Letters to the Editor
McCubbin deserves happiness for efforts
This is just a short but sincere salute to a fine Hawaiian, an excellent administrator and an exemplary human being, Dr. Hamilton McCubbin.
I weep at the smears, innuendo and yellow journalism that now end what has been a very dedicated and exhausting three years as CEO at the Kamehameha Schools.
I wish you well, Hamilton, and hope you and your family find the happiness that you deserve for what you tried to do and did for our Kamehameha 'ohana while you were here.
"Imua i na pok'i i ka wai 'awa'awa."
Ishmael W. Stagner II
KSB '57
Rumble strips already pocket island roads
Why in the world are we wasting much-needed highway maintenance money installing rumble strips on the Pali Highway? We already have them all over the island. They're called "potholes."
Where is our estimated $100 million annual highway budget going? To pay the seven-man pothole crew? Auwe!
Brian T. Yamane
DOE is ignoring special-ed research
I am the mother of two children diagnosed with autism. Both children were essentially "nonverbal" when they were enrolled in a public school. I would like to focus my comments about the failure of the Legislature and the Department of Education to acknowledge valuable research presented to them by experts like Dr. Bruce Chorpita and his task force as to appropriate methods to educate children like mine.
From the grace of Dr. Chorpita and his colleagues' work, I learned about programs called applied behavioral analysis (ABA) and functional communication training (FCT). These educational methods were recommended for children with autism.
When I presented my school with this research, I was told that the DOE has no plans to implement ABA and FCT until it is directed to do so. Therefore, on my own, I sought out and received such training.
Last October, I began implementation of ABA and FCT with both my children after school for four hours a day, five days a week. Within three days, my older son, Bobby, could name the eight students in his class, his three teachers and identify his own picture. For the first time, I asked my son to tell me his name, and he answered me clearly and precisely as though his little voice were locked away somewhere deep inside him all these years.
This willful indifference to expert task force opinions and empirical data is why so many parents feel their special-education children are being abandoned by the system.
From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank Dr. Chorpita and his task force for their efforts to improve what has become an apathetic and immobilized educational system.
Stephanie Butler
Private schooling is also a status symbol
Many in our community denigrate the public school system. Some critics state that many public school teachers, administrators and even members of the Board of Education send their children to private schools because those "in the know" do not find the public schools academically challenging enough for their children. Those critics miss an important factor: socio-economic status.
Sending a child to a private school is a status symbol. It indicates that parents have the wherewithal to send their child to a school where their children can rub elbows with families of similar backgrounds. It is a means for the nouveau riche to flaunt their newly acquired status. They can move up the social ladder by making social and business contacts. It also provides a way for those who have already attained a certain standing to maintain it or widen their circle of contacts.
School choice is not merely a matter of pure academics. There are other considerations as well.
Charlene Hosokawa
Public high school teacher
Many looking forward to Waimea park switch
Thank you to the City Council for unanimously approving the mayor's selection of the National Audubon Society for a long-term lease of Waimea Falls Park. Many people are looking forward to Audubon taking over management responsibilities in Waimea on June 26.
However, Ray Greene/Waimea Management (the current operator whose month-to-month lease expires on June 25) would have preferred to have been selected for the long-term lease and is seeking to use legal maneuvers to slow Audubon's takeover of the park. While it is reasonable for Waimea Management to ask the courts to assure the selection process was fair and lawful, at a certain point taxpayers may grow tired of this operator of a public park suing the county government and county employees and will hope for closure in the process.
Through united efforts and persistence, the community will be able to support the county and National Audubon Society as they navigate around Waimea Management's attempted delay tactics. Nevertheless, it will be a great day for the community when the Audubon Center in Waimea opens.
Blake D. McElheny
Hale'iwa
Maui Catholics will miss Deacon Joe
The Catholic community is in mourning for Rev. Deacon Joseph Borges, who died on May 3. Deacon Joe was loved by all.
When my husband came home and told me that Deacon Joe had died, my heart sank.
My 9-year-old daughter, Julia, overheard my husband and she immediately asked, "Who will be our deacon now?" Julia and all the children at St. Anthony School on Maui loved Deacon Joe. He always had a smile on his face. He presided over the grade school Masses with such enthusiasm that he gave the children much joy as they sat restlessly in their pews. No one could replace Deacon Joe. He was a fixture at St. Anthony's.
I remember Deacon Joe Borges from my childhood years at St. Joseph's in Waipahu. I went to school with his daughter Anita. I remember admiring the Borges family, which always seemed happy.
Deacon Joe Borges will be sorely missed by the Catholic community in Maui. He is irreplaceable and one-of-a-kind. He gave compassion and wisdom freely.
May God comfort his beautiful wife, June, and their children and grandchildren. May they find peace in knowing that he is now home with his Lord Jesus whom he served so faithfully over the years. Aloha ke akua.
Charmaine R. Bissen
Wailuku, Maui
Pressure the council on recycling proposal
It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that our City Council is considering postponing a decision on recycling because of health and safety concerns surrounding once-a-week garbage collection.
Anyone who recycles knows that the majority of waste can be recycled. Once you remove the paper, metal, glass and plastic from your trash, there just isn't a whole lot left to pick up.
Anyone who needs garbage service two times a week should pay the extra $8 because the majority of people will be just fine with the proposed one-day-a-week service for garbage and alternating-week service for recyclables and green waste. Clearly the plan was designed by people who know about recycling.
Our landfills are full, and our population continues to increase. Pressure on solid-waste disposal and H-Power will certainly increase in the future. Recycling is not a decision that, as council Chairman Gary Okino thinks, "we should just can for another year."
Call your City Council member and let him or her know that you want a decision. And if you think this is not important, just think how life on O'ahu might be different if our government had moved forward with mass transit 20 years ago.
Kevin Kelly
Kahuku
Local customs are under assault again
Regarding your peacock story: I probably won't like and will not recognize Hawai'i when I move back. "They" (you figure out who "they" are) didn't like our custom of celebrating with fireworks, so now there is a fireworks law. Now "they" don't like the peacocks who have been in Makaha Valley longer than some of "them" have been in Hawai'i.
Where is it going to stop? Customs and culture are slowly going by the wayside. Soon you'll be able to interchange the name of "Hawai'i" with "Chicago" or "Denver" because everything will be the same. The things, culturally, spiritually, etc., that make Hawai'i unique and a beautiful place to live will just be a memory. High-rises, freeways ... wot? Where I stay? Maybe "they" should go back home ... so I can come home.
Lee Laquihon
Bellevue, Neb.
Where's the coverage?
The news is the price of oil has dropped for the sixth week in a row. Yet the prices in Hawai'i have remained unchanged. Why hasn't there been any media coverage on this topic?
Jeffrey Lepak
Bring back 'Hi & Lois'
AAAAAAGH! How can you drop "Hi & Lois" from the comics? That comic strip has always been so clear and neatly drawn and easy for an old foggie like me to be able to "read" and enjoy.
Auwe! Please bring it back.
D. Ching
Please sign the 'CarePlus' bill
Dear Gov. Lingle,
Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) is an interfaith organization of 23 churches, temples and community groups, collectively representing more than 42,000 Hawai'i residents.
Periodically, our organization conducts a "listening process" wherein trained listeners meet one-on-one with individual FACE members to listen to their concerns relating to daily life. In these relational meetings over the past eight years, concerns about the availability and affordability of long-term-care insurance have been a consistent and regular theme.
Many of our members, particularly women, relate stories of having to leave the workplace or having to turn down career advancement opportunities to stay at home to care for an ailing loved one.
In addition to lost earnings and advancement opportunities, stories abound about becoming "burned out" from the additional stress placed on the family caregiver. While some are fortunate to have support from extended-family members, many do not share this luxury and concur that the availability of essential daily assistance would prove invaluable to preserving the basic fabric of the family.
Usually such care consists of helping with daily activities such as feeding, bathing and dressing — fairly simple tasks that do not require a highly trained professional healthcare worker or justify transferring the loved one to a nursing home at a price that is unaffordable.
Very few of our members have long-term-care insurance. They have found it either unaffordable or unavailable due to a pre-existing health condition or disability, and many insurers do not offer reimbursement for in-home caregiving.
Realizing that long-term care is an urgent issue for our membership, FACE, from its inception seven years ago, began working for an affordable long-term-care program. Countless members have attended educational workshops and seminars on the issue, submitted testimony and have been present and active at public hearings.
Within our membership are those with considerable expertise in healthcare and finance. They, along with the elected leaders of FACE, have thoroughly examined the "CarePlus" bill passed by the Legislature and find that it reflects an equitable balance of needs and resources. The bill is a strong antidote for ameliorating a growing major healthcare problem that can tear at the heart of our family life and threatens the distinctive quality of life that is ours in Hawai'i.
The fate of this bill is now in your hands.
We hope that your action will not send a message that long-term coverage should remain a luxury for only those who can afford it.
We hope that you will allow this bill to be enacted, confirming our impression that your administration seriously listens to the concerns of the citizenry, and acknowledging that our legislators have expressed the will of the people.
Rev. D. Neal MacPherson
FACE president
