Your question makes a good point. My personal best at answering the question is that, today, a fire engine drove pass me with its sirens blaring and its lights flashing. I just can not comfortably come to terms with the stark contrast of a bus driver having a 100% paid benefits through irregularities of lubricated palms and dim-wit public servants, while a fireman, who might or might not be on the fire truck's return trip back to the station, refrained from making an irrevocably demand that society pay 100% of his medical---even though, without question, a fireman's physical health and his manna are paramount to rescuing the lives of strangers.

"edwatch:" Posting Mr. Hall's letter-to-the-editor to this forum does not authorize me to clarify, in proxy, the principles that may be endeared by him. But since his letter was mailed to a public domain venue---to my knowledge---he was not trying to promote copyright, thus, will not pursue a law suit against me for infringement or contributory tarnishment for any misinterpretation occurring on this forum. The coincidence of having two rival newspapers posting the same letter from the same person on the same morning, probably only happens once in every ten years. Obviously, both editors in charge---decided independently of each other---that Mr. Hall's letter had some merit. I am in agreement with the editors. As I have posted numerous lengthy rants (screeds) to this board from the inception of the bus strike topic, and read other people's posts---both pro and con---I thought that the readers of this board would find Mr. Hall's letter of interest.

Particularly, his claim that it is a breach of contract when the City requires seniors to pay new fees for their bus passes when the period that they pre-paid for with their existing senior passes had not yet expired. The fact that the kapunas had to wait hours in line, and some of the elderly were even turned away at the end of the day, only enlarges the exodus of the people's aloha from the bus drivers. I personally don't believe that most of our senior citizens really could not survive with a reduction-in-service on their unhurried retirement schedules. It does not follow though that these seniors' tolerance will survive having to come back a second day to the Blaisdell. As the majority of our older retirees live on set-incomes, they are further insulted when they must endure a long wait on their feet to pay for an extra surcharge to fund a level of bus routes that they would have elected was more economical to do without.

At $41,000 a year---the new five-year bus contract guarantees most of the drivers will receive over $200,000 on bare-bones wages, alone, for the run of the contract. Be aware too, at the end of 20 years---at today's level of compensation, and without factoring in any adjustment for periodic wage and benefit increases---their paycheck's grand total will tally up to $1 million---quite lucrative for an employment immune from the spectre of lay-offs. With this amount of loot, the bus drivers have enough to contribute a good portion for their own medical insurance and retirement fund---a double whopper as it stands today. Even, if lay-offs became possible, by a political miracle that drifted upon our shores, or a concession-clause that fell from out of the sky, such a citizen's mandate would pose little threat to the present group of drivers' livelihoods, because any lay-offs would be cancelled-out by---older drivers retiring---some drivers moving to the mainland---and the population's natural growth with a correlating increase in bus service, with laid-off drivers given first preference to fill in any open slots. So, essentially, the no lay-off impasse at the strike talks was senseless, since, a lay-off would not be a permanent severence.

My contention, in my previous post, was that the bus drivers' wage and benefits should have been treated with a take it or leave it offer, decremented year by year---at least---until the drivers high compensation landed back on earth. But this would have required a City Council that was biased in favor of the bus rider. However, today, there would neither, have been long lines at the Blaisdell, nor the fed-up temperament at the bus station's customer's center. Nor would the present bus contract be costing me an additional $120.00 more a year in take-home pay for my bus pass. The fact that a bus driver's application does not stipulate a pre-requisite of a $50,000 investment for higher education---adding tuition together with the amount of lost revenue a student has to forsake from not holding a 40-hour a week job, while attending classes for 4 years---militates strongly on the side of the argument that the bus drivers' compensation is a financial parcel zoned on Mt. Keala. I doubt that even 1% of the elderly standing in line at the Blaisdell had enjoyed this kind of monetary compensation in their own careers, even when adjusted.

The drivers for Honolulu's earlier buses, that is, when the person behind the steering wheel was physically, as well as, spiritually in the aloha state, were required to carry coin dispensers to make change, and one of their daily chores was dictated by a small metal lever on the side of a glassed-in fare box. The drivers had to use the lever to clear the first passenger's deposit in the fare box so the driver could then visually count the next customer's fare separately.....and then the next.....and the next..... Even if the buses were air conditioned back then---the work conditions would have still been much more mentally distressing and more physically demanding than operating the buses of today with its push buttons and mechanized fare boxes. With the lop-sided relation that the bus drivers have with their current financial compensation compared to their real market value, Cowen will never accumulate enough wealth to set up anything close to a Winberg Foundation, and neither will anyone in Hawaii have derived anything substantial nor extra---unless the drivers reimburse the state by leaving their brains anonymously to science, thus, endowing a study of a select group of individuals, whose sole proficiency lay in their talent of using both their fingers and their toes for counting dollar bills staining themselves with the green dirt, and whose craniums bore a full array of kokua-deficient brain cells---the cause of an uncharacteristic inability to grasp the concept of mahalo.

In our state, nurses have to be imported from the mainland because of a serious lack of supply. Their high pay---in many cases augmented with subsidized apartments---is understandable. Police recruits are paid to be locally trained---but soon to fly away to greener pastures. This is not the case for bus drivers' vacancies. If tomorrow, the City and County of Honolulu were to put out a flyer on the World Wide Web asking for bus drivers---by next week, several hundred bus drivers from across the nation would be arriving in town to apply for the same position. This is partially due to our weather. But more so, for the thrill of driving upon our golden highways.

Our current public transportation system will always be lapped by the surge of insolvency with our payroll at high tide level to a point where the passengers' personal incomes are stretched and our tolerance exceeds its modulus of elasticity.....BRT, our municipality's latest brainchild, is already post-mortem with our prodigal bus system's thirst for high labor cost guzzling its financial blood. City Hall ought to be gagged and bound if they even contemplate modifying the bus system to improve service, lest they groom a transit Frankenstein who might walkout one night at 12:01 am to fender bender our island's livelihood. The recent bus fiasco demonstrates that the royal exhortation of ''absolutely no money'' soon reaps a decree alerting passengers to form a bucket brigade to pour cash into a customized fare box. Either, City Hall lacks the fiscal acumen, or harbors special-interest groups, or is crisis challenged, or relishes dunce caps, or wandered away from the clinic.....well you get the picture.