Letters to the Editor
Cayetano's Cabinet hasn't received raise
As a citizen and member of Gov. Cayetano's Cabinet for more than seven years, I was disappointed to read Evelyn Lee's Feb. 5 letter in your newspaper.
Lee states that the governor and his friends got raises while teachers, firefighters and other union workers were cheated. Neither the governor nor any of his Cabinet received a single raise since taking office in 1994.
In contrast, teachers just received another 14 percent raise (the governor is not even involved in firefighter or police negotiations, as these are city functions).
The assertion that Gov. Cayetano has not put education first is ridiculous. He's built a record number of schools, pushed for accountability, and increased education-related staffing by 19 percent — while cutting all other areas by 12 percent.
He's done a remarkable job in these fiscally austere times, and I think most objective evaluators will recognize this.
Susan Chandler
Director, Department of Human Services
Gambling makes economic sense
As you stated in a recent editorial, the economic engine of Hawai'i must somehow be revved up. Teachers need pay raises, school facilities need fixing and countless other government programs need adequate funding.
Legislators do not have any innovative or progressive plan, and gambling is not in their bag for fear of election-year politics. But why is Vacations Hawai'i's charter flight to Las Vegas carrying a full load, 200-plus daily, seven days a week? All this money draining into Las Vegas must be replenished from some other source.
We should encourage the proponents of resort development who are willing to invest millions in return for allowing some sort of gaming in the resort area so that we could bring visitors from all over the world where gambling is within their culture. New jobs for thousands will be created, and the business sector could also benefit from the residual effect of the increase in visitor count.
Glen S. Arakaki
Public charter schools should be supported
Ken Pilkenton's Feb. 7 letter about charter schools not getting the same financial support, per capita, as the other public schools ends with a very simple yet powerful statement: "Give us a chance, and we will show the state how we can do more for our children with the same."
I am appalled every time I see how much less the Department of Education allots, per capita, to students of public charter schools than it does to other students in the public school system. Simply put, my child, who attends a public charter school, is being treated like a second-class citizen by the DOE and the state of Hawai'i. That is discrimination.
Unless the DOE (or the Legislature) corrects the problem immediately, there may be another class-action lawsuit (like the Felix case) brewing and about to explode.
Patrick J. Luby
Kailua
There's a better way to improve capitalism
I agree with your recent commentaries asserting that:
- The Enron debacle shows the U.S. — and not just Asia — still suffers from a form of "crony" capitalism (Tom Plate, Jan. 24).
- More widespread capital ownership may be key to ensuring everyone benefits from global economic integration, which, in turn, could reduce one source of terrorism (David Rothkopf, Jan. 27).
In contrast to simply taking existing wealth from the rich for the poor, many ways exist to broaden ownership of the wealth created by future economic growth on the subnational, national and international levels. And new ways are being developed.
Many could potentially help prevent terrorism as well as future "Enrons." But one has to look beyond both liberal and conservative "mainstream" think tanks.
Two good sources are:
- The Capital Ownership Group, funded by the Ford Foundation (www.cog.kent.edu).
- The Shared Capitalism Institute, headed by Jeff Gates, author of "The Ownership Solution: Toward a Shared Capitalism in the 21st Century (www.sharedcapitalism.org).
Both have many ideas, including a variety of individual, customer and citizenship-based stock ownership plans, as well as ways to increase employee stock ownership while also making ownership of employer stock less risky for employees.
Tom Brandt
Traffic camera vans are needed at night
Hooray for Gov. Cayetano for not backing down on the traffic cam vans.
All you crybabies who are against them: Learn to slow down when you drive, or leave home a little earlier so you won't have to rush or get distracted by looking for the vans. Road rage may be cut down if you're not in a hurry, plus you'll enjoy your life and save ours.
We need more vans at different hours — especially at night. I leave home at 10 p.m. to work a graveyard shift. The Moanalua and airport freeways are a virtual speedway at that time.
Maria Bardenas
'Ewa Beach
Red-light runners pose greater problem
As in the practice of medicine, we should employ evidence-based data to decide on the utility of camera-based traffic enforcement. Thus, I propose that the Department of Transportation look at the 10 or 20 most frequent locations where fatalities or serious accidents have occurred in the past 10 years and station cameras or increased police enforcement in those locations only.
The DOT then could collect data on whether this intervention actually reduces fatalities over the next two years or so, and whether cameras or police are more effective in doing so; if ineffective, then that intervention should be discontinued.
I would predict that the DOT would find that most fatalities occur at intersections rather than freeway straightaways and that cameras trying to catch red-light violators would therefore prevent more fatalities than speed vans. And I doubt there is a particularly high incidence of fatalities near the Likelike and Pali highway tunnels.
Landis Lum
Traffic camera vans: It was all about money
Gov. Cayetano says that if the traffic cameras are stopped now, Hawai'i taxpayers will still fork out $1 million to the for-profit Mainland company contracted to do traffic speed law enforcement. What it comes down to is money.
The truth is finally coming out. Traffic safety was secondary to generating money for the state and the for-profit entity via Hawai'i drivers. There obviously was a golden parachute written into this contract by the company knowing how similar programs in other cities and states were canceled.
Shame on the governor, director of transportation and those legislators who continue to fight for this unethical revenue-generating symbiotic relationship between the state and the for-profit entity contracted to do the dirty work.
Milo D. Huempfner
'Aiea
Homeowners should decide on fund money
Every time I see an article about using the Hurricane Relief Fund for something else, I get a little mad.
As an independent insurance adjuster in Hawai'i for 40 years, I know how important it is to have that money available. After handling hundreds of claims after Hurricane 'Iwa and Hurricane 'Iniki, I know how important it was to have the necessary coverage.
I am sure that a lot of people like me had to budget in order to pay the 100 percent increase in our homeowner's coverage. We settled homeowner's claims for insured on behalf of Mainland insurance companies right alongside homeowners who had no coverage. Therefore, I encouraged friends to pay into the Hurricane Relief Fund because I know firsthand what would happen if we had another big storm and there wasn't enough money to cover the damages.
We set the money aside. We thought it would always be there for us and we should have the say-so as to where it is to go.
Jim Ferris
Restaurant review didn't capture flavor
My friend and I arrived in Honolulu on Dec. 16 to spend six weeks in a home we rented for an extended holiday. Our first lunch was at a cute little "family style" Italian restaurant in Kailua.
The food was tasty and very reasonably priced. The homemade bread pudding of the day was to die for. Travis, our waiter, was warm, friendly and knowledgeable about the menu. Since our first visit, we have been back to Zia's in both Kailua and Kane'ohe more than a dozen times.
A good friend from Venice, Italy, came to visit us for a week. He knows food and Italian restaurants — and for what it is, an Italian family restaurant, he ranked Zia's along with the best of its kind in Italy.
When we invited my brother, who has lived here since 1969, to join us for dinner at Zia's, he expressed a lack of interest, referencing the review in The Honolulu Advertiser. I've since gotten a copy of that Dec. 7 article.
I've had dinner at some of Hawai'i's best fine-dining restaurants, and they have been delightful experiences. Zia's is not that kind of place, and it's unfair to evaluate it in that context. To be fair, Zia's is a great, affordable place that has a loyal group of satisfied customers who go back again and again.
At a time when Hawai'i and the entire country need hard-working entrepreneurs to strengthen our sagging economy, the passion and drive at Zia's should be praised and encouraged.
Jonathan G. Pellegrin
Professor of entrepreneurship, University of Wisconsin-Madison
What about the other threatened beaches?
Regarding the beaches that were lost: What is the federal government going to do about the rest of the beaches that need restoration? It isn't only Waikiki that needs it.
I live in Waimanalo. I have lived here my whole life. My house is directly across the street from Waimanalo Bay. I know for a fact that in due time my house and the rest of the houses on Kalaniana'ole Highway will be sitting in the ocean. So what about us? What about the people who really need the help?
Please help us. Help us save our beach, but more so, save our homes.
Barbie Kaapa
Waimanalo
Physician-aided suicide goes against medicine
Three months from now, I will be graduating from the University of Hawai'i John A. Burns School of Medicine, and on that day I will stand up and recite the Oath of Hippocrates, pledging, among other things, to do no harm. If Gov. Cayetano has his way, I will have to add, " ... and kill my patient if he asks me to."
Physician-assisted suicide goes against the very nature of medicine. The doctor-patient relationship rivals that of clergy-congregation, lawyer-defendant and teacher-student. It is a duty of beneficence and non-malfeasance, a trust that should not be violated.
Asking a physician to participate in the death of his patient is equivalent to a parishioner asking his pastor to help him commit sin. Once the distinction between healer and destroyer is blurred, the contents of Pandora's box are without end — patients fearing for their lives, insurance companies refusing to cover chemotherapy and surgery, and doctors being "merciful" to their most difficult patients.
One does not need to look too far back in history to see the propensity that mankind has for going down the slippery slope. Euthanasia is not the only option. It is not the only way to die with dignity.
For many years, groups such as Hospice Hawai'i have provided comfort care to the terminally ill, and there are physicians and other medical staff who specialize in pain management and the psycho-social issues that accompany it.
Proponents of physician-assisted suicide may conjure up images of doctors with lines of patients wasting away while hooked up to machines, but nothing could be further from the truth. No physician wants his patients to suffer needlessly. There are instances where it is in the best interest of the patient to withdraw all treatment except for palliative care.
At first glance, such an action may seem indistinguishable from assisted suicide, but where one is allowing nature to take its course, the other is playing God over nature.
The doctor-patient relationship is sacrosanct, and physician-assisted suicide — killing your own patients — is its greatest perversion.
Frank Yuan
