Letters to the Editor

Students bought souvenirs for home

My heart goes out to the families of all of those aboard the Ehime Maru and my prayers have been filled with hope that they, in time, can find comfort and peace again.

I want this to be an open letter to the parents of those four missing students to let them know that in the day before the tragedy, they were happy and eager to take home the souvenirs they had bought.

I helped them where I work, and it was Katsuya Nomoto whom I chatted with. He told me about being a cadet on a fishing ship and that he was enjoying a day off. He bought gifts for those back home and made his selections with much thought. I think now about the girl who was to receive those items, and my heart goes out to her as well.

If this small offering can let the parents know that they had a nice day on Thursday, I am thankful. I am deeply saddened by this event and can only send my love and prayers to them all.

Marianne E W. Schultz

Tougher questions should be asked

The headline in Sunday’s paper, "Apology and anguish," along with the editorial that accompanied it, lends support to those who assert that many newspapers in the United States have editorial staffs that serve their masters well by protecting the major societal institutions from popular criticism.

The obvious headline story about this tragic submarine accident was "What went wrong?" This is a somewhat rare case where there is no other side. The Japanese boat had every right to be where it was. Your headline hardly encourages people to ask questions.

The editorial then proceeds to offer a justification for the presence of submarines in the water, noting that they protect commercial vessels. Did you send a draft of your editorial to the Navy for prior approval?

Journalistic integrity calls for hard-hitting questions. A stronger editorial could have argued that such an event should never happen again, and that every effort should be make to ensure that it does not.

The establishment of improved submarine-surfacing procedures is clearly in the best interest of all peoples. Frankly, I am appalled, but not surprised, by your apologistic coverage of this human tragedy.

Bill Honer

Why haven’t civilians on sub been named?

I find it strange that the 15 civilians aboard the USS Greeneville have neither been named nor have spoken to the press. Why? Who were these "prominent business people and their family members"?

And how often does the U.S. Navy take civilians for "rides" on nuclear submarines?

Kristie McEwan

Equality, not aloha, should be the focus

In response to Donald Cataluna’s Feb. 9 comment that if Hawaiians have to follow the "white man’s law," "There would be no more aloha, no more canoes and surfboards at Waikiiki."

My comment to him would be "equality for all" or no more jobs, no more money and no more honey for Hawaiians and unfortunately many others who have small businesses that depend on our tourism industry.

Ronald Edmiston

Studies prove helmet law does save lives

Regarding your Jan. 27 article "Hawai‘i laws help lift rating on traffic safety": It points out that mandatory motorcycle helmet use will not be taken up by our legislators this year, to the dismay of those of us in Hawai‘i who provide health care to the 1,200 people with brain injuries discharged from Hawai‘i hospitals annually.

Studies show that an unhelmeted motorcyclist is 40 percent more likely to incur a fatal head injury and 15 percent more likely to incur a nonfatal injury than a helmeted motorcyclist when involved in a crash. Further, when states issue a helmet law that covers all riders, helmet-use rates rise to nearly 100 percent.

Recent data from several states with universal helmet laws indicated that each state saved approximately $2 million on hospital charges due to brain injury in the first year of enacting the new law.

In previous years, groups have opposed a universal helmet law in Hawai‘i, stating that helmets are uncomfortable and inconvenient, or incorrectly asserting that helmet use causes accidents. Yet in study after study, the statistics speak for themselves.

William D. O’Connor
President and CEO, Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific

Sandy Beach case smacks of legal ploy

I disagree with The Advertiser’s Feb. 2 editorial position on the Sandy Beach downzoning case.

First, the land has not been taken from the Kamehameha Schools (formerly known as the Bishop Estate). The estate still has title to the property.

Second, land use by initiative is legal, according to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The whole case strikes me as an effort by the lawyers to punish the taxpayers for downzoning the Sandy Beach parcel. If land is unzoned, does the government require the developer to pay the government?

Phil Robertson

There’s a case to be made for gambling here

With so many issues surrounding the legalization of casino gambling in Hawai‘i, can we honestly say that it will do more harm than good?

Or more good than harm?

Has there been a great deal of research on this that can clearly explain "the good, the bad and the ugly" of legalized gambling?

Yes, it’s clear that we may and most likely will gamble away our hard-earned money at the local casino, foregoing our rent payment, food budget or medical bills.

But the bottom line is, it's our money, and we are free to do with it as we please.

O‘ahu is a beautiful destination stop for visitors from all walks of life. We want to preserve as much of our old Hawai‘i any way we can to remain a beautiful place to visit.

However, we must also understand that the times have changed and will continue to change whether we like it or not.

If legalized gambling will help provide food and shelter for homeless people, fund the repairs or expansion of public schools, increase the pay scale for our schoolteachers and police officers while exempting all local residents from paying state taxes, then I’m all for it.

Michael Sasano

Credit Mazie Hirono for opening Haneda

Kudos are in order for Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono for her work to increase air travel to Hawai‘i by pushing for international flights out of Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

Nearly two years ago, she set out to inform U.S. aviation negotiators, Japanese government officials and representatives from the airline and tourism industries in the United States and Japan about Hawai‘i’s keen interest in opening Haneda to international flights.

The recent announcement that the Japanese government has agreed to allow international charter flights out of Haneda will definitely help to improve the air seat availability from Japan to our Islands. It will also support growth from the Japanese market, which is so important to our state's visitor industry.

Peter H. Schall
Vice President and Managing Director, Hilton Hawaiian Village

Hawai‘i has had its share of artists

As Bob Krauss pointed out in his Feb. 7 Our Honolulu column about jazz in Honolulu, described as an "exotic footnote" to the PBS series, Hawai‘i has its own jazz history. As a footnote to his piece, I’d like to add that Hawai‘i has spawned a jazz tradition of its own — one that has produced, and continues to produce, some remarkable artists.

Singer Ethel Azama, pianists Flip Nunes and Ernie Washington, and pianist/composer Ed Moody are only a few of the musicians who brought jazz in Hawai‘i to the high standard it occupies today. The lessons they passed along can be heard in the work of dozens of first-class jazz performers around the Islands. Their memories are still strong in the lives of many of us who build our lives around music.

And that’s the only kind of immortality most jazz musicians ever realize: the secrets they share with the young ones coming up.

The Ken Burns PBS series conferred immortality on a couple of dozen artists (all of whom were worthy choices), but may have left viewers with the impression that only a few jazz performers over the past hundred years have reached the highest levels of creative accomplishment. In doing so, it did a disservice to hundreds of lesser-known contributors to the music and to the vitality of jazz traditions in such far-flung places as Our Honolulu.

Fame and skill don’t always go hand-in-hand, as anyone who has ever watched a Grammy telecast can affirm. The world is full of superb jazz musicians, and when you hear them, you hear the voices of artists gone by, famous and otherwise. They’re part of a living tradition that, at the end of its first century, is just getting warmed up.

Chris Vandercook

Enough, already, of men’s ‘fashions’

"Hey, Dad, are you ready to take me to the ball game yet, we’re running late?"

"Just a minute, son, I just have to put in my earrings and put my hair in a ponytail."

Do us a favor: Cut your hair, leave the jewelry for your wife and start presenting yourselves as men.

P. Hanke

Worker’s comp care needs fixing

Imagine being at home and falling 10 feet from a ladder. In the fall, you hurt your leg. You are taken to an orthopedic surgeon for treatment; you have HMSA medical insurance, so the doctor takes your case.

Now imagine the same situation except that you are at work. Chances are the doctor will not take your case because now it is a worker’s compensation case.

The intent of the workers’ compensation law was so that if somebody got hurt at work, he could get prompt medical care without first having to prove that the accident was unavoidable.

In exchange for this very valuable protection, workers gave up the right to sue employers unless there was gross negligence. Things have become so convoluted because of money issues that workers are no longer protected as the law had intended.

I understand that attempts to pass legislation for "fair" fee schedules have failed in the past. But fair to whom? To doctors who have an ever-increasing myriad of forms and paperwork just to get a payment?

Fair to the workers who have to go through the stress of the injury as well as the pain and mental stress that accompanies the injury?

Fair to the insurance companies that provide a needed service but profit at the expense of the medical community?

We do need to control high costs of insurance; however, the physicians and other health professionals should not have to take care of injured workers at a loss.

Reimbursement fees should be increased so that people who are injured on the job will have the same degree of care afforded to them as people who are hurt at home.

It is time to stop asking doctors to make a choice and instead have the insurance companies adopt an approach similar to credit unions. Make enough money to cover their overhead, keep profits small and thereby keep the premiums low.

If credit unions can prosper using this strategy, then so can insurance companies. It’s the Legislature’s job — no, it’s an obligation — to make sure that all workers are also protected so that we are able to get proper medical treatment should we ever get injured.

Kerry Shannon

[back to top]