The high cost of groceries
can make you lose appetite

"News that's easy to swallow: 2 years of stable grocery prices" was the headline of your May 16 article about the average cost of grocery prices on Oahu. Was this supposed to mean "lucky we live Hawaii?'' Who is kidding whom?

Although it may be good news that prices are "flat" now, what was tucked into the ninth paragraph was the painful fact that should have been the headline: We have "the highest priced groceries in the nation."

We all appreciate supermarkets offering discount coupons and now special in-house discount memberships. But why don't they just reduce their prices rather than spend so much on fancy, confusing coupon/advertising campaigns meant to lure us into buying overpriced goods?

Diane D. Ackerson

Okinawans better rethink
removal of U.S. forces

May I add to your May 7 editorial ("Okinawa's security")? Not only is the U.S. military presence important to Japan's security, Okinawans who want U.S. bases removed from the country fail to see the danger of Chinese territorial claims.

Living and working in Taiwan for the past six years, I wish the Okinawans were here during the March 1996 missile exercises off the coast of Taiwan to experience, firsthand, the threat of war.

I spent 13 years of my childhood and youth on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. There's a tremendous sense of calm and peace there -- a sense that "nothing can ever happen to Okinawa." Perhaps the Okinawans have taken this blanket of security for granted.

In Taiwan, which has regretted the pullout of U.S. military personnel every day since 1979 when the U.S. broke diplomatic ties with this island nation, there is none of this. Here, businesses open today and close tomorrow, and people are always packing their bags to emigrate.

It's understandable that Okinawans would be outraged over crimes committed by American servicemen, but they may find themselves in worse danger if their wish to completely remove U.S. troops were to come true.

Frances Ku
Taipei, Taiwan
(Via the Internet)

State libraries are losing
valuable reference books

If you really believe that the problems with the mainland book contract have been worked out, I am afraid that you are unaware of the real situation in the libraries. Only when one happens to use particular reference books does one suddenly become aware that the collections are deteriorating.

In April I went to the Business, Science and Technology Section of the Hawaii State Library to look up a tax question in "RIA US Tax Reporter." When the librarians were in charge of book selection, one could depend on that series to be up-to-date. Now it is no longer current, having been canceled since 1996.

Then I noticed that many of the standard reference services also have been canceled, including the General Science Index, Business Periodicals Index, Applied Science and Technology Index, Sweet's Catalog and all Moody's Manuals.

On further inquiry I learned that the librarians were told to submit their lists of desired reference books to Baker & Taylor, but most of their requests were turned down.

Until the librarians regain control of book selection, our library collections will continue to deteriorate with short-sighted, thoughtless selections, while truly worthwhile reference books like Jane's "All the World's Aircraft" become irretrievably lost because they were not purchased while still available.

Connie Hagiwara

Buyer beware if dealing
with dentists in Mexico

I read with some amusement your May 2 story on going to Mexico for cheap dental care. As a dentist practicing in southern California as well as providing volunteer services in a number of areas in Mexico, I can speak with some experience. My response to anyone planning to go the Mexican dentistry route is proceed with GREAT CAUTION!

While Mexico is making many strides to improve the training of its current dental students, most practitioners have not had the benefit of the revised curriculum. A great majority of the dentistry I see there is far below U.S. standards.

Visiting many offices in Baja and mainland Mexico gives one the chills on observing levels of basic cleanliness, let alone sterilization. I certainly would not send a friend or family member to Mexico seeking dental care without most careful evaluation of the individual practitioner.

Incidentally, we've been having some problems in the San Diego area with people coming over from Mexico and taking the one-year dental assisting programs designed to train chairside nurses. The students are then apparently returning home and setting up full-service dental practices.

William C. Domb, DMD
Upland, Calif.
(Via the Internet)

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