Posted on: Friday, February 7, 2003

Letters to the Editor

UH making volleyball fans feel unwelcome

In the past few days, I have seen articles and listened to interviews telling us that the University of Hawai'i athletic department needs to raise money to ensure quality teams in the future. I don't even mind paying a little more for tickets.

Recently, before attending a volleyball game with a group of 15 people, we were sitting in the back row of the parking structure eating a plate lunch. Within 10 minutes, a guard came up and told us that we could only eat in the car and that tailgating was not allowed. I can understand no alcohol and no fire — but no sitting in a chair with a plate lunch behind your car?

If UH would like to increase its fan support and revenue, I would think it would want to go out of its way to make the fans welcome. Where else would you find people tailgating for volleyball? Most schools have closed their men's volleyball program.

A little more effort in being creative and a little less policing of the fans would go a long way toward the success of the programs.

Intersection cameras should be discussed

Once again our Legislature ducks an important issue: House Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Souki demonstrated a lack of leadership by not bringing up the controversial use of cameras at intersections.

He "thinks" discussion should be postponed for a few years. He isn't "thinking," he is sticking his head in the sand, hoping the issue will go away.

He says the timing isn't right to start debating traffic cameras again. He says "we've got bigger things to work on." Well, Chairman Souki, when will the timing be right — after one, two or perhaps 10 more people are hit at intersections by uncaring, unknowing or unsafe drivers? What is bigger than the safety of both drivers and pedestrians?

Representatives are elected to political positions to represent the public from their particular area. However, when they are appointed to a committee leadership position, they no longer represent just their district, they represent the views of everyone in Hawai'i.

Since the cancellation of the van cam program, traffic on O'ahu has once again returned to "survival of the fittest." If the police will not take back the streets from unsafe drivers, at least provide some protection for pedestrians with cameras at dangerous intersections.

This issue needs to be discussed and voted on by the entire Legislature. Demonstrate some backbone, Chairman Souki.

Quarantine system must be maintained

I just finished reading an article by a well-known American Kennel Club judge about her experience in undergoing the series of human rabies shots. She had been nipped by a puppy in a foreign country and was advised to undergo the expensive process to be on the safe side, since, if you develop rabies, you die — period.

Many letters to the editor say that our quarantine system has not detected a single case of rabies. This is looking at the glass half-empty. A half-full approach is that we do not have rabies in Hawai'i.

A modification of the quarantine such as that developed by Britain is warranted, but not a total elimination.

I wonder if those people who can't be parted from their animal for even a five-day period ever go on vacation and board their dogs or leave them with friends.

So get a grip and let's have a system that protects the state so we don't all have to give yet another vaccine to our animals or, worse yet, worry about having to vaccinate ourselves or our children.

Wheeler could be used to house inmates

Our prisons have hundreds of inmates who are neither a flight risk nor violent. They intend to serve their debt to society and then return to their homes, families and jobs.

Wheeler Air Force Base has all the infrastructure to house these individuals, but it stands empty and unused. Should we build another prison? Should we send such prisoners to Mainland facilities, thereby separating them from their families and spending money outside Hawai'i? Should we consider using Wheeler, thereby keeping prisoners near home, hiring local employees and saving our tax dollars?

Do the math.

Simple courtesy was missing at Pro Bowl

I am a disabled American veteran who attended the Pro Bowl. I inquired from about 15 "officials" (the ones with the tags on), and also some security personnel, about handicap access to section "GG" because I am confined to a walker.

I was told "go this way," "go that way." Only one man admitted that he didn't know.

I missed the beginning of the game and ended up walking all the way up the spiral ramp. When I was about 20 feet from the top, I broke down crying.

I am angry. Forty-five minutes is plenty of time to find your seat. One elevator I was directed to only went "down."

After the game, I asked another "official" about the elevator. God bless him, and brother, I wish I remembered his name. And mahalo to the auntie who sold me my hot dogs; I thanked her for her smile.

Stick to your expertise

Let's get some reality soon. Does a Legislature lacking the intelligence to supply a new library with books really need to compound the problem by determining at what age a child should be allowed to attend kindergarten?

Stick to what you know best: how high to stack the garbage.

Marijuana eradication led to ice's popularity

In response to Sally Good's Jan. 31 letter regarding ice and kudos to Peter Carlisle for trying to find ways to curb the use of ice in Hawai'i: Something was missing, and that was that society is always going to have people who will be chemically dependent on something.

It's just unfortunate that because of the eradication of pot by the government, ice has become the drug of choice because of cost. If pot were still relatively cheap, then we wouldn't have so many people on ice.

Maybe we just need the federal government to leave our crops alone.

Akaka Bill threatens real native Hawaiians

It was with great hope that Linda Lingle entered her first term as governor, bringing much-needed promises for change to our state. One of her first acts as governor was to cave in to political pressure by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Playing political games with the lives of the native Hawaiians as defined in the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, Lingle is set to go to Washington, D.C., to support passage of another Akaka Bill and its watered-down definition of a native Hawaiian that would include anybody as little as 1/64th Hawaiian, all the way down to someone 1/512th Hawaiian, in order to appease OHA.

Lingle understands there are many more "Hawaiians" of no minimal blood quantum than there are half- to full-blooded native Hawaiians as defined in the HHCA of 1920. The latest census reports 450,000 persons claiming some Hawaiian blood. Lingle seeks to gather these votes of "Hawaiians" by supporting passage of the Akaka Bill.

Lost in the wash is the critical mass of the last half- to full-blooded native Hawaiians who walk the face of this Earth. This distinctly native Hawaiian community, this domestic dependent community and its survival, is being threatened by the proponents of an Akaka Bill who seek to redefine the term native Hawaiian.

Airport concessions owe state millions

With our lawmakers struggling to find ways to increase revenue, someone needs to keep track of what's happening in the Senate and House Transportation committees — namely, bills that would "relieve" airport concessionaires of paying their lease rents. The biggest debtor is Duty Free Shoppers.

There are millions of dollars that have been waived and more to come if these bills are passed. Gov. Cayetano was right in vetoing similar legislation passed by our legislators.

Why do our lawmakers want to raid the Hurricane Relief Fund when there's money out there to collect? The answer is obvious: politics.

Another ignominy

Well, here we are again, No. 1-rated when it comes to the worst road upkeep in the nation. So just add that to the other No. 1 ratings the state also has, like poor education, tax hell, high gas prices, etc. The Democrats have done just a wonderful job over the years.

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The prescription drug debate

Creative partnership is a stopgap measure

Our administration joined with private and community organizations to implement an innovative program that will bring immediate relief to residents who need prescription medication but lack personal resources or other means to get them. Your editorial ("Drug benefits cannot be limited to a few," Feb. 5) missed several key points about this creative public-private partnership.

Our new Prescription Care Hawai'i program is temporary by design and is not meant to replace any existing laws. It is meant to fill the gap left when the Legislature passed a prescription drug law last year, which does not take effect until January 2005.

That law has yet to benefit a single person and its implementation depends on the outcome of ongoing litigation. Even if we assume the best, it will be nearly two more years before the first person is helped by this law. Prescription Care Hawai'i is expected to help 20,000 of our most needy patients in the first year alone.

Your editorial misled the public into believing that a second law enacted last year that would allow more people to qualify for low pricing could be launched this April if I decided to release $1.4 million. The fact is, that program cannot start without a federal waiver. I have requested such a waiver, but that is a long shot. As of today, no state has been granted a waiver for a comparable plan.

It would be irresponsible to tell our most needy citizens that they must wait at least two years, or wait until a precedent-setting waiver is finally secured, before they can get needed medication.

Prescription Care Hawai'i provides real medication to real people, and it does it NOW.

Lingle's program will take too long

I totally agree with your Feb. 5 editorial describing Gov. Linda Lingle's proposal to lower the cost of prescription drugs as "anticlimactic."

At the AARP candidate forum in September 2002, Gov. Lingle told the audience that the two laws that were passed in the 2002 session were only "feel-good" measures and that "seniors need relief now."

In contrast, she proposed three solutions to the high cost of prescription drugs: 1) Use HMSA and Kaiser to offer drugs to the uninsured. 2) Have big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Costco use their purchasing clout to negotiate lower drug costs. 3) Hire a negotiator who will bargain with the drug companies to lower costs.

Here we are, four months later, and she no longer mentions these options. Instead, she is launching a program that will take six months to get off the ground, is voluntary, is dependent on short-term private funding and, according to her own estimates, helps only 20,000 people.

In contrast, the two bills that were signed into law on May 30 last year (not a year ago, as the governor stated in her speech) would help the majority of the 228,000 people in our state who do not have prescription drug coverage.

For example, the Medicaid waiver law, called "Healthy Hawai'i" will immediately help approximately 170,000 residents who don't have drug insurance and who make less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

The governor should release the funding for the Healthy Hawai'i program that she has restricted. Her prophecy that this program won't help anyone will be self-fulfilling if she doesn't release the funds to support it.

The Hawai'i Rx program creates a bulk purchasing approach and will go into effect in July 2004. The delay is because of the appeal by the drug industry to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop a similar program in Maine. This case will be decided soon and, depending on the decision, we will adjust the Hawai'i Rx program accordingly.