WE take issue with David Shapiro's April 12 Volcanic Ash commentary, "State Senate fails to show improvement." The Hawaii Women's Political Caucus, in fact, gives high grades to the Senate and in particular its Judiciary Committee for sticking with the program of legislative reform and ending what Shapiro considers the side issue of the session: same-gender marriage. Senate passes, House fails
We applaud the senators for their political courage and perseverance in not giving in to the popular sentiment that the majority should decide who is entitled to civil rights. The House and its Judiciary Committee, on the other hand, deserve an F for once again crossing over their politically safe but rights-deficient package, and stubbornly forcing a long, protracted series of conference committee hearings.
Although not entirely satisfied with the compromise reached, we realize the impossible position the Senate conferees were in. Given time, we hope that people will work through their fears and once again embrace our traditional island values of tolerance and respect for diversity.
It is also our hope that Senators Matsunaga, Chumbley, Metcalf and McCartney will be recognized as model lawmakers with clear vision and sound judgment when the dust settles.
Arguably, as stated by Shapiro, the state's economy, the welfare crisis and crime are the people's real agenda. The work accomplished by our elected officials in both houses on these areas deserve a mixed bag of passing and failing grades thus far.
However, with only days remaining in the 1997 session, noses must be put to the grindstone and a new two-year budget must be crafted that does not forget our poor and disabled.
Hawaii residents and our elected officials need to take a reality check. Fifteen thousand people, many of whom are battered women and children who have escaped abusive domestic relationships, already were terminated from the state's Aid to Families and Dependent Children program this past February.
On July 1, another 2,400 recipients will be removed from the General Assistance (GA) program with another 300 to follow each month thereafter. This massive termination represents the largest cut of public assistance to the needy anywhere, anytime in this country.
Statistically, 77 percent of GA recipients are single men and women with physical and mental disabilities other than substance abuse, who may always need assistance with food and shelter.
Contrary to the stereotype held by many, welfare recipients no longer include the able-bodied. That all changed in Hawaii in July 1995. The real faces behind the numbers are people in mostly desperate circumstances and, frighteningly, our state's children who could use a little bit of hope for their future.
Let's face it. The poor and disabled once cut off from public assistance will not quietly disappear into homeless oblivion. Charitable organizations, based on research conducted in other states after their recipients were cut off, will not be able to adequately deal with the numbers of hungry and homeless left to fend for themselves.
What then will our state be like to live in? Surely, we can expect a surge in crime as the haves and have-nots become more sharply defined within our communities.
Already the number of people entering our prison system has increased 21 percent over the same period last year, according to prison officials.
Likewise, we can expect to see more poor people showing up in our hospital emergency rooms for treatment of serious illnesses that ordinarily can be prevented or contained so long as our state's Quest program is available. Yet 20,000 people have already been dropped from this necessary health-care program for the poor.
It seems to us that the case has to be made for paying up-front for social programs while there's still a chance to keep people, especially our youth, from turning to crime or winding up in hospitals rather than paying later when there's little if any hope.
Linda Tseu is president of the Hawaii Women's
Political Caucus. The opinions expressed in View Point
columns are the authors' and are not necessarily
shared by the Star-Bulletin.