Letters to the Editor
Editorial position on abortion disgusting
I found your Feb. 3 editorial about the teen abortion issue quite upsetting.
Yes, I am pro-life, but that notwithstanding, you made a mistake that I believe is most revealing.
First of all, you are wrong as an issue of law. The rights afforded an underage female specifically exclude abortion, and she is required to have parental consent for any such procedure.
The HHSC policy was merely a directive by the CEO, Tom Driscoll, to the hospitals he is responsible for, to know and follow the law. It would be outrageous of him to have a policy of lawlessness.
Senate Health and Human Services Chairman David Matsuura stated this clearly in the Legislature.
Your mistake was in paragraph eight: " ... a system that forces a teenager to conceive." How telling that is. I believe you meant to say "carry to term." But don't we have a system that makes it too easy for a minor to conceive? Don't you see that liberal policies like yours promote teenage pregnancy? I am disgusted.
There is in our system a way for a young girl who is unable to continue her pregnancy to avoid difficult parents. She can appeal to the courts for authorization. As much as I find that bothersome, that is already available. Suggesting the hospitals violate the law is completely irresponsible.
Jeffrey Hall
Forget fluoridation; make school kids brush
The Department of Education asserts it can provide services to all children regardless of the accommodation they may need. This is an apropos time for Gary Gill to address treating dental caries in school.
Line up kids with cavities outside the nurse's office after meals and have them brush their teeth. They will get supervised application with a dental fluoride toothpaste directly to the teeth, where it belongs, twice a day.
No brush, no recess.
Will this affect their self-esteem? Identify them as different? Stigmatize them? Nope, been there, seen that, got the medal to prove it.
They don't need expensive diagnostics — just look at their mouths. For parents who don't want their child to participate, get an excuse note from your dentist.
Let's not get fancy here. The Department of Health is willing to spend multimillions to pollute our water supply. Make a deal with a dental supplier for toothbrushes and fluoride toothpaste, and apply fluoride where it belongs.
Margaret Bradford, R.N.
Why didn't queen create public school?
Michael Locey, before he wandered off into the myth that the United States suppressed the Hawaiian Kingdom, raised an interesting question about Princess Pauahi's intent when she founded the Kamehameha Schools (Letters, Feb. 1).
Regarding the revolution, though, even if you believe that America under President Harrison was responsible for the 1893 revolution, everyone knows that a few months later, President Cleveland denounced the coup and demanded unsuccessfully that the revolutionists turn Hawai'i back to the queen. He later allowed U.S. arms to be smuggled in to the queen and her counterrevolutionists in another effort that did not succeed.
What Cleveland's actions do show very clearly is that it was not U.S. policy to take over Hawai'i. The 1893 revolution was a widely based uprising that gained support from every racial group, including Native Hawaiians, when it was completed.
Regarding Locey's question as to why Pauahi didn't just turn her estate over to support of the public schools system: We can only speculate as to why. We know she didn't, however, and instead set up a boys school and a girls school for the children of Hawai'i. By specifying preference for Native Hawaiian children when it came to a narrow focus on taking care of orphans, the language of her will emphasizes the nonracial nature she had in mind for the two basic schools.
Why private schools? Maybe she realized, as we do now, that private schools only survive when they do a good job. Parents elect to send their kids to private schools. If the school doesn't do a good job, it fails.
The bureaucracy of government unfortunately lacks that incentive for the public schools. It goes on its merry way, good or bad, with parents fuming helplessly until things get so bad that the population as a whole brings about change. Perhaps another kind of revolution is needed?
Thurston Twigg-Smith
Capt. Alvin Nishimura: one of HPD's finest
This community lost one of its very best citizens when Capt. Alvin Nishimura of the Honolulu Police Department passed away this week after a long battle with leukemia. Having covered the police beat for KGMB-TV for nearly 10 years, I knew him well.
Alvin's integrity was beyond reproach. He was one of the most respected officers in the department. And that was reflected by the prestigious assignments he was given in Internal Affairs, Narcotics/Vice and, most recently, the Criminal Intelligence Unit.
I'll always remember him as being warm, soft-spoken and thoughtful — no matter how hectic his job was at any given time. If you were lucky enough to count him as a friend, you knew he'd always take time to see how you were doing. He was one of those rare individuals who instantly brightened your day.
Alvin, I'll miss you.
Jerry Drelling
Waikiki
State should stay out of healthcare market
It's ironic that our healthcare system, the envy of every other state, is the subject of such legislative interest. Must be an election year.
Hawai'i is struggling with many problems: education, the economy, drugs, traffic and taxes. Wouldn't it be great if legislators worked to solve these real problems and not regulate areas that are working? Must be they're too hard to solve.
Who wants more government regulation? It means more taxes and increased costs for businesses, which raise prices. We lose either way. With government's poor record, even sugar-coated as consumer protection, why would we put something so complex and important as health coverage into their hands?
Lucky you live Hawai'i. Where else can you find a small market with financially strong, nationally recognized and accredited, nonprofit health plan competitors? The insurance commissioner already has broad authority to review them except to set rates. Thank goodness.
Could you see him forcing Kaiser and HMSA to raise your rates high enough to make Mainland firms want to compete with our local companies? Auwe!
We can smell a bad deal, and this one stinks.
M. Tanioka
Midway operation can only blame itself
Midway Phoenix is ignorant of the federal laws that guide the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Code of Federal Regulations 50, Subchapter C, Part 26.31 states: "Public recreation will be permitted on national wildlife refuges as an appropriate incidental or secondary use." A commercial fishing transport hub is not in that category.
Midway Phoenix has nobody else to blame for the business failure. A million-dollar French restaurant, two bars and other dining facilities was too much. The business was top-heavy; plus, 150 foreign employees was twice the number necessary. Tourism operators in Hawai'i know you must keep overhead low to survive.
Laws were not enforced, yet I saw them broken daily.
Joseph Raffaele
Vans aren't about saving lives but making money
I wiped away tears of sadness after reading Larry Geller's Jan. 31 letter. I am truly sorry for his loss of a good friend; however, for a person to build a correlation between a fatality in Japan and Hawai'i's traffic cameras is baffling.
The first reason for this is that Japan has different traffic laws and regulations unlike the laws in Hawai'i or anywhere in the United States. There is no way for the readers to know if the circumstances of his death are relevant here in Hawai'i. In addition, the roadways in Japan are narrower, and the traffic is worse there than it is here.
The traffic cameras here are not trying to save lives. The primary goal of any company is to make money, and the traffic camera operators are no different. There is definitely a conflict of interest when a private company gets a cut of the money received per ticket issued.
Finally, all drivers are potential killers whether they are speeding or not, and the traffic cameras are not helping to ebb those fatalities. The issue is not about Larry Geller's friend who passed away in Japan, but how his friend's death relates to the unconstitutional cameras operating here in the United States, if it does at all.
Charlen Taniguchi
Kane'ohe
Stricter stadium security appropriate
To the bashers of Edwin Hayashi, his staff and security measures implemented at Aloha Stadium post-Sept. 11: Your perspectives of "no-this-or-that-allowed-into-Aloha Stadium" rules appear petty in light of NFL security measures at Super Bowl XXXVI and tomorrow's Pro Bowl.
Please realize that the safety of the fans, players and all involved was foremost, and that civil responsibility initiated heightened security efforts at this large outdoor state facility. Yes, these restrictions prompted adjustments to your attendance rituals and appeared inconvenient. But better safe than sorry, for something much more severe could have happened and could still happen.
If the security status quo at Aloha Stadium was maintained and anyone's life was threatened or lost during an event there, to whom would you point your unjust finger?
Rob Miyamoto
Waipahu
Assisted suicide raises too many hard questions
Assisted suicide is not a choice. Deciding for yourself the time and place to die is immoral.
The issue raises many questions. To what extent should assisted suicide be considered as an option? Who should decide whether it is appropriate or not? Is it right to have people make their own decision to die? What kind of people will take this chance?
These questions cannot be answered exactly, so I don't think it is right to risk the lives of individuals.
Ji Yeun Ku
Senior, 'Aiea High School
Peer Education Program
'Merger' of airlines must be restructured
Recently, Thomas Sowell, the nationally syndicated editorialist of the Hoover Institution, said, "The scariest thing about politics today is not any particular policy or leader, but the utter gullibility with which the public accepts notions for which there is not a speck of evidence."
I submit that the same can be said about the acquisition (I refuse to call it a merger) of Aloha Airlines by Hawaiian Airlines.
The latest examples of gullibility are Big Island shippers' and the Maui County Farm Bureau's approval of the so-called "merger" by fawning all over Greg Brenneman, the CEO-designate of the combined airline. They think it is just peachy that they will have more direct shipping to the Mainland, and so do I, but this begs the question: Just what on Earth does acquiring Aloha have to do with that? Answer: Absolutely nothing. Hawaiian already has the equipment available (or on order) as well as the necessary people on staff (or on furlough) to provide this service.
None of Aloha's airplanes will be retained. Few of Aloha's employees are needed, especially considering that all of their operations staff would have to be completely retrained (costing in the millions) on Hawaiian's equipment, systems and procedures, which are completely different from any of their own.
Aloha clearly brings nothing of value to this deal. What's worse, to consummate it, Hawaiian will have to layer upon itself well over $70 million of additional debt and burn through all of Aloha's $20 million in cash plus at least another $20 million of its own, primarily to meet the demands and massage the egos of the majority shareholders of the two companies. This includes lavish golden parachutes for their senior managements.
Hawaiian's Chairman John Adams admitted that he was "embarrassed" by the $15 million and $1 million in free shares of stock that he and his private management firm are slated to receive. I've found no report to indicate the degree of embarrassment, if any, of Aloha's Glenn Zander.
My advice: This is the Era of Enron, fellas, and if you want this deal to survive the shareholder and employee lawsuits, you better go back to the drawing boards and restructure it fast before the wings fall off.
Jack M. Schmidt Jr.
Kailua
