Letters to the Editor
Portable classrooms are no bar to learning
Please let the parents know that "portable classrooms are not conducive to learning" is a weak argument.
I have a fourth-grader who is in a portable classroom along with 25 of her friends and, on any given day, four parents as well. (It's a small public school where parents are required to work in the classrooms two hours a week.)
The classroom atmosphere is cheerfully chaotic; everyone is having fun learning. The lack of space doesn't discourage the teacher from having 10 computers stationed in her classroom. (We also have a computer lab on campus.) I do realize that a solid, "real" classroom is preferable, but we have a small campus, so we make do.
Having your child in a portable classroom doesn't make him or her learn any less. Children are extremely resilient; when the summer heat goes up to the triple digits, the air-conditioner comes on, and the noise can be distracting, and yet no one complains.
The parents who are opposed to the portable classrooms should think back to the pioneer days and the one-room schoolhouse. Children learned then, too.
Sylvia Volden
Care plan is doomed if corruption continues
Universal healthcare won't work in Hawai'i. Neither will any of its alternatives, unless strong measures are taken to weed out government corruption and to prevent government corruption from returning to the state.
For over 30 years, the two dominant health insurers have sat on a council at Hawai'i's Labor Department that determines which health insurer can come in and compete. Department heads at Labor could have and should have, by a simple letter, appointed individuals free of conflicts of interest to this council. Why didn't they?
Last year, Sen. Ron Menor proposed legislation to do the same thing the Labor Department director could have done in less than two minutes. A few weeks later, your paper reported that a health insurer hired Sen. Menor's campaign worker to lobby Menor and the Consumer Protection Committee he chairs for the insurer.
The day after Gov. Lingle's speech pointed to the same problem with this council, HMSA donated $1 million to the UH medical school.
Are we doomed to have a state government that, like its federal counterpart, cannot protect itself or its citizens — even from a health-insurance crisis?
Stephen M. Shaw
Some Europeans seem to have short memories
I am stunned by the Feb. 9 commentary of Yasmin Anwar. The assumption that "Europeans hate America" is sad.
Which Europeans is Ms. Anwar speaking about? Are they the French and Germans who have a vested interest in Iraq because they are profiteering and doing business with a Hitleresque mass murderer, Saddam Hussein?
Which Europeans hate the Americans who stormed the beaches of Normandy and gave their lives to liberate Europe? Which Europeans hate all the Americans who are lying in graveyards such as Flanders Field?
Which Europeans hate Ronald Reagan and the Americans who helped tear down the Berlin Wall and forced the fall of totalitarian communism and brought basic human rights to hundreds of millions?
Do Europeans hate the Americans who have provided the world with some of the best medicine, technology and food production techniques in the world?
Are the Europeans going to send massive help to all the AIDS victims in Africa like President Bush just proposed?
Do the people of Afghanistan — especially the women who lived in the Taliban hell — hate Bush and America? By the way, do the Muslims in Kosovo who are now safe and free because of U.S. soldiers hate Americans?
Can Ms. Anwar tell us which Americans caught in the World Trade Center on 9/11 are hated?
Ms. Anwar speaks of human rights. Could she go to Iraq, North Korea or Iran and be able to write such a column against the ruling elite? Maybe she can get some human rights advice from all the women in those nations.
Fred Hemmings
Bear your full share
I was pleased to read Lorie Nagata's Feb. 6 letter regarding the value of the A-Plus program. The fact that most children are advanced and excel are excellent reasons to continue. If my grandchildren were receiving this benefit, I would gladly bear my full share of the cost of its operation, and all others who benefit should be willing to pay their full share.
Joyce K. Almeida
Waimanalo
Review of 'Eugene Onegin' was dismaying
I was dismayed to read Gregory Shepherd's Feb. 2 review of this season's Hawai'i Opera Theatre opening production of "Eugene Onegin." What a pity.
His ability to "see" this Friday performance as a very good one bespeaks of his myopia; his review of this particular (Russian) opera points out that critiquing an opera is a world away from critiquing a symphony (with its never-physically-moving performers).
Any political correctness aside, this was a very good HOT production and performance. HOT and the director, Dejan Miladinovic, deserve much of the not-given credit. But, due to the space constraint, I will challenge only "the tedious scenes (of the first act) that seem to drag out forever," and "the tedium of the score." Amazing that he found this famous score tedious. More puzzling and pitiful that he cheers the choreography of Mr. Lizenbery.
Mr. Shepherd must not have seen many, if any, operas with "dancing" in their score. And when he asserts that "the most exciting thing about (this opera) production is the dancing," it is clear to me, then, that he is far off the line.
As a Slav, I was chagrined to watch "the dancing" because most of it was quite un-Russian; neither the peasants' impromptu dances nor the prince's ostensibly Czar-trained dancers displayed significant Russian choreography of the 19th century. I do wonder where Mr. Lizenbery obtained his ideas. And when the reviewer calls the opening night's first act stale, one has to wonder if he had ever heard any other "Eugene Onegin" performances.
Kosta Stojanovich
HOT founding member
State must protect Kawainui from weed
Thank you for your Feb. 5 editorial, "The time to fight weed at Kawainui is now," and an earlier article with a graphic picture showing Kawainui Marsh's endangerment from invasion of the water weed Salvinia molesta.
However, there seems to be a problem here: Who's minding the store?
The city states that it has prepared all documents necessary for the long-awaited transfer of the lands to the state for its stewardship, but the state Department of Land and Natural Resources has yet to officially take over the responsibility as agreed so long ago.
A great deal of public funds, including $6 million for land acquisition alone and thousands of volunteer hours, have gone into this resource for over 35 years in support of the many values of the marsh that are so appreciated by the public.
Let us hope that this public knowledge of the situation will bring the responsible agency to be, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, forward immediately to carry out its full responsibilities and meet this current threat now.
J.S. Braun
State should not take over health insurance
I read, with interest and alarm, the article about legislative interest in taking over health insurance from the private sector. In the midst of attempts to privatize government services, this is not a good idea.
The government used to manage a host of services under what is now Quest. They got out of it because they clearly could not manage an increasing deficit. They wound up privatizing Quest and subbed it out to the private sector. At best, they were hoping to stabilize costs and let the risk go, for what they feared was a tar baby.
The private sector incentivized physicians to manage this care, and the outlays dropped dramatically. Government then, instead of being happy, cut reimbursements and premiums drastically, driving a number of insurers bankrupt. Physicians, who were taking Quest patients preferentially, now are not doing so.
Government efficiency and responsiveness are oxymorons for a reason. Do you enjoy the permit process? Is the fiasco with the airport planters fresh in your mind? The thought of the Legislature and the bureaucracy micromanaging another project (see UH softball stadium) to death should fill you with dread.
Richard Lee-Ching, M.D.
Hilo
'Ewa Beach Youth Jam was a smashing success
On Jan. 31, 'Ewa Beach celebrated its youth at the first-ever Youth Jam. This function was the brainchild of the 'Ewa Beach/'Ewa Weed & Seed volunteers.
The drug- and alcohol-free event focused on what type of programs and community transformations the youth would like to see and participate in.
Excited children, laughing teens and homegrown 'Ewa Beach talent made parents, grandparents and hundreds of community members gleam with pride. This event represents the beginning fruits of the labor, hard work and planning time Weed & Seed volunteers have invested thus far.
A huge mahalo to Rita Curran and Kirk Fivella for being the chairpersons and driving forces to make the event a huge success. Mahalo to the HPD Weed & Seed detail for the keiki IDs and all the support from area businesses like Domino's Pizza and Ohana Drive-In. Mahalo to Braddah Sam, Lina Girl and 'Ewa Beach's son Pipi for their MC stylings.
Meetings are held the first Thursday of the month at the 'Ewa Beach Community Park or Child and Family Services in 'Ewa. Everyone is welcome and needed.
Tesha H. Malama
'Ewa Beach
Retired photographer warm, compassionate
Advertiser staff writer Vicki Viotti captured the essence of Kamehameha Schools retired photographer Luryier "Pops" Diamond. He is a "diamond in the rough."
As students, we were neither fooled nor repulsed by his irascibleness. We knew him as a warm and compassionate being. Some chose to address him as Master Diamond. It was our way of respecting this master's ability to see with one eye, "feel" with the other eye, and skillfully photograph the present moment to create a story ... his story.
"Images of Aloha" is a refreshing collection of simple black-and-white photos that trigger colorful memories of campus life in the 1950s and '60s. This book calls forth the keiki in our alumni of mighty "seniors."
Mahalo, Master Diamond.
Barbara Pidot-Guffey
Kamehameha Schools, Class of 1963
Tax credit for care insurance won't work
In her State of the State address, Gov. Linda Lingle proposed a 30 percent tax credit, to be phased-in over a three-year period, for those residents who purchase private long-term-care insurance. Here are the reasons this won't work for most of our residents:
- Most purchasers of long-term-care insurance are retirees on pensions. Pensions are not taxed by our state. Therefore, most residents in this group would not qualify for a tax credit.
- Private long-term-care insurance is very expensive. Many residents in the low-middle- and middle-income bracket cannot afford to purchase this insurance. No insurance, no tax credit.
- A tax credit is simply not an incentive for younger people to purchase long-term-care insurance. Their thoughts are geared toward raising a family.
- Many people with health conditions are not accepted by private insurers.
- Reducing state tax receipts for the 6 percent who can afford to buy long-term-care insurance increases the burden on the rest of the taxpayers.
The best solution for most residents would be the passage of SB 1088 or HB 1298. These bills present the Hawai'i Long Term Care Financing Program, which provides a starting benefit of $70 a day at a premium of $10 a month. This program would bring about much-needed financial relief for those needing long-term-care assistance and reduce costs to our overburdened Medicaid program.
Bruce McCullough
Temporary trustee, Long Term Care Financing Program
Stretching back into history bit of a stretch
I agree with Walter Wild (Letters, Jan. 30) that not all Republicans are racially insensitive and not all Democrats are racially tolerant. I don't know of anyone with such a simplistic viewpoint.
However, the fact that Wild finds it necessary to go all the way back to the Civil War, the National Guard under Eisenhower and Sen. Everett Dirksen's alleged "leadership" in the 1964 Civil Rights Act's passage says more about the current Republican Party's racial record than any letter I could write.
Faye Kennedy
Later classes might help
Before we start spending money on a new mass-transit rail system, we should try something simpler and cheaper. How about the University of Hawai'i starting its first class at 9 a.m. — since UH scheduling affects traffic a lot?
D. Shimabukuro
