PICK SHOULD BE BASED ON QUALIFICATIONS

I respectfully disagree with H. Omori's opinion regarding the HPD's finalists (Letters, Nov. 8). H. Omori contends that the next chief needs to be from Hawaii and not the Mainland.

Shouldn't the next police chief be hired based on his or her qualifications?

Case in point: The 2007 University of Hawaii Warrior football team that we consider heroes are not from Hawaii:

• June Jones: Portland, Ore. (Didn't we have "June Jones for Governor" T-shirts?)

• Colt Brennan: Laguna Beach, Calif.

• Ryan Grice-Mullen: Rialto, Calif.

• Davone Bess: Hayward, Calif.

They all embraced Hawaii and contributed greatly to improve our state.

I have been raised in Hawaii and now have a home in California. I have seen the real world in which there is no "Good Old Boys Club" and nepotism is not rampant.

If the Hawaii candidates are best qualified, then definitely he or she should be selected.

But to select the chief solely on the fact that they are from Hawaii would perpetuate the same old "who do you know" and "wait your turn" mentality and Hawaii will never play with the Big Boys on the Mainland.

i. lim | Costa Mesa, Calif.

AIRPORT

STATE NOT MAKING A GOOD IMPRESSION

Is Hawaii a "Third World" state? Read on and then you decide.

During the past three months, I traveled to the U.S. Mainland, Japan, Austria and Germany. I passed through airports in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Frankfurt and Munich in Germany, and Narita, Haneda, Fukuoka and Komatsu in Japan. The terminals at these airports were clean, neat and well maintained.

Then I returned to Honolulu International from Narita. What a shock! Carpet in the boarding ramps was dirty, the ramp roof was leaking from an early morning rain, and the carpet where the ramp meets the terminal was held down with duct tape. In the international baggage area, covers on seat cushions along the back wall were in shreds.

One can only wonder what visitors think about Hawaii when the first thing they see upon entering the state is a dirty and poorly maintained airport. We get one chance to make a first impression and we seem to be blowing it at the airport. Does anyone care?

So, is Hawaii a "Third World" state? The state may not be, but the Honolulu International Airport certainly meets the standard. What a shame.

roger l. schenck | Honolulu

GORBACHEV

HONESTY ON FAILED SOCIALISM ADMIRABLE

I was touched by your inclusion of Mikhail Gorbachev on the editorial page (Nov. 10) openly admitting that socialism was a failure.

He called it the "flawed model of a centralized economy and bureaucratic planning." He said after decades of the Bolshevik experiment Soviet society was led down "a historical blind alley" but fortunately concluded with Soviet Perestroika in the 1980s and a push toward democracy.

Unfortunately it took over 50 million deaths of its citizens before admitting that Soviet socialism was a failure. That's a lot of people to sacrifice before a public policy is admitted to be wrong, yet today there are leaders in the world who deny this historical fact and want to reinvent the wheel.

I admire Gorbachev for correctly setting the record straight on this 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Rep. gene ward | Hawaii Kai

NATIONAL DEFICIT

GOP BACKWARD ON WAR AND HEALTH CARE

Get out of Iraq and Afghanistan right now. The Republicans are saying that Obama is running up our country's deficit in his health care reform and at the same time they say that we need to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Doesn't it cost money to pay for this buildup?

Spending money at home is much better than spending money in other countries. What mentality!

We should build up our defense at home and mind our own business in other countries.

Can't trust our Congress with a 10-foot pole!

francis k. ibara | Kahului, Maui

SUGAR CANE

MAY PLANTATIONCULTURE LIVE ON

The alarming demise of our Hawaii sugar plantations is saddening.

I was born in the sugar plantation town of Waipahu and grew up in the 1950s sugar plantation environment. My mom, Thema, had a grocery store (New Hing Chong) on Waipahu Street facing the Waipahu Sugar Mill, and my godfather was a sugar plantation worker there. Arakawa's nearby sold sugar-cane plantation shirts and my mom once made a patchwork quilt from plantation design patches of cloth. My friend Seichi Watanabe once used arrows for his koa sapling bow from cane tassels.

I'm glad that we do have the Waipahu Cultural Garden museum to keep alive the history of the Waipahu sugar cane plantation, and I hope that the last sugar cane plantation, HC&S on Maui, will somehow survive. Long live ko (sugar cane) in our Aloha State!

franklin kam | Honolulu