Posted on: Monday, September 8, 2003

Letters to the Editor

Kaiser has members in a vicious cycle

What's wrong with this picture?

Kaiser spends money on television commercials showing its caring doctors tending the sick. The aim of these commercials must be to attract new members. With new members, Kaiser needs more staff and facilities. Thus it needs more money. Kaiser petitions for a 14.5 percent rate hike. Who provides the extra money? We do, and not willingly.

With more money, Kaiser will be able to pay for more commercials and attract more members. And need more staff and facilities. And more rate hikes.

And we wonder why medical costs keep going up.

Bus drivers deserve their benefits and pay

I support bus drivers. People should appreciate what they have and how little it costs.

In American Samoa, the bus is a truck with a wooden structure on it. Small windows, no air conditioning, one door in and out. No emergency exits. People can smoke on the bus. I paid $1 each way. There are no regulations. The bus drivers don't have to stop, don't have a schedule, and at certain times the buses don't run at all.

In Hawai'i, I paid $1.50 (it's now $1.75) for comfortable, safe, air-conditioned buses with emergency exits. There was a schedule. There was accountability and control. The bus drivers protected passengers by dealing with annoying riders.

We pay so little for bus fares. When I was living in L.A., I paid $42 a month for a bus pass (back in 1994, which only covered a small portion of L.A.).

Bus drivers deserve their benefits and pay. Paying more is worth the quality, safety and accountability we take for granted.

Kamehameha Schools isn't meeting the need

The solution to the problem facing Kamehameha Schools with respect to the admissions policy lies in the hands of the trustees of Kamehameha Schools.

Nainoa Thompson made an impassioned speech, blaming the public school system and society for not addressing the problems facing many Native Hawaiians. He said, "Look at the absentee rates, at the SAT scores, look at how our public schools are not meeting our need. Take away Kamehameha Schools and who is (meeting the need)?" But is Kamehameha Schools meeting the need?

With all of the land and wealth that Kamehameha Schools has accumulated, why hasn't it built enough schools to educate all Native Hawaiian children who wish to attend? With 4,800 spaces for students from kindergarten to 12th grade on three campuses and 48,000 Native Hawaiian students in public schools, it would seem that Kamehameha Schools is falling very short of meeting the need.

If all Native Hawaiian children who wanted to attend Kamehameha Schools were accepted, this would not be a big story. Brayden Mohica-Cummings' acceptance to Kamehameha Schools is not the real problem. The real problem is that 48,000 Native Hawaiian children have not been accepted.

The frustration of the families of children who have not been accepted is being misdirected at an innocent child and Judge Ezra, rather than at the trustees of Kamehameha Schools for not building enough schools to educate their children. Is the mission of Kamehameha Schools really to educate Native Hawaiian children or to accumulate wealth?

Jerusalem's Al Aqsa is third holiest mosque

I was very surprised to read the misinformation reported by Sameer N. Yacoub of the Associated Press and published in The Honolulu Advertiser on Aug. 31 about Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, Iraq.

Mr. Yacoub stated that "The mosque is the ... third holiest in the world after Mecca and Medina." The correct information is: The third holiest is Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, which was mentioned by name in the Quran, the holy book of all Muslims, Shiites and Sunnis.

Al Aqsa mosque was also the first "qibla" that Muslims faced during prayers before Mecca became the new qibla.

I would expect a respected newspaper like The Honolulu Advertiser to verify such sensitive information before it is published, whether AP or any other news agent reported it.

Drug-fighting office gives us better weapons

With the state's drug nuisance abatement unit, there's finally a firm step forward in addressing the crystal meth problem.

In the past, I have heard about people who try to report "ice houses" and drug activity in their own neighborhoods but receive little response. In other cases, people want to do something but fear reprisals by dealers and addicts. Now, law enforcement will have more resources and additional options to help residents take back their communities.

Thank you to the legislators like Scott Saiki and Eric Hamakawa who worked so hard to create and pass the bill establishing this drug-fighting office. You recognized a serious problem, listened to the needs of Hawai'i's citizens and came up with a proactive solution. It may not solve all of our state's drug ills, but it's definitely going to help.

Washington should fund No Child Left Behind

Thanks for the update on the No Child Left Behind federal education law. But I think there was no bread baking in the federal government when this baby was born and there is still no bread baking for this starving baby.

You state, "But rather than wash our hands and walk away, the task should be to make No Child work rather than abandon it." Who wants to abandon their baby for no good reason?

I think it's safe to say that we would all like to support No Child with the goal to better the education for our students if it is feasible. But how do we do this? What can we do to make President Bush and his administration release funds for this baby so that it doesn't continue to starve?

My idea of school reform is to clean the slate and start all over. Use common sense. It's hard to raise a baby without lots of money saved up. But some of the lawmakers continue creating them without thinking.

Please show us teachers how we can support the No Child law rather than "wash our hands and walk away" and show us how teachers are going to get support instead of stating the obvious. I am tired of reading updates on the same recycled issue over and over again.

Dr. Richardson's death a great loss to many

The passing of Allen Richardson, M.D., has affected thousands of his friends, including so many of his patients who became his friend as I did. Though best known for his work with athletes, many of his patients were seniors whose aging joints were treated with compassion and skill.

While I am thankful for his surgical gifts, I will remember Allen Richardson as an extraordinary human being. His death is a great loss to all of Hawai'i.

Juvenile 'aweoweo known as 'alalauwa

As it is with the akule and weke, the juvenile 'aweoweo has a different name, too: the 'alalauwa.

How ignorant of people to catch the 'alalauwa by the thousands. We have the halalu and 'oama every year because of the limits set by the state. No regulation for 'alalauwa is no reason to be so greedy. If hundreds of fishermen take thousands of 'alalauwa every day, soon the millions seen will be no more.

Where are the konohiki and haku'aina when we need them most? Even they have been regulated out of existence by the modern-day Hawaiians.

Longliners aren't the worst offenders

I've read your Aug. 23 story on longliner fishing, and I'm afraid we are shooting ourselves in the foot. It is simplistic to read a single court case and assume that all the facts came out and that a fair ruling resulted.

The key fact is that the longliner fleet only represents a minimal impact on ocean catches, as represented by overall tonnage. And due to the selective nature of its catch method, it is the longliners that cause far less harm on the ocean than the purse net fleets and other trawl methods. The huge European purse fleets are the true terrors of the sea.

They must be regulated. Our oceans are a sustainable resource. Environmentalists, judges, interested people — learn your facts, or in your zeal to kill the obvious target, you will end up killing off the ocean in total.

New desalination plant in Kalaeloa isn't needed

It's a shock to learn that the Board of Water Supply is in the process of building a desalination plant in Kalaeloa (Advertiser, Aug. 29). The pilot program, a reverse-osmosis process, would convert deep-well seawater that runs through membranes at high pressure to potable water. The facility will top off at 5 million gallons a day and cost $3.20 per thousand gallons and $40 million to build.

Why do we need another de-salination plant when the first one failed? That's right, the first plant was built in the Cayetano era with a price tag in the millions as another alternative to supply the state with fresh water. Today the facility sits awash in the weeds of Campbell Industrial Park (just mauka of where the new plant will be built). That plant was scrapped because of high production costs.

Why build another plant? Why not take over the now-defunct facility? And with the city looking for money to renew our OTS bus contracts, it should consider removing ridiculous projects like the BRT, the building of more homes, which only adds strain on water and sewer needs, and a new $40 million plant that produces only 5 million gallons that wouldn't even make a difference.

People of Hawai'i, please voice your opinions to the folks who make these decisions for us. Write to your community leaders, City Council members, legislators, or letters to the editor to help make a rational decision.

Beware aircraft carrier for O'ahu

Sen. Inouye has announced he's going to deliver an aircraft carrier to Hawai'i. In a recent Advertiser article, he was quoted as saying the only thing left to decide is where the carrier air wing will be based and he bemoaned the difficulty he is having in getting Washington to reopen a closed base (i.e., Barbers Point).

The article goes on to tout, as have other press releases, the great things an aircraft carrier would do for Hawai'i (jobs, construction money, etc.). What the articles have not talked about are the less desirable aspects of basing an aircraft carrier here. While an aircraft carrier may be good for Hawai'i in general, putting a carrier air wing at Barbers Point would be a disaster for Kapolei. The following are just some of the issues that must be addressed:

• A carrier air wing is not a benign presence. High-performance jet aircraft make noise. Lots of noise. Unbelievable noise. The crews who fly these aircraft have to train — day and night. A carrier air wing doesn't just occasionally pass though its home base — aircraft operate from that base continuously.

The owners of new homes on the 'Ewa plain are not going to be thrilled with FA-18 full afterburner takeoffs only a short distance from their doorsteps. Never mind elementary, intermediate and high school students trying to study under the flight pattern of these aircraft. (Anyone who dismisses this noise issue should ask the residents of Atsugi in Japan what it's like living next to a carrier air wing.)

• No one has bothered to ask where the aircraft crews are going to practice their bombing skills. In practical terms, they can't fly to Fallon in Nevada (or Iwo Jima, for that matter) every time they need to qualify on weapons-delivery training events.

• No one has mentioned that the gates would be closed to the public if NAS Kalaeloa opens for business. The shortcut to 'Ewa Beach and public beach access would all go away.

• There has been zero community involvement. We're being told an air wing will be put in our neighborhood without any input from any of us. This is wrong. Even though community input was ignored during the Barbers Point closure, at least there was an involvement process.

Someone has to bring a dose of reality to this aircraft carrier business. It won't be easy — who wants to go on record opposing new jobs and economic development? That said, it has to be done.

I urge fellow residents and politicians to speak out. Don't let this happen to us.