ECONOMIC REFORM

FEW LEGISLATORS WILLING TO SAY WHAT'S NEEDED

Businesses are closing, reducing their workforce and just plain cutting back to cope with these extraordinary times.

Of all the opening legislators' remarks, only House Speaker Calvin Say had the resolve to actually say we may have to reform our state employees' benefits in order to maintain services. Everyone else seemed to be avoiding this subject or throwing around euphemisms to protect their political lives.

Senate President Colleen Hanabusa said: "These are the times when we show the people what we are made of." Well, the size of our government and the taxpayer burden has gotten too large for the private sector to bear.

OK legislators, now is the time to walk the talk. Cover your ears, the silence may be deafening.

CEDED LANDS

KANAKA MAOLI AND LANDS WILL PERSEVERE

I want to say mahalo nui to all the kanaka maoli and supporters who marched down the streets of Waikiki on Saturday, Jan. 17. With all the things we have coming at us as the native people of this land — our iwi kupuna being unearthed, holy sites being torn down and destroyed, houselessness, health issues, etc. — we persevere.

I would like to mention also that everyone who lives and visits here enjoys the benefits of ceded lands. These lands are put aside for Hawaiians and the public. The Lingle administration benefits from our resident po'e haole feeling disenfranchised from this issue and therefore the people are divided.

Ms. Lingle, we're not going away. We kanaka maoli are not the victims you need us to be and we won't stand aside passively and let you sell off and develop our lands. We are who we were.

Ua mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono o Hawai'i.

HOMELESS

FREE FLIGHTS BACK TO MAINLAND MAY HELP

Some of the homeless should be sent on free flights back to the Mainland. Should they stay here simply because they can't afford the flight back home? We are overrun with homeless, and a variety of solutions must be used, including this one for cases where appropriate.

Back on the Mainland, the homeless may have friends and family who can help them with housing and job searches. They may be familiar with job sources in their hometowns. They may have job experience or skills appropriate to their home area on the Mainland. A flight back home may help them get on their feet. Let's try and test this solution for some of them.

'RETURN HOME' PLAN MUST BE DONE PROPERLY

Call it by whatever name you wish, "Greyhound Therapy" has been around for decades. Nothing new. Family members placed loved ones on a bus, train or plane and sent them off to another community, thinking "out of state, out of mind" is the best remedy.

This, to me, is inhumane.

Government did the same thing on many occasions in different countries under the delusional premise that sending a "needy" somewhere else is a good thing in that the derelict eventually becomes a priceless societal contributor. I think not in the majority of scenarios.

Our state Legislature is attempting a similar process, but they are not duping nor coercing a transient or mentally challenged individual into leaving our precious Islands. No, the state wants to lend a hand and offer the "aloha" spirit to individuals choosing to leave of their own free will.

Why not save the state of Hawai'i the requested $100,000 by asking the airlines to kokua and offer support to the "return home" program by offering to fly, for free, qualified individuals back to their native land? Government could even toss in a tax incentive to the willing airlines desiring to get involved in this humanitarian endeavor.

I embrace this concept if done properly and with a sincere, compassionate heart, but please make sure someone is at the receiving end to welcome this homeless human being.

BEING AMERICAN

FACE UP TO DIFFERENCES, THEN DO THE RIGHT THING

I recognize what President Obama and Mr. Heidel (Letters, Jan. 25) are saying, but we are "a poor America and a rich America," "a European America and an Asian America," etc. But we are "all Americans" and as such, what do we do about our differences?

I am a Japanese American — I cannot change that but I can choose to behave as an American.

I don't want to be a gay American but I can choose to believe that gays have the same rights as I do; I am a Democrat but I can choose to accept Republicans as equally American as I am.

Once we face up to our differences, we can choose to do the right thing — accept those who are not what we are as equals and therefore entitled equally to all the rights of American citizenship.

I lived in Chicago in the '60s and '70s and experienced the "white flight" from the Southside. I told them I grew up in Hawai'i — a "fruit basket" — and that it was much nicer than living in a basket of only oranges or apples! So our family stayed on the Southside — and worked for equality and justice for all.

ECONOMIC STIMULUS

CONGRESS MUST ATTACK CORE OF RECESSION

If pressure is not kept on Congress there is a strong possibility the economic stimulus bill will fail to address the primary culprit of the present downturn.

The housing market, mortgages and credit flow began the mess we now find ourselves in. In turn, their stabilization and upturn will pull us out.

Both the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders have legislative programs which address this problem. Though these may or may not be the perfect answer, they do seek to alleviate the fundamentals of our economy's malaise.

Congress is inundated with pleas to build roads, fix bridges, fund the arts, prop up state and local government and businesses, and promote green technologies and thousands of other projects, all of which may be beneficial. But none of which attack the core of the current recession.