Posted on: Friday, December 12, 2003

Letters to the Editor

Many may forgo vaccine to save a few bucks

Your Dec. 6 story on the flu vaccine shortage seemed to indicate that the new FluMist vaccine was going to protect us from a shortage.

The bulk of the estimated 83 million doses of traditional influenza vaccine appear to have been given out first, leaving only the more expensive inhaled FluMist vaccine for latecomers.

It should be noted that FluMist cannot be given to those over the age of 50. Details are at www

.flumist.com. Several weeks ago, as supplies of the traditional vaccine were decreasing, the available doses of FluMist should have been given to younger patients.

This is just another example of how we suffer when cheaper medications rather than the best medications are given to us.

In order to save a few bucks, many citizens over the age of 50 may go without flu vaccines this year, in a year when your article estimated the flu may take 72,000 lives.

When it comes to medications, cheaper isn't always better.

Retailer's catalog sexually exploits youth

Is it any wonder that the news headlines of today have our society debating the sanctity of marriage, the use of profanity on network television and whether or not we can mention the word God in our pledge to our nation?

And now to top it all off, we have a clothing retailer, and I use that term loosely, who is publishing a Christmas catalog filled with pictures of naked young men and women and promoting homosexuality and group sex.

If you are selling clothes, why the naked pictures? Because Abercrombie & Fitch knows that sex sells, particularly to our young children. Yes, I know, it is their constitutional right to publish whatever it wants, but it is our right as consumers to spend our money where we want, as well.

As parents and grandparents, we must make a stand against this kind of sexual exploitation of our youth. I urge everyone to let Abercrombie & Fitch know how disappointed we are in its advertising strategy and let it know we will be taking our business elsewhere.

The moral survival of our society demands action.

Public must know when it is safe to swim

Kailua Beach looks like a toilet that hasn't been flushed in a week. Fish have been beaching themselves and dying by the hundreds. There is a most disgusting yellow froth actually staining the sand.

I have had two infections and my dogs have also suffered a similar infection. My doctor suggests that I do not swim until 10 days after the rains end. Something is wrong with this picture.

At the very least, we need a public notification system advising us when it is safe to swim ... similar to media smog reports in Los Angeles. What have we done?

Please don't sentence loved ones to life of grief

This is to all those who race illegally on the streets. You obviously don't value your own lives or the lives of innocent people who might get hurt during your races.

The next time you plan to race, pause and at least think about your family. Think what it would be like if you got killed. For the rest of their lives, every Christmas, every birthday, every holiday would not be a joyous occasion, but one of deep sadness thinking of you. You will have sentenced them to a life of grief.

Sportsmanship stressed on and off the field

The story by Advertiser columnist Lee Cataluna about Kahuku High School players epitomizes the heart and spirit of all Kahuku athletes, parents and staff. Driving by its serene and humble setting on the North Shore, visitors would not even know that they had just passed through the sports capital of Hawai'i.

It is a community where winning comes second to how you respect and play the game. It is a credit to the educators and coaches who stress the importance of social values, compassion, humility and sportsmanship on and off the field.

The success of the program is not found in pockets of the community, but in the richness deep within the hearts of its people.

Heavy rains go wasted without catch systems

Another rainstorm, more wasted water. What happened in Mapunapuna validates my view that large industrial warehouse buildings, and all buildings, should have good, environmentally helpful catchment systems.

Imagine if all that runoff pushing mud and debris into shops and stores had been caught by a system of gutters and tanks instead of trying to force all that good, fresh, clean water down the drain and into the ocean.

Owners of large properties should feel ashamed when those properties flood every rainy season. Work with the forces of nature — is that not the Island way?

Greg Knudsen known for his partisanship

Greg Knudsen is a liability to the Department of Education. His partisan methods do not serve the best interests of his employer and the people of Hawai'i. Besides his partisan attack on education expert Bill Ouchi, his record is littered with aggressive partisanship.

Recently, the long-standing and much respected chairman of the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board, Charlie Rodgers, resigned his position. In his departure speech he claimed Neighborhood Board member Greg Knudsen's partisanship was one of the reasons for his resignation.

The majority of Neighborhood Board members joined in chastising Knudsen for his continued exploitation of his Neighborhood Board position for his personal and political agenda. It should also be noted that Knudsen ran for public office as a Democrat.

The latest attack on Ouchi was uncalled for. The DOE is doing themselves and therefore the public education system of Hawai'i a great disservice in having Knudsen represent them.

Drivers could save with state-run gas stations

Your Dec. 4 article on a modified gas price cap proposal inadvertently suggests a solution to many of our perennial budget shortfalls. Since there are obviously, according to Sen. Ron Menor, excess profits to be made in the retail petroleum business, why not establish state-run gas stations?

We could all save the alleged 15 cents-per-gallon overcharge and the state would still realize healthy profits that could be applied to public-sector wage increases and projects.

For that matter, since overall costs in Hawai'i are really no higher than those in most of California, New York or New Jersey, let's create state-run shopping outlets where we can purchase our new cars, groceries and clothing at Mainland prices. And then, there's healthcare...

Board must realize rehabilitation preferred

The Republican-appointed Paroling Authority's decision that Kam Williams serve 18 years of his 20-year prison term indicates the board's inability to understand its function in the community.

Society prefers to rehabilitate offenders rather than merely seek punishment that satisfies victims or families.

An 18-year sentence for an offender who was 19 at the time means that the Paroling Authority thinks nothing will rehabilitate Kam, and the public will only be protected as long as he is in jail.

People's perception and thinking change enormously between ages 18 and 30 and we all regret things we did when we were young. Williams' youth, his guilty plea and his remorse indicate incarceration for the purpose of rehabilitation would likely have served society's interests best.

There is no way Williams' situation merits the same incarceration as former police officer Clyde Arakawa, who showed no remorse, refused to plead and had probably been driving drunk before Williams was born.

Unfortunately, the disproportionate minimum term stripped Kam of hope and ensures that he will undergo all his personal growth in a prison setting.

Williams will come out of prison not as the person he used to be, but as the Paroling Authority's creation. In decades to come, society will reap what the board is sowing.

Death categories don't help victims' families

You continue to publish war casualties in Iraq like dry-cereal makers display sugar content.

By cleverly printing the percentage of each kind of sugar (sucrose, corn syrup, fructose, dextrose, etc.), they cynically avoid having to reveal the truth that their product is more than 50 percent sugar. And those who don't read the labels carefully or are deceived by this ploy can wind up obese, diabetic or dead.

Similarly, The Advertiser prints a box each day listing the deaths of U.S. troops killed in Iraq, but never the total number. To minimize the shock, you reduce the numbers by creating artificial categories of deaths occurring before and after President Bush's victory declaration, and then a further breakdown within each period of deaths from hostile and nonhostile causes.

Please explain to your readers how these death categories differ in impact on the victims and on their families.

Nowhere do you report the thousands of our troops who have suffered amputations, blindness, disfigurements and painful wounds they will live with for the rest of their lives. Don't they count?

And in the interest of fully informing your readers about the true costs of this horror, why not also include the numbers of dead and wounded of our "coalition forces," the United Nations, Red Cross, Red Crescent and other care-giving organizations, as well as the innocent Iraqi citizens themselves?

Are they not also dying and suffering in this senseless slaughter?

Task force did not seek input from specialists

A Graduation Task Force is recommending changes to graduation requirements to better prepare high school graduates for life in an information society.

It is time that education changes to better meet the demands of society.

However, the process underlying the development of the recommendations is questionable. How did a group of 27 individuals recommend changes that did not provide for input from specialists in those areas from which reductions were made?

Specifically, by what research or input were they able to determine that the physical education content standards can be met by students in one semester?

On Dec. 5, at McKinley High School, not one task force member attended that meeting. Notes often do not relay the context or all of the details of one's presentation. Being present offers much more opportunity to understand testimony and demonstrates a willingness to listen and consider.

Via e-mail a task force member stated a recommendation was made to give "flexibility and creativity" to students. This is contrary to the task force's opening commentary that it did not convene with the purpose to cut graduation requirements.