AWARD TO OBAMA IS NOT A PEACE PRIZE

Apparently what is required to receive a Nobel Peace Prize is to order 30,000 more troops to bolster a failing, costly (in terms of lives and dollars) and unpopular war. But then, the awarding of the peace prize has often defied logic. Remember Henry Kissinger's prize in 1972?

2009 would have been a good year to have returned the peace prize money to the "main fund," as was done in several previous years, or to have awarded the prize to one of many low-profile, grassroots peace organizations throughout the world.

What we have in this award of the peace prize to President Obama a week after his war speech is a war prize, not a peace prize.

MARGARET BROWN | Honolulu

FURLOUGHS

SPEND 2 DAYS WITH A TEACHER, THEN JUDGE

As teachers we instruct, assist and assess the 25 to 35 students we have in our classes (sometimes 140 students a day). We address a myriad of issues behavior, drug/alcohol use, anger management, bullying, absenteeism, etc. Like any successful business, we need to have regular meetings to review student data to determine how to address the needs of our "customers." After-school meetings only give us a snapshot of what is happening.

Additional responsibilities include tutoring, grading, lesson planning, evaluating, developing and revising lessons, monitoring each student's progress, contacting parents, IEP meetings and chaperoning after-school events and activities. Unfortunately, it is not physically possible to do all this within our 35 paid hours per week; thus, most teachers work an additional 15 to 20 unpaid hours per week.

Furlough days were not the teachers' solution to balance the budget. We would rather be teaching; we, too, want the best for our students. Don't judge our jobs without spending at least two full days with a teacher. Then you will understand the work we do, and have a better perspective on which of the above to cut out in order to maintain a high level of learning while still balancing the budget.

CARRIE BASHAW | Honolulu