Waikiki Beach Walk will revitalize area

I want to applaud your paper's excellent recent coverage on Outrigger Enterprises' new Waikiki Beach Walk development, the biggest and most exciting project of the revitalization of Waikiki, or as some are already describing it, the creation of the New Waikiki.

This new $460 million, 8-acre project will transform that portion of Waikiki most in need of redevelopment, along Lewers Street and Beach Walk. The complete makeover will result in a premier leisure destination featuring name-brand hotels, shops, restaurants and an entertainment center in a unique, Hawaiian-style setting.

The community strongly supports this visionary project, which will bring new energy and vitality to one of the world's most popular tourist attractions. Waikiki Beach Walk will also create hundreds of new jobs, plus new opportunities for local businesses.

Waikiki is a magical place that has been making dreams come true for visitors from around the world for many years. But the sad truth is that Waikiki's physical plant is aging. We must continue to upgrade and enhance its facilities if we want to remain competitive in the global marketplace.

The Outrigger Waikiki Beach Walk is certainly the largest single development in the $1.5 billion reinvestment in Hawai'i by Waikiki's businesses and landowners, and we look forward to even more projects to come. Thanks to innovative projects like Waikiki Beach Walk, Waikiki will remain one of the world's favorite places.

Genetic engineering isn't necessarily better

A May 24 editorial bemoans UH putting a moratorium on genetic engineering research on Hawaiian taro. First it assumes there is a need for a new taro. Yet Dr. John Cho has been using traditional cross-breeding techniques to provide new taro to Hawai'i's taro farmers with excellent results. Not only is it possible to achieve a "hardier or better-producing taro plant," it has already been done.

On top of that, it has been done in the safe, time-tested manner of selection and cross-breeding that has worked hand-in-hand with evolution since farmers invented it 10,000 years ago.

The editorial tells us genetically modified taro "could be a boon for growers throughout the (Pacific) region" and it refers to UH research on papaya. However, GMO papaya is not the success story it is often made out to be. Big Island farmers with GMO papayas have to spray more toxic fungicides because GMO papaya is more susceptible to blackspot than conventionally grown papaya. Also, the trees are weaker so they fall down, the fruit is softer so it doesn't keep as well, international markets were lost, the price dropped drastically, it has known potential allergens in it, and as I heard it, even the pigs over there refused to eat them.

Just because biotechnology is a new science, it is not necessarily better. Whereas traditional breeding techniques draw upon the rich possibilities of genetic diversity within a particular spe-cies, biotechnology insists on crossing that species barrier.

I urge more funds to be spent supporting traditional breeding research.

Many sub teachers appreciate the raise

Not all substitute teachers are unhappy about their pay raise. In fact, many subs from many different schools are pleased about their future pay adjustments. Surely, receiving the amount as established by the 1996 law would have been great, but the money subsequently provided will still help put food on the table and pay many bills.

Moreover, subs are grateful for the Legislature's appropriation of $500,000, despite severe budget restrictions during this legislative session, in order to bring some financial relief to them. This increase reflects the belief that substitute teachers are a vital part of our public school system and that they do deserve more pay.

I therefore would like to relay the sincere thanks of many subs to the Legislature for passing and appropriating funds for Senate Bill 1250, to Gov. Lingle for signing this bill into law, to the DOE for agreeing to contribute $3 million of its budget this coming year to fund subs' pay increases, and to everyone who supported the substitute teachers so that they may continue to do the job they love best — teaching Hawai'i's children.

Mental healthcare goal focuses on the patient

I would like to thank The Advertiser for its May 18 editorial "Outpatient care for mentally ill is critical" and Ken Kobayashi's excellent coverage of the issue of outpatient care for severely mentally ill.

The Department of Health wholeheartedly supports the need for better community mental healthcare and has been working hard to improve and increase community-based services for the approximately 7,500 individuals with severe mental illness the state is expected to serve this year.

It is important that we clarify our efforts to provide services for people discharged from the hospital who still require some level of care or supervision. Our goal is to allow clients to manage their illness in a supportive environment, improving their chances of being a functioning member of the community and increasing their overall quality of life. We are addressing these issues by further developing staffing and programming that carefully and intensively monitor individual treatment planning after discharge from the hospital.

Key components of our community services include risk-reduction plans for every patient prior to discharge. Contrary to what was stated in the Advertiser's editorial, secured, lockdown-type facilities other than Hawai'i State Hospital are not part of our plans to improve our system of outpatient care for the severely mentally ill.

Children deserve safe, loving families

Kudos to Department of Human Services Director Lillian Koller for finally bringing sunlight to the tragedy of "Peter Boy" Kema. Kudos also to Rep. Dennis Arakaki and the other legislators who have continued to call for action on Peter Boy's behalf. Hopefully, this little boy will now get the justice he was denied, apparently from his infancy.

The circumstances surrounding his life and disappearance are sickening. The abuse and neglect he suffered in his home and by the system is inexcusable. Thankfully, our child welfare system has made strides over the years to try to ensure children aren't treated as stuffed animals — tossed around for years of their little lives with no permanency or stability, while their birth parents receive repeated chances to get their acts together.

Abusive and neglectful parents should have the opportunity to quickly change their course, getting the help they need to do so. But if they don't do it quickly, all children in Hawai'i deserve safe and loving forever families. If not, more lives of Hawai'i's children will continue to be ruined — just like Peter Boy's.

Men need a commission as much as the women do

I'm upset that there's a "Hawai'i State Commission on the Status of Women" to ensure equality for women and girls, while equality for men and boys is ignored.

This commission supports "Women's Health Month" every September. Cries from organizations like this complain that women's health receives only 10 percent of all health research studies, avoiding mentioning that specific men's research receives only 5 percent, so as millions of extra tax dollars are given for women's health and education, men's health concerns are ignored.

Millions are spent on breast cancer research; not a cent was spent to determine if a procedure developed in the 1920s for prostate enlargement was beneficial. Canada researched this and discovered a 45 percent greater chance of men dying within five years.

Other research often heard in the media is that girls are behind boys in math and science, so programs and special training of teachers result. What is ignored is that girls are behind in math by only 5 points, and science 8 points, a gap that has significantly closed since 1960. Boys are behind girls in reading, writing, social studies, spelling, biology, art, music and language in double-digit figures, and this gap has widened, so you would think that boys and young men would receive extra assistance from the government. Instead, more money is given to women and girls. More scholarships are offered only to women to the point where, nationally, women dominate college campuses 60 percent to 65 percent over men.

Men had two other avenues to go to college, military and sports scholarships, but because Title IX cut more than 20,000 men's athletic positions in the past 10 years, affecting mostly minority men, now boys and young men of low-income families either have to risk their lives in the military to go to college or not go at all, resulting in more young men unemployed and going to prison.

We desperately need a commission on the status of boys and men. Women and girl concerns are so widely publicized that society assumes that men and boy concerns do not exist.

We are the people who help you

Most of the people in Hawai'i, when they hear the words "United Public Workers," automatically think of a rubbish man or a custodial worker, and although they are a large and very important part of our organization, that definition merely skims the surface.

So for those of you who are unaware, let me share with you a little bit of what we do.

We are electricians, plumbers, carpenters and painters. We are welders, masons and AC technicians, and we maintain every park, school and public building in the state.

We are water and sewage workers who respond at all hours of the day and night and under any conditions to make emergency repairs and ensure that you have fresh drinking water in your homes.

We are the corrections officers who keep the bad guys locked up and the public safe, and the paramedics who respond in minutes when you call for help for a loved one, and the mechanics who keep every one of those cars you see with the city or state emblem running smoothly, including all the emergency vehicles.

We are the ones who feed your kids in school and then clean up after them and the ones who maintain all of those parks and fields that they practice baseball and soccer in.

We are the ones who will not only clean the beaches, we are the lifeguards who will risk our own lives to save the lives of others.

We are the nurses and therapists who take care of your severely handicapped children in our schools and your elderly parents and grandparents in care homes who, after years of independent living, can no longer take care of themselves.

We are a proud union rich in history and tradition that takes great pride in what we do. That is why I get so upset when I read day after day how paying us our pay raises, ones that were negotiated at the bargaining table with the employer, will result in services to the public being cut and children and the people of Hawai'i suffering because "the unions" are taking up all the money in the state.

It is unfair for the men and women in the labor unions to have to take the blame and shoulder the responsibility for administration after administration misspending, waste and abuse of taxpayer money. All we want is a decent wage so we can survive in this state and try to keep a roof over our family's head and food on the table, and if that is asking for too much, then call me greedy.

At the UPW, our motto is "An injury to one is an injury to all," and for those of you who have never been part of a labor union or feel that unions are no longer needed, I can't expect you to understand what that means or where I am coming from. I can only hope that at your job you are never treated unfairly, harassed by a supervisor or one day wrongfully terminated, because until that happens, you won't appreciate having a band of brothers and sisters who will stand up for you, support you and fight for you. When you are in a union, you are never alone.