Letters to the Editor

Have the uninsured use public transportation

Instead of forcing law-abiding citizens out of their cars to use public transportation, why not go after the ones who are not law abiding?

Uninsured motorists make up one-third of O'ahu's driving population. Do the math: 600,000 registered vehicles in which 200,000 are uninsured. Try getting these cars off the road and see where the traffic, road rage and public transportation are.

The technology is there to ensure that uninsured motorists cannot fill their gas tanks or register their cars without proper car insurance. In either case, it looks like a win-win situation for everyone.

Fill public transportation buses with these people and you help in easing traffic. Also, there's no personal loss to innocent individuals who get into accidents with uninsured drivers. I have paid the price for being hit by one of these uninsured motorists and will continue to pay for it ... either by a permanent disability or an uninsured motorist clause in my own insurance.

Joey Viernes

'Clueless' voters trying to make point

In his Dec. 11 "Volcanic Ash" column about election also-rans, David Shapiro refers to the 303 people who submitted blank ballots in the Nov. 30 special election as "clueless."

It's hard to believe that more than 300 people would go to the trouble to vote in a one-race election and unintentionally not mark their ballots. While I ended up not voting at all on that Saturday, I did consider turning in an unmarked ballot to show that it was not the effort or interest in voting that I eschewed, but rather the absurdity of that special election that I protested.

While Shapiro sees those 303 blank ballots as a naive oversight, I prefer to think that these were astute citizens making a point.

Robert Chanin
Kailua

Let the holidays be filled with peace, love

Christmas season is the happiest, most beautiful time of the year and begins just before Thanksgiving and ends early in January. I say "Merry Christmas," but I am glad to be greeted with a "Happy Hanukkah" or any other greeting that will convey the message of love and peace and joy.

We make things for our families and friends — be it food or crafts — or we do special things for those people. Most of us are lucky to have many happy memories of holidays past, and we try very hard to make such memories for our children and grandchildren. Too soon will they have to learn that peace and love and joy do not always abound in our world.

Let's not botch it all up by arguing over how to greet each other. Just be happy and enjoy it, and pass the good cheer on to others.

Barbara Vincent

Great-grandmother testament to love

I am writing to you because it's the holiday season and there's a special person I would like to tell you about: my great-grandmother. This woman is a testament to posterity and love like no other. My grandma has 14 children (12 of whom are still living), 62 grandchildren, 80 great-grandchildren (of which I am the eldest) and six great-great-grandchildren. She has more than 150 offspring and is still living life the way she wants: in a one-bedroom apartment in La'ie.

Lately, it's been evident that the years have taken a toll on Grandma Lua (as we call her). Until about five years ago (and 50 offspring back), no matter where any of us were (off to college, living in Samoa, etc ...) we could always count on a birthday card and a crisp $5 bill from Grandma.

I am writing because I know Grandma Lua's years are limited and Christmases will soon be celebrated without her. I just want the world to know how precious her life has been, and how one woman's hard work and love have created so many people.

Kaimana Chee

Treatment facilities can help war on drugs

In regard to the Dec. 8 Focus piece by Loren Walker, "Prisons fail," you are to be commended for yet another article pointing out the failures our society has made in correcting criminal behavior.

Incarceration alone will not stop a drug addict's need and its consequences can lead to further hopelessness when the ex-con has difficulty getting a decent job. When there is limited hope in achieving the good life, as a criminal record can prevent, it becomes easier to perceive hope in dope and the criminal activities that relate to it. Hence, the high rate of recidivism.

Let's start building more treatment facilities instead of prisons. Drug abuse is bad, but the war on drugs is hurting us all.

Steven Hurst

Democrats also guilty of racial segregation

I tip my hat to The Honolulu Advertiser; you've finally written an editorial that I can agree with. Yes, Trent Lott has to go as Senate majority leader. His offensive remarks about Strom Thurmond's presidential campaign in 1948 are, as President Bush has said, indefensible. Thurmond was, at that time, clearly a segregationist.

However, the Democratic Party would be wise not to make too much of Lott's wrong-headed and insulting comments. If it opens the Pandora's box labeled "Racial Segregation in America," it's going to find that it's full of Democrats.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the most rabid segregationists were all Democrats: George Wallace, Orval Faubus, John Patterson, James Eastland, John Stennis, Ross Barnett, Bull Connor, Richard Russell, James Clark, Sam Ervin, et al.

More recently, there is U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, from West Virginia, a leader in the Democratic Party and, incidentally, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. In a recent interview, he used the "N" word repeatedly while discussing African Americans.

Fritz Hollings, a Democratic senator from South Carolina, was instrumental in keeping the Confederate flag flying in that state. Even former President Bill Clinton had praised former Sen. J. William Fulbright. Well, Fulbright was a dedicated segregationist.

Former Vice President Al Gore's father, a leader in the U.S. Senate in the 1960s, voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In fact, 21 Democratic senators voted against that bill, while six Republicans did. In the House, 96 Democrats voted against it; 34 Republicans did so.

Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, freed the slaves in 1863. Dwight Eisenhower, another Republican, was the first U.S. president to employ federal troops to ensure school integration (Little Rock, Ark., 1957.)

It's time for Trent Lott to remove himself from his post. And it's time to move on to other matters.

Bob Lamborn

Mandatory OT affects patient care in end

As the nurses' strike went into the second week, Maggie Jarrett of St. Francis Medical Center is quoted as saying, "The hospital is concerned about fatigue. Our staff is really getting stretched. The 16-hour shifts are twice the normal shift."

This is indeed one of the reasons nurses at St. Francis, The Queen's Medical Center and Kuakini Medical Center are on strike. Physically and mentally, mandatory overtime takes its toll on nurses, thus ultimately affecting patient care.

Now they want us to use our vacation hours to cover sick time. Being sick is no vacation. The striking nurses are angered at seeing the hospitals cut corners any way they can and frustrated about the current working environment. Where is the money going? I think we need to look at the huge salaries of the CEOs and the trustees.

Nurses want to care for their patients in a healthy workplace. Isn't this what the patients pay for and deserve?

Jane Brahm
RNC, ONC, Queen's Medical Center