Legislators should work for constituents

Remember eight plus two? War veterans were recognized by our state with a special law that allowed them to work for the state for eight years and get two years credit in appreciation for putting their lives on the line. About seven years ago, that law was to be negated and old veterans working for the state in order to get medical benefits after 10 years would have to work "10 years like everybody else."

My veteran husband spent 25 years working with juveniles at the Cook County Juvenile Court in Chicago. We returned to Hawai'i, where he completed six years with the state juvenile system, looking forward to two more years when he could retire with full medical benefits because his medical from Cook County did not apply here. Age creeping up on him, he was told he would have to work four more years.

Trembling, I asked Rep. Marilyn Lee to introduce a bill to "grandfather" those who had been promised the eight plus two. She did. Then in desperation I walked to all 76 legislative offices and pled our case. "To treat unequals equally (veterans and non-veterans) is the greatest inequality," I testified at each committee meeting. (Those were the words inscribed in the Chicago public school our children attended.) The bill passed both houses unanimously.

If Rep. Lee had not gone to bat for two discouraged citizens, I dread to think what would have happened to us and to the old, some sickly, veterans struggling to finish their eight years of commitment for the promise made to them.

So, thank you, Sen. Kanno. You did what you were elected to do, as well.

Filibuster indispensable

The current effort of Sen. Bill Frist to take away the right to filibuster against the latest outrageous Bush court appointees is, in essence, taking away the balance set up for either political party that is currently the minority in Congress. It is outrageous to take away the right to filibuster, and we need to stand up for the rights of either minority at any time in the future.

Affordable housing, conservation critical

I hope everyone will get behind the proposal in the Legislature to increase the conveyance tax to support affordable housing and conservation programs.

Some people are going to say "housing is already too expensive" and try to kill the proposal. But the affordable housing folks are behind this proposal. Since 93 percent of property transactions recorded with the state will not see any tax increase at all, this is an opportunity to get critical funding for critical programs without putting the burden on those who can least afford it.

As far as conservation goes, Hawai'i has some of the rarest plants and animals on Earth and the best undeveloped lands. They are disappearing because of a lack of permanent funding, which this proposal provides.

We don't have an unlimited amount of time to start protecting these things. When they're gone, they're not coming back, and Hawai'i will never be the same.

Social indignation isn't unique to Hawaiians

The Europeans of the past centuries came and took whatever they wanted without asking and by force if necessary. But so did the Roman and the Ottoman empires, Alexander, the Mongols and Napoleon.

The African (American) needs to be paid restitution for being subjected to slavery, the Jews for the Holocaust, and so with other ethnic groups exploited and mistreated by the white Europeans and later-day Americans.

Let us not forget the Koreans, Filipinos and Chinese who were victimized by Japanese expansionism. Chinese, Portuguese, Puerto Ricans, Japanese and Filipinos sweated blood in the haole-owned cane fields of old Hawai'i.

So, as we turn back the pages of history, why just the Hawaiians? Because they were here first?

Is it the lure of being able to build casinos on Hawaiian "reservations" or take advantage of ceded lands already developed by haole-induced progress? What drives the Native Hawaiians to push for the Akaka bill?

I was uneducated and barely out of my teens when I moved to this country from Manila. I have since gotten my college degrees with help from the G.I. Bill, landed a decent job and am looking forward to a deserved retirement this year. I cannot deny that I have been treated as a second-class citizen through all my years in this country, but that did not prevent me from getting off my behind. With my dignity intact, I took advantage of the opportunities this country had to offer.

There will always be social indignation, but to use it to get privileges does not only reflect a lack of pride but it seems awfully close to exploitation.