FOR-PROFIT INDUSTRY IS KILLING U.S. SYSTEM

President Obama has said he wants health care reform that does three things: reduces costs, ensures free choice of providers for patients and ensures universal access. He also said we need to "build on what works" in health care and, "If you're happy with the insurance you have, you can keep it."

However, the only ones who are happy with their health insurance these days are the ones who have not had to use theirs recently. If Obama really wants to know what is not working, he should spend an hour reading some of the thousands of "Health Care Stories for America" submitted to his own Web site. They add up to a devastating indictment of the health insurance industry. The for-profit health insurance industry is not "what works," it is the cancer that is killing U.S. health care and driving its cost into the stratosphere.
The only reform that will actually achieve Obama's goals of reduced cost, free choice and universal access is more than just a "public option," it is single-payer public financing of private care delivery and elimination of the U.S. health insurance industry.

Stephen Kemble | Honolulu

TOBACCO, MILITARY

MOVE TO BAN STRESS RELIEVER IS INANE

Let me see if I have this straight. The military sees fit to send an 18-year-old soldier or Marine into combat where he can get his/her head shot off. But now the military "experts" want to ban the use of tobacco, which is often used by that soldier or Marine as a stress reliever, because they know what is better for that soldier or Marine?

What an inane rule when it is OK for a civilian to have a cigarette but not a soldier or Marine who goes into combat! I have a sneaking suspicion that the experts Jack Smith and Cynthia Smith of the Pentagon have never been in combat. When is the government going to stop dictating what is best for an individual who can make rational decisions for themselves? Remember Prohibition? It didn't work then and it won't work now.

R.D. Greenamyer | Mililani

EDUCATION

FOCUS SHIFTED FROM KIDS TO BUREAUCRACY

Q. Can students be taught without schools?

A. Definitely not.

Q. Can students be taught without an educational bureaucracy?

A. Perhaps with some difficulty, but definitely yes.

The Board of Education was recently forced to reduce the budget of the Department of Education as a result of the economic crisis.

Faced with the option of cutting $8 million in funds that go directly to the schools or cutting an equivalent amount to support the educational bureaucracy, the BOE decided to cut direct funding to the schools (Advertiser, July 10).

Q. Has the DOE bureaucracy amassed so much power that it now determines spending priorities for the DOE, effectively changing the mission of the DOE from that of educating Hawai'i's children to that of preserving the bureaucracy?

A. Apparently so.

John Kawamoto | Honolulu

CARPENTERS UNION

PROACTIVE APPROACH IS SMART BUSINESS

Kudos to Mr. Ron Taketa and the Hawaii Carpenters Union, who took a very proactive approach in dealing with the economic downturn in Hawai'i.

Instead of wringing their hands, posturing to their membership or trying to squeeze more out of their signatories, they instead turned to their own membership to do their part in helping all of us survive the hard times.

The Hawaii Carpenters Union has amended its master agreement to "allow for a two-year wage freeze in 2009 and 2010."

We are a signatory to the Hawaii Carpenters Union and are very appreciative of the fact that the Hawaii Carpenters Union understands how employer and employees must work together to weather the bad economic situation. The more of us that can stay in business, the more of the union's membership will remain employed instead of "sitting on the bench" waiting for work to come their way.

How innovative and "partnership minded" of the Hawaii Carpenters Union! I hope it leads the way for other unions to follow suit. It's just smart business.

Lorinda Waltz | Waltz Engineering Inc.

ENERGY

O'AHU NEEDS A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

We depend on oil and coal for 95 percent of our electricity, according to HECO's Web site. Here on O'ahu we produce no solar, geothermal, wind, hydro or tidal power that even shows up on HECO's latest figures. There is only one reasonable answer to our future power needs. We need to build a nuclear power plant.

Having plentiful power available would let us develop electric cars, electric buses, alternative fuels, new industries and address possible future water needs.

Paul M. Manuel | Honolulu

MAN, LAND & SEA

HELP DLNR PROTECT PRECIOUS WATERS

Mahalo to the Advertiser's Rob Perez for his Man, Land & Sea series focusing on Hawai'i's coral reef systems and for highlighting the issue of land-based activities as a key contributor to the sedimentation affecting the ecology of our nearshore waters.

The Department of Land and Natural Resources recognizes the mauka to makai connection and is directly addressing these impacts via mauka watershed partnerships and conservation district regulations to promote healthy forests that reduce runoff, and through removal of aquatic invasive species and preventing damage to our precious coral reefs.

In urban areas, runoff can be decreased by slowing it down and allowing it to percolate into the ground, which helps recharge our underground aquifers. Homeowners can help by using rain barrels or installing permeable pavements and rain gardens. It may also be possible to reuse stormwater for irrigation and other non-potable uses, which would also help to augment our limited natural water supplies. The department's Commission on Water Resource Management is exploring these concepts and recently investigated possible opportunities for stormwater reclamation and reuse in Hawai'i.

The commission's study is available online at: http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/cwrm/planning_augmentation.htm.

Ken C. Kawahara, P.E. | Deputy director, Department of Land and Natural Resources