There is such a thing as a free lunch
I am writing to say thank you to the man who bought my friend and me lunch on the weekend of June 10-11. I can't remember now whether it was Saturday or Sunday, but the situation went as follows:
My friend and I took a quick break from a training exercise on Schofield and, in uniform, headed out to the Mililani Quizno's. While waiting in line for our orders to be made, a man stepped in front of us and asked us if we minded. We both thought that he was in a hurry and was asking if we minded if he cut in front of us. We both told him that we didn't mind, then we realized he was asking us if we minded if he bought our lunch. He told us that he wanted to show us his appreciation for serving our country and that it was the least he could do.
My friend and I were both humbled very much by this great gesture. After shaking our hands and paying for our lunch, he promptly left. I hope he sees this and knows how much that lunch and gesture was appreciated. Mahalo!
Matthew Sun
Waipahu
Wespac keeps up disinformation drive
Kitty Simonds (
"Gathering Place," Star-Bulletin, June 29) continues the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council's disinformation campaign in her rebuttal to Cha Smith's June 22 commentary about the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
Simonds maintains that fishing and the fishery are "not overfished nor is the fishery causing excessive fishing mortality" and then says "NWHI bottomfish are often larger than MHI (Main Hawaiian Islands) bottomfish so are preferred for the restaurant fillet market" as a rationale for exploiting larger fish in the NWHI. If the fishery is in such great shape, why does Wespac want and need to harvest the NWHI fish? If Westpac is so responsible, why is it going after the bigger fish when it is well known that large fish are the ones that produce the most eggs and keep a fishery strong and stable?
In listening to and reading testimony on preservation of the NWHI during the past five-plus years, it is always Wespac that argues for more extraction while falsely denying any responsibility for the diminished fish and lobster stocks in the area. I hope the public understands Simonds and Wespac are the problem and it is specifically their desired exploitation that needs to be banned from the NWHI. The climate change crisis Simonds referenced is an entirely different subject.
Laure Dillon
Honolulu
Remember America's founding principles
I recently took my family to Boston, Mass., for vacation. While there, I discovered that the way our country's founders envisioned America varied from our current national leaders' standards.
We visited the home of John Adams, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, a future president and the man who wrote the Massachusetts state constitution, which was the basis for the U.S. Constitution. Adams was a consummate patriot and a brilliant attorney during the fiery period before the revolution that booted the British from our shores.
His leadership also set a fine example for the ideals of the new American government. Against strong public opinion, he represented British soldiers in the Boston courts after they had shot into a crowd of civilians at the Boston Massacre of 1770, killing five men. He wanted to prove to the British crown that American colonies could let the rights of men prevail over events and circumstance. He argued and won acquittal for the majority of the soldiers and their captain.
Jump to the present. Our administration imprisons people without representation, without charge; we send prisoners to foreign countries for interrogation to take advantage of the country's lack of concern for human rights. This is done under the guise that we as citizens cannot understand how dire events and circumstance loom.
President Bush states that he is strong against terrorism, but I find he has made us weaker as a nation as he guides us away from our founding principles.
Tom Cook
Honolulu
Second hospital would fill needs of Maui
I have been a cardiologist on Maui since 1999, working daily at Maui Memorial Medical Center. I strongly support the proposal by Malulani Health Systems Inc., to establish a second hospital on Maui. Like others, I have been frustrated by the lack of responsiveness of Maui Memorial and the Hawaii Health Systems Corp. to the needs of Maui County's growing number of residents and visitors and the needs of the physicians. Only with the recent threat of competition has Maui Memorial made gestures to promote the appearance of progress.
Maui County certainly needs local availability of cardiac interventional procedures and not just diagnostic capability; however, Maui Memorial's proposal to launch a high-end tertiary-care cardiac program is premature. The hospital administration first needs to address the deficiencies in the quality of basic hospital care. The absence of accountability for errors and the lack of attention to detail are remarkable and persist despite physicians' attempts to make improvements. The existing system renders positive change extremely difficult and very unlikely. Maui needs an alternative.
Malulani Health and Medical Center will provide quality healthcare near home and family without having to rely on air transport to Honolulu. Malulani will be built without any taxpayer funding. Yet, it will be available to all regardless of ability to pay. Through competition, a new facility may also be the constant stimulus Maui Memorial seems to need to try to achieve, and hopefully maintain, quality healthcare.
Jeffrey Drood, M.D.
Kahului, Maui
Failing to uphold oath is far from honorable
I have read numerous letters to the editor describing
Lt. Ehren Watada's comments and actions as being "honorable." Is not fulfilling your obligation, one you swore under oath to uphold, honorable? Does the oath mean nothing to him? If that is the case, he should have never enlisted in the Army; he wasn't willing or able to carry out all of his duties.
This oath is one that many have died defending and should not be taken lightly. How many soldiers do you think want to go to war? Nobody wants to go. But thousands have gone and some have died because they know it is their sworn duty to. Someone once said, "A man is only as good as his word."
Derrick Mishima
Mililani