Posted on: Monday, October 6, 2003

Letters to the Editor

Nutrition program welcome at center

I would like to clarify what is happening with the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) nutrition program at the Waimanalo Health Center. The WIC nutrition program helps pregnant women, new mothers and young children eat well and stay healthy. The WIC services are provided at the Waimanalo Health Center through a contract we have with the Department of Health.

We recently issued a press release announcing our pleasure that we would be continuing to provide these wonderful services to our community for the next four years. Print and television coverage of that press release did not present this information in a positive manner. This was due to what we said and errors on the part of the media. These articles and some television coverage could lead viewers and readers to believe that we do not want the WIC program at the center. This is not the case.

The decision to keep the WIC program at the Waimanalo Health Center was made by its board of directors in May. The Department of Health graciously allowed us to resubmit a proposal asking to continue the WIC program at the center for the next four years. The Department of Health accepted our proposal and continues to be supportive of WIC being at the Waimanalo Health Center.

Please be assured that the Waimanalo Health Center is truly pleased to announce that the program will be continuing for the next four years.

Stop trying to change Hawaiian history

In response to letter writer H. William Burgess:

Hawaiians were not evicted from their homes?

Kamehameha Schools' admissions policy was not challenged as racist?

Hawaiian children were not punished in school for speaking Hawaiian?

Hawaiian ali'i lands were not forced to be sold?

Hawaiian children were taught of the Kamehamehas, Maui and Liloa?

Today they are taught of George Washington and Paul Bunyan?

Why is it so hard to understand that just as you are loyal to America, we will forever remain loyal to Hawai'i?

We were not at the Boston Tea Party.

We did not fight in the Revolutionary War.

We did not enslave Africans.

We were not at your Constitutional Convention.

We did not pass your Bill of Rights.

We did not come to America. America came to us.

We cannot go home. We are home. We were born here.

Our kupuna's bones are buried here.

Our ancestors shed their blood here.

Our roots run deep.

Please stop trying to rewrite history.

Please stop trying to take what is not yours.

Please stop trying to tell us how we should live.

We are who we are, who we were and who we forever will be — Hawaiian!

Costco gas stations the answer to prices

A sure way to stop the gas companies from screwing us at the gas pump is to promote competition — but unfortunately, every time a new player comes to town, it has the same old empty promises. Except one — Costco.

So instead of gas caps, we, the state of Hawai'i, should help Costco secure property to build eight- to 16-lane gas stations in every major area of the Islands, all of them. And once we all stop using the other stations that continue to screw us, their prices, too, will come down by 20 cents or more.

Keep country country against development

The Sierra Club's victory over Castle & Cooke's proposed Koa Ridge housing development in Central O'ahu is a victory for the future of our island.

We should all be offended by the complete lack of respect that many Hawai'i developers have for our environmental laws. Environmental assessments are the standard. It's not a new procedure that catches developers unaware. Such assessments are required by our state law for good reason, and given our fragile environment, they are essential.

When a developer chooses not to have a legally required assessment done, shouldn't we assume that developer believes the environmental assessment will not be in its favor? Does Castle & Cooke believe it is immune from such an environmental review, or above the law? History tells us C&C does. Thankfully, this attitude, and the environmental damage it often causes, was stopped by the Sierra Club.

All of us need to imagine the Hawai'i we want to live in when we are older, the Hawai'i we want for our children. To me, it is important to eat locally grown crops, to have a place to escape to from the hustle and bustle of downtown. The local farming lifestyle keeps the country country. Without the country, Hawai'i is not Hawai'i. We as a community must keep our prime agricultural lands for O'ahu's farming families. Once developed, they are lost forever. Developing this land is not a necessity.

In Hawai'i, there has always been a better alternative, but our decision-makers often do not see what is right in front of them. Why reclassify this agricultural land for housing when over 1,500 acres of agricultural lands have already been slated for new growth in Central O'ahu? If we must, develop the land already zoned residential and keep the country country.

State LUC still needed against developers

I believe that many Hawai'i residents — if not most — would agree that Hawai'i has been victimized by overdevelopment that has severely degraded the natural environment.

The state Land Use Commission was designed to take a broad, statewide perspective in managing Hawai'i's lands. Admittedly, the LUC could have done a better job over the years since it was established in 1961. However, the proposal to dissolve the LUC (Advertiser, Sept. 26) would set unscrupulous developers loose, driven by the prospect of making huge profits at the expense of Hawai'i's environment.

At least a few developers were upset about the recent court decision on the Hokuli'a project, which consists of luxury homes and a golf course. The project would have been appropriate on land designated for urban use. But the project was to be built on land designated by the LUC for agricultural use. Some developers complained that the court decision would create business uncertainties that would make investors reluctant to fund future Hawai'i projects. I guess what they meant was that it will no longer be a sure thing that luxury homes without any trace of an agricultural purpose will be allowed on agricultural lands.

It should be noted that the Hokuli'a project received all relevant county approvals. Although the counties have improved at regulating land use, they have not arrived yet. The LUC is still needed.

No television coverage doomed soccer league

I'm shocked columnist Lissa Muscatine ("Sports heroes, corporate orphans," Oct. 1) is so surprised and frustrated that the women's professional soccer league folded after three seasons "due to a lack of financial support."

As a former sportswriter, Muscatine should be acutely aware that television money rules sports from the collegiate level on up. If 19-year-old pro basketballer Lebron James was to never have a basketball game televised, do you really think Nike would have thrown $90 million his way? James had high school basketball games nationally televised, unprecedented previously, specifically because he played in them. Where TV cameras continually go, the money will soon follow. It may not be always just, fair or right, but it's always true.

As a former White House speechwriter should know, corporate sponsors don't look at anything but the bottom line. The statement "saddest of all, corporations failed to see the impact of women's pro soccer on the next generation of kids" is naive at best and delusional.

A women's professional soccer league is a wonderful and needed idea. It would provide thousands of young women with role models that are severely lacking at the professional female level. But until it can be supported with sustainable television contracts, it will continue to be only an idea.

Michelle Wie could promote the Islands

Kindly urge some firm or individual to donate a few caps with the Hawai'i logo to promote the Islands and its people whenever Michelle Wie plays abroad. She is a one-person HVCB, and with all the exposure and publicity covering her golf movements nationwide, Hawai'i can be put into the spotlight.

Right now, picture-wise, there is no connection to Hawai'i except through the media. Would be a good promo if her caddies can also be supplied with Hawai'i caps.

Another suggestion, if Michelle would go on a winning streak in Hawai'i by entering most of the major tournaments, she could prepare herself gradually for the tough Mainland tours. In a couple of years, she could challenge the nation's best and end up on top of the golf world, promoting Hawai'i.

Right now, aside from that tremendous accomplishment of winning the Women's Public Links tournament, she is scoring well in between. Michelle is still young but has the potential to be a true champion. She is an inspiration to all youngsters in helping them keep on the right path through golf — no drugs, alcohol or other bad habits.

Bicyclists, pedestrians aren't free of guilt

Chris Bowling's Sept. 27 letter about bicyclists and pedestrians having the right of way in crosswalks is so true. However, Chris, bicyclists and pedestrians also break traffic laws.

Bicyclists often go through red lights, ride on the wrong side of the road, fly past stop signs, don't use lights at night and ride on some sidewalks on which it is prohibited.

Pedestrians jaywalk, walk against red lights and begin crossing the street without looking for traffic. And, except for the elderly and disabled, who have a reason to be slow, many pedestrians take their time crossing the sidewalk when they know traffic wants to turn their way.

Drug problem: There's a better way

People will do whatever they want to do. Our job as citizens is to ensure that we do what we have to to have a safer and more humane society, or community. But at the same time, we can't go over the state budget. Presently we are failing to do both. Some simple facts:

Higher demand equals higher cost. Lower supply equals higher prices.

The higher the risk of selling drugs, the higher the price will be. The higher the price of drugs, the higher the crime rate. The higher the cost of drugs, the more desperate and violent the crimes addicts commit to get drugs. Any problem is solved by finding what is causing the "problem." Drug dealers will not exist if there is no money to be made. Addicts and drug dealers cannot exist without each other. They are one and the same.

Drugs are cheap to make (even high-quality drugs) and only cost more because of the risks involved in getting them to the user.

So the answer is simple: Stop the users and addicts from committing crimes and eliminate the profits of drug dealing. How? Isn't it so simple? As simple as an addict who gets better by stopping drug intake. Here's how:

What every community in Hawai'i needs is a "community drug house" run by the state. Drugs would be given out free to those who want to get high. They would need to stay at the facility until a state doctor says the community is "safe" with the user on the street.

It is that simple. This is already being done in many countries in Europe with incredibly positive results.

The drug dealers would no longer have any profits, making drug dealing senseless. Drug dealing would no longer be an option for Hawai'i's people to make money. Drugs would be made by the very competent students of the University of Hawai'i. Hawai'i would save billions. Crime would go down by at least 70 percent. Many, many, many innocent people would be spared.

Imprisoning all dealers or treating all those needing treatment is not realistic and will never be feasible.

We need to think clearly, act humanely, and not make any decision (new laws) while we are angry, as we are now. Rightfully so, by the way. But we should not be angry at the dealer or the user or even the hopeless addicts. We need to get angry at ourselves. We are all products of our communities. How could we do this to ourselves?

Give the addict what he wants. Make it silly to sell drugs. And most importantly, bring back the Hawai'i we all want. The Hawai'i where we help strangers. Let us not start to divide aloha by blaming others for the problems we all have. We are all to blame.