China offers precedent for defining marriage

Cary Mendes (Letters, July 28) seems to think there is a definition of marriage out there somewhere in the world, one that "predates written history." Well, I'm in Beijing right now, enjoying a conference here, and found out that a former emperor of China had 3,000 wives.

China's been around awhile, as Mr. Mendes knows, and had civilization centuries before our Constitution was created. Surely we should follow the best historical precedent. If multiple wives were good enough for the emperor, who is Mr. Mendes to consider these newfangled concepts of one man-one woman?

Parents: Step it up

Finally, after all these years, I read a commentary that talks about where the real problem lies with our education system ("Blame parents for illiteracy," Arnold Bitner, July 25). Now all we need is more voices telling our parents, over and over again, how they are the ones who have to step up to the plate about their children's education.

Thanks for bringing aloha spirit to Boston

Aloha from Boston! This past week we had the honor and the pleasure of serving as hosts for the Hawai'i state delegation to the Democratic National Convention — their "Beantown Buddies."

Congratulations to Hawai'i for sending such an impressive delegation to the convention. Your representatives were professional, dedicated and enthusiastic — even with a time difference that had them eating breakfast at 1:30 a.m. Hawai'i time.

Their attitude reflected well on your state, and you should be proud of them. Our thanks go out to them for carrying the great spirit of aloha so many miles from home.

Mahalo for honesty, alleviating nightmare

On July 21, I absent-mindedly left my purse hanging on a hook in a restroom of the Spark Matsunaga Veterans Medical Center (between Section C-2 and C-4).

A million thanks to the person who found it and gave it to a staff member, who then turned it in to the security office. After discovering my loss, I was able to retrieve my purse immediately.

In this day and age, when losing one's ID and credit card information can be a major nightmare, I am so grateful that here in Hawai'i, we still have wonderful people who responsibly turn such possessions in to the proper authorities. Thank you to all who alleviated my nightmare.

'Beautification' project doesn't make sense

I have a problem. I live in Waikiki, and the more I look at the so-called "beautification" project under way on Kuhio and Ala Wai, the more I have to wonder if our government is insane.

We live in a state where education is so poor even teachers are sending their children to private schools so that they might be accepted to a Mainland college, yet we're spending millions planting trees and disrupting traffic in one of the most congested traffic areas on the island, at the cost of two traffic lanes on Kuhio and more than 40 much-needed parking spots on Ala Wai.

What are we going to do in five years when these trees start breaking the sidewalks? Spend more millions on repairs, or more millions on uprooting them?

Increases crushing fixed-income families

While this community's demands for improved services provide good reason to increase property taxes, I would propose that our government evaluate carefully how such an increase is currently being calculated.

Property owners with fixed incomes who have been in residence for generations, whether they are in 'Ewa or Kailua, are facing some very unsettling tax bills. Fixed-income households are being forced to sell and move.

Investors who play the real estate game as though they were playing a round of blackjack buy and sell parcels in the neighborhood for obscene prices. They make lots of money. Good for them. Who loses? Our fixed-income families. Let's just round up all of the fixed-income families and ship them off to Las Vegas.

It's election time, folks. You are not a Republican or a Democrat when you have a fixed income and are facing exponential increases in your property taxes. There should be a fixed-income advocacy association.

Hawai'i must do more in treating the mentally ill

As parents of adult children with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disease, we believe it is time that Hawai'i adopted a more sophisticated view with regard to treatment of these diseases, one in keeping with current scientific knowledge.

As with most illnesses, severe mental illnesses such as these have more positive outcomes when intervention takes place as soon as possible. Less damage is done to the brain, and the person is more likely to lead a normal life. Treatment should take place immediately upon diagnosis, which usually is in late adolescence or early adulthood or when going off prescribed medications and experiencing a relapse.

Unfortunately, here in Hawai'i, "dangerous to others" rather than "the need for treatment" is the criteria used to determine treatment.

In most instances, the very nature of these diseases causes afflicted people to lose insight concerning their condition and, as a consequence, refuse treatment. Families have to lie under oath that their adult ill children are dangerous in order to get them into treatment. As a result, a very small portion of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disease are able to be treated.

Whatever help is received is determined by judges rather than by doctors who have spent years in hospitals and laboratories studying these diseases. As a result, these untreated people, believing they are not ill, continue to suffer with their "voices," their paranoia and their delusions. Many end up living on the street or they remain an almost unbearable burden to their families and community.

It behooves the Hawai'i state Legislature and the Division of Adult Mental Health of the state Department of Health to take note of recent scientific advances in the treatment of these brain diseases, seriously examine our state laws, recommend "the need for treatment" as a replacement of the "dangerousness" statute as the criteria for involuntary treatment, and have doctors determine the need for hospitalization and the course of treatment.

Every effort should be made to help the afflicted people become as well as their illness will allow.