BUDGET CUTS

MENTAL HEALTH CUTS WILL HAVE PROFOUND EFFECTS

Gov. Linda Lingle, state Health Director Chiyome Fukino: Have you lost your minds? Since I may to be out of a job next week, I thought I'd offer you a mini mental-status assessment, pro bono, of course. While I find your appearance to be "well-groomed," I'm afraid your thought processes appear to be "confused, detached, in denial and lacking in insight." I suggest you consult with some mental health consumers and their families to restore you to "reality based thinking."

Cutting case management services for the severely mentally ill will not only devastate mental health consumers, but will have a profound effect on the entire community. Without intensive case management, many mental health consumers will decompensate and wind up in the hospital or incarcerated — far more costly for taxpayers. And since we are the first to respond when a client becomes "a danger to self or others," the safety of our community will also be compromised.

Those who currently receive medication management to control the devastating symptoms of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder will be left to fend for themselves. Our homeless population is likely to quadruple over night. Where will these people, our 'ohana, sleep? Oh, I know — on Mufi's Train or Lingle's Turtle Bay.

Please reconsider this decision before another child is thrown from an overpass. Yes, cuts have to be made, but cutting services to three hours a month is just, well — crazy!

GIVING BACK

KINDNESS GOES A LONG WAY IN TIGHT ECONOMY

Many here in Hawai'i are going through some tough times right now, and this holiday season may not be as joyful for them as in the past. We need to instill some hope so that people can start believing again, and I think that random acts of kindness are as good a place as any to start.

So I have made it my purpose to perform at least one act of kindness every day between Dec. 1 and Christmas Eve. I would also like to send out a friendly challenge to everyone who reads this to do the same. If you can't do a kind deed every day, do as many as you can, or do just one.

But if you choose to do only one, I ask that you be creative and imaginative and make it extraordinary for someone. Helping others this holiday season may just be the most rewarding gift that we can receive.

WATER

REUSING STORMWATER RUNOFF A GOOD IDEA

Logan Davis' (Nov. 25) and Rick Lamontagne's (Nov. 30) letters to the editor bring awareness to the fact that stormwater runoff is an unused resource.

The Commission on Water Resource Management is currently investigating the prospect of reclaiming and reusing stormwater from urban and rural areas to augment our finite water resources. A recently completed study identified several opportunities throughout the state where this may be possible. We are now exploring the feasibility of implementing a pilot project, which will require the support of the general public, as well as partnerships with stakeholders and government agencies.

In the interim, we all can do many things to take advantage of this unused resource. Rain barrels can be used to capture water from your roof. Homeowners can also install pervious pavements and rain gardens, which increase the amount of rainfall that recharges our drinking water supplies.

The most effective way to ensure the sustainability of our water supplies is to lower the amount of water we use through conservation. We all share the responsibility of preserving our most precious resource, thereby perpetuating the life of this land through righteousness.

TRAFFIC

TIME TO LOOK AT TRAFFIC PATTERNS ON KAPI'OLANI

The City and County has put into place contraflow, starting Dec. 1, back on Kapi'olani Boulevard 'ewa, between Atkinson Drive and Cooke Street. For those of us who live and work in the area, with all of the new high buildings and increased occupancy, has anyone ever studied the traffic flow since the construction started two years ago?

Many people are going 'ewa on Kapi'olani. We all have lived with the construction, lane closures and, finally, after the re-paving of Kapi'olani Boulevard with three lanes going each way (no significant traffic, by the way). And now it is changed — with the cones back and two lanes going 'ewa once again. The traffic is back. Does anyone look?

POLITICS

GOV. LINGLE MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Gov. Linda Lingle decided not to waste taxpayers' money and her time on a trip to meet with President-elect Obama and 48 other governors in Philadelphia recently. She preferred to stay home and unveil her own plan of creating an electric car network for the Islands by 2012. In these troubled times, it appears Lingle is doing exactly what Obama is doing: going into action.

For her troubles, our governor earned a positive mention, complete with photo, on Page 2 of last Wednesday's Wall Street Journal (Obama's picture appeared on Pages 3 and 4).

Hawai'i's nearly 100 percent dependency on oil for its energy needs will not go away, unless of course somebody does something. A public-private partnership involving nearly 100,000 plug-in cars in Hawai'i by 2011 speaks volumes for Lingle. Given the current economical setting, our governor seems to "get it."

She may not know how to field dress a moose, but her single-minded action surely shows she's not interested in having us all "ride a caboose."

TOURISM

SUPPORT PROGRAMS THAT DISTINGUISH HAWAI'I

In your editorial "HTA marketing plan makes economic sense" (Nov. 12), Sens. Clarence Nishihara and Donna Mercado Kim echoed Frank Haas, former director of marketing for the HTA, about the need to "brand" Hawai'i apart from other competitors. In a Travel Weekly article titled, "Leadership Forum panelists discuss market dynamics" (Nov. 19, 2007), Haas talked about Hawai'i being one of Mexico's main competitors. In his presentation at the forum in Mexico City, he said the key to success in drawing visitors to Mexico and away from competing destinations with similar product was convincing them "that Mexico is Mexico, and they can't substitute the Caribbean or Hawai'i."

As a tourism consultant and resident of Waikiki, I appreciate the efforts of the Waikiki Improvement Association to promote our unique culture through hula and the torch lighting ceremony on the beach. Funding needs to be continued for these programs because they enhance our product and distinguish it from others. If we don't spend money on the product, we will throw away money used to market it.