Police can be valuable ally
to domestic abuse victims
But we also believe that, if they come in contact with others who are sensitive to their situation, they will find the courage to leave their abusive partners, and will gain confidence knowing that there are those who understand their hardship.
Police officers are one source of that support. We'd like to extend our appreciation to the officers for referring and recommending more victims to obtain temporary restraining orders.
Police officers are often the first people to directly work with abuse victims. They are in the best position to tell victims that there is help, and that no one deserves to be abused. This kind of reassurance may be just what abuse victims need to begin getting the help that they need.
Gina Sanico
Team Leader Advocate
AMERICORPS
SAVD/Students and Advocates
for Victims of Domestic Violence
There are many downsides
to multi-member districts
Single-member districts, as he admits, are closer to the people; multi-member districts, thus, dilute the interests of minorities.
The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the federal Voting Rights Acts to outlaw any reapportionment or redistricting that dilutes the voting strength of minorities.
Federal courts have ruled multi-member districting to be contrary to the Voting Rights Acts, as in the Mobile and New Orleans cases, because minorities have been represented to a lesser extent than their share of the population.
Representation of several smaller ethnic groups increased in the Hawaii state Legislature after multi-member districts were abolished in 1982 (Chinese from 3.9 to 7.9 percent, Filipinos from 5.3 to 7.9 percent, native Hawaiians from 13.2 to 19.7 percent).
Multi-member districts favor larger ethnic groups, as evidenced by the decline of Japanese legislators from 47.4 to 38.2 percent from multi-member districts in 1980 to single-member districts in 1982.
Michael Haas
Co-director, Center for Research on Ethnic Relations
UH Social Science Research Institute
Honolulu should learn
from London’s transit
I went into the city three days, and each time, quickly and easily, got into the center of the city. If I had used a car, it would have taken hours of bumper-to-bumper driving in clogged streets.
Sound familiar to anyone from the Ewa side?
Rapid transit makes life livable. It allows people to go on leisure trips or get to work and back without wasting valuable time idling in traffic.
This city, with its narrow, crowded corridor, is ideal for a rail system. We already subsidize the bus by about $100 million a year.
Expanding the system would greatly increase the subsidy and would slow down the entire system as you put more buses on our already overcrowded streets.
To survive, most cities need rapid transit. To survive in the future, Honolulu will also.
Bill Brauker
Mental health needs
must be a priority in society
A May 1996 report from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law examined outcomes in Minnesota and Maryland, two states with laws requiring coverage for mental health services on a par with coverage for physical health care.
It set out to learn if the "parity" mandate would escalate insurers' and employers' costs, thus making all health coverage unaffordable.
The review found "that ending discriminatory treatment of mental illness by private insurers is not only fair, it's cost-effective" - just the opposite of what equal insurance opponents feared.
Your readers can call 521-1846 if they want to support the efforts of the Equal Insurance Coalition.
Lisa T. Maruyama
Executive Director
Mental Health Association in Hawaii