QUEST has done much
to improve health costs

While we do not disagree with your Dec. 19 editorial that there were problems in QUEST during its infancy, the program has seen much improvement since then.

Before QUEST in 1993, the average cost per month for recipients of financial assistance under the Aid to Family with Dependent Children and the General Assistance programs was $197.60. At the average annual increase of 12 percent, it would have gone up to $310.93 by fiscal year 1997. The current cost is only about $170.

Phase II of the program will extend managed care to 13,000 persons in the Aged, Blind and Disabled program. This population incurs high medical expenditure under the current fee-for-service arrangement. Bringing this group into managed care will be an effective measure for cost control.

It is the department's position that QUEST II should be implemented in July 1997. Postponing it is an option that is shortsighted and detrimental to the state in financial and service terms.

Susan M. Chandler
Director
State Department of Human Services

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Same-sex marriage is
a public health issue, too

Recently the Star-Bulletin has published several letters accusing Christians of hatred and bigotry because they oppose same-sex marriage.

The subject should be a public health question, not an emotional one. True Christians view homosexuals as tragic people subject as they are to early death and disease, and we are thankful for the thousands who have renounced the lifestyle.

We do not like to see them harmed so physically, aside from the danger of AIDS, and requiring surgery for repairs.

However, statements in recent issues of Advocate, the "gay" magazine, show a great hatred toward those who oppose same-sex marriage and indoctrination of the young. The movement is awash in money and political power.

Their demands, gleaned from the Advocate, include endorsement of homosexuality by all religions, the removal of anti-homosexual passages from the Holy Bible, and calls for "expurgation of ugly and ignorant homophobia through use of heavy punishments and public humiliation."

The Advocate further warns if their agenda is not speedily enacted, "we will subject orthodox Jews and Christians to the most sustained hatred and vilification."

Common sense tells us this nation should be promoting abstinence for heterosexuals as well as homosexuals. No civilization can long sustain widespread depravity. Twenty-six great civilizations have gone down that road to oblivion as history records. Will the U.S. be No. 27?

Janice Judd

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Shaka sign has roots in game of marbles

In recent days, there has been some palaver over the origin of the "shaka" sign. The consensus seems to be that Lippy Espinda either invented the shaka sign or stole it.

Many years ago, I heard Lippy explain, to his TV audience, his version of the shaka's origin.

He said it evolved during an even earlier time when playing marbles was a big thing for island kids. If a youngster made a particularly good shot, he would gesture with his shooting hand, fingers still in the follow-through position, and proudly exclaim, "Shaka!" - perhaps referring to his favorite shooter marble.

The gesture and the term "Shaka, brah!" came to mean something like "Good one!" or "Right On!" and bore little resemblance to the silly flapping we often see today.

Lippy never invented or stole the gesture. He simply took something that was already well known to his contemporaries and used it to his advantage, as did Frank Fasi and a whole passel of T-shirt makers.

Lippy's explanation still rings true to me, and to anyone who has ever participated in a serious game of marbles.

H.J. Magee
Kaneohe

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Hawaii should give up
nonpartisan elections

Honolulu recently conducted its elections for mayor and prosecutor using the nonpartisan election process, which was formally instituted in 1992 when the City Charter was amended.

The intent of nonpartisan elections (with no party affiliation on the ballot) is to force voters to concentrate more on issue positions rather than party affiliation. While there is no argument that this goal is well-intentioned, even supporters of non-partisan elections admit that political partisanship is often evident.

Unfortunately, this partisanship is magnified even more greatly in a city like Honolulu, where the majority party is entrenched through decades of close-knit family and friends networks and tie-ins. In such a setting, the intent of nonpartisan elections is easily defeated and little more than a joke for political insiders.

While the intent of nonpartisan elections in Honolulu is good, the reality falls short of the goal of eliminating party bias in the voting booth because the majority party makes sure that no one forgets who's who and who's not.

Honolulu should rethink its current non-partisan elections. Until the ratio between Democrats and non-Democrats is balanced more fairly in city government, the intent of nonpartisan elections will never be realized.

Rep. Colleen Meyer
House District 46

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Chiropractors want more
rights and privileges

The press, public and lawmakers should take a hard look at the latest claim by Hawaii chiropractors to the title, "general medical practitioner."

For years, they have pushed hard for laws that would, for example, allow them to call themselves "physicians" without specifying chiropractic, force hospitals to grant them hospital privileges, and force all health insurance buyers to purchase chiropractic coverage.

Their latest ploy is brazen and frightening. Instead of going to the Legislature, the Hawaii State Chiropractic Association has petitioned the Board of Chiropractic Examiners. Quoting from 1925 legal language, the profession is petitioning itself to legitimize chiropractors being considered primary-care physicians who may treat all diseases and disorders by all means.

One of these is nutrition counseling, which is an expensive and dangerous hoax. Chiropractors are not taught scientific nutrition in their colleges. They are taught what they have long been notorious for, nutrition cultism and quackery.

All they know about nutrition is how to huckster worthless supplements and snake oils.

Of course, the petition does not include language that would forbid chiropractors from peddling or profiting from the pills they prescribe, or using bogus techniques and gadgets to diagnose alleged nutritional deficiencies.

Kurt Butler
Kula, Maui

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Same-sex archive