EMERGENCY CARE REFORMS NEEDED

Because minutes matter, no health care professional would think it's good medicine to knowingly allow someone who is suffering from a massive heart attack and knowing it is caused by a clogged artery to wait overnight before being transferred to a medical facility that performs stent and bypass procedures (Letters, Oct. 20). You don't have to be in a foreign country to get substandard life-threatening medical care.

Health care needs a major overhaul starting with the excellent ambulances that are required to take you to the nearest hospital, rather than a fully staffed and trained emergency room.

Having rural hospitals gives our community a false sense of comfort and reassurance that the community's emergency needs will be taken care of in a timely and humane manner.

Overnight is too long to wait and watch as your loved one suffers needlessly and is left with heart damage because minutes matter; waiting is not the answer during a massive heart attack.

Pauline arellano | Mililani

HEALTH CARE REFORM

HOUSE BILL MEANS HIGHER COSTS FOR US

With the recent news of the U.S. House passing a $1.2 trillion health care reform bill, I guess our health care will now cost us an arm and a leg.

phil robertson | Kailua

ELECTION RESULTS CAME JUST IN TIME

Regarding Jules Witcover's essay, "Reading too much into political tea leaves" (Nov. 8), I agree, but in a sense, all the excitement among Republicans over this past week's elections is at least partly "justified."

Bill Owens (D-N.Y.), who won the circus election in Watertown that Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Fred Thompson and other carpetbaggers tried to hijack (and Witcover dismisses), and John Garamendi (D-Calif.) both won House seats last Tuesday. And on Saturday, they both voted for the health care reform bill that passed by only five votes — quite a timely outcome, I'd say!

Now on to the Senate, and probably a law that, while watered down, will have a public option, perhaps a step toward Medicare for all, which is what should have been passed back in 1966.

david chappell | Käneohe

OCEAN SAFETY

NONPROFIT OFFERS TIPS TO STAY SAFE

Regarding your much-needed editorial on ocean safety on Nov. 6 ("Maunalua Bay needs tighter restrictions"), I couldn't agree more.

Although it is mentioned that an online safety course may be in our future, perhaps your readers don't know that boating safety instruction is already offered by the Honolulu Sail and Power Squadron, a non-profit organization that has been involved in boating safety, starting in Boston and branching throughout the world, for almost 100 years.

The classes are open to all. Anyone who wants information, may visit www.uspshon.org or call 808-255-3373. It never fails to astound me every time I see a child on a boat without a life jacket. We have a wonderful ocean. Let's make it safer.

martha jane urann | Waikíkí, member, Honolulu Sail and Power Squadron

POW/MIA FLAG

REMEMBER THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES

It is heartening to see Hawaii companies flying the POW/MIA flag. Many of us have loved ones who sacrificed their lives for our country and have never returned home.

The POW/MIA flag is a constant reminder of the thousands of those missing and unaccounted for and those who were taken prisoners; they will never be forgotten.

Bob johnson | Kapolei

Betty lou johnson | Kapolei

RAIL TRANSIT

PROJECT INVESTS INOUR ISLAND'S FUTURE

As a local boy who has been studying on the Mainland for the past three years, I've been following news from back in Hawaii with keen interest.

I've been particularly encouraged by all of the good news on the rail project because I believe that rail transit is one of the best investments that we can make for our island's future.

Not only will construction of the project create about 11,000 jobs in construction, engineering and related fields, but also once the rail line is complete it will service the tens of thousands of new homes expected to be built in West Oahu and the 30,000 new jobs projected for Kapolei by 2025. Those new homes and new jobs will eventually be filled by members of my generation. That's why it's so important for Hawaii's young people to step up and support the economic engine that is Honolulu's rail project.

Through affordable housing and smart job growth in transit-oriented development zones, the rail will provide Hawaii's young people — particularly those like me who are away on the Mainland working and studying — with an opportunity to one day return to the Islands and enjoy the high quality of life we enjoyed when we were just keiki.

tyler dos santos-tam | Yale University, New Haven, Conn.