School of public health must be saved

I can't believe it! The University of Hawaii School of Public Health could lose its accreditation. As an alumna, I have strong feelings about the matter.

This is the only organization providing the training and leadership for public health in the international community, the U.S. and especially the Pacific basin. It has special programs that train native Americans in the care of their communities. This extends not only to our Hawaiian brothers and sisters, but also to those in Alaska.

UH President Kenneth Mortimer apparently doesn't feel the school is a priority. He has wrongly delayed making a commitment for a permanent dean, has not reviewed school reorganization plans, and has reduced its budget since 1993 by 34 percent.

Public health workers don't make a lot of money. We don't have the finances to support a pricey PR campaign but our appeals come straight from the heart. We beg for the support of all of Hawaii's people, whose health and well-being we are pledged to protect.

Helene S. Jo, RN
Kaneohe

Vet center has sexual trauma counselor

Thank you for Diane Chang's March 12 column on Maj. Linda A. Fischer's book about her sexual assault and harassment in the military. The impact of this crime can be long-lasting and have many consequences for the victims, ranging from the loss of a promising career to an ongoing impact on physical and emotional health.

Many who experience this trauma never report it or seek help. They fear reprisals, inaction or simply don't know where to go.

The Vet Centers and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provide services for veterans who have been sexually assaulted or harassed while in the military. Confidential counseling and treatment, and information on veterans benefits and medical care for eligible veterans are among the services available.

In fact, the Honolulu center has an on-staff sexual trauma counselor specifically to assist veterans who have been sexually traumatized while in the military. For information, call the center at 566-1764 or the Honolulu VA at 566-1850.

Ann M. Fisher
Sexual Trauma Counselor
Honolulu Vet Center

Quotables "My wife yelled 'Shark!' She was pulled under the water and came back up right away...Then she just passed out and died in front of me." Manouschehr Monazzami-Taghadom A honeymooner from Sunnyvale, Calif. Recuperating at Maui Memorial Hospital after he reported a shark had killed his wife after their kayak capsized off the Valley Isle. "People cut the grass (at some city parks) when the spirit moved them and, I assure you, the spirit didn't move them very often." Bill Balfour Honolulu's director of parks On improvements to city parks despite shrinking budgets and fewer employees

Lingle will lead GOP to election victories

At long last, sensibility has come to Hawaii's Republican Party. Long lost in internal wrangling over unimportant issues, the party will now be steered on a new course by Linda Lingle.

In the past, Democrats gleefully watched as the Republicans ate their young, destroying new members in their wake. That is over.

The new Republican Party will gladly take in all who are interested in having a true two-party system in Hawaii, so we can stop growing government and turn the economy.

With Lingle as the captain of the ship, Republicans can look forward to the elections in 2000 and 2002 with much anticipation. Watch out, Democrats, here we come!

Pam Smith
Ewa Beach

Accusation of smear is itself a smear

Linda Lingle's 1998 gubernatorial campaign continues to leech toxins into Hawaii's political environment. Now come charges by Republican National Committee Co-Chairwoman Patricia Harrison that Hawaii's "Democratic machine" spread the word that if Lingle won, "Christmas in Hawaii would be abolished" (Star-Bulletin, Feb. 27). Harrison's chief of staff, Michael Levy, who "spent two weeks in Hawaii" helping Lingle, maintains without proof that this was part of a whisper/smear campaign.

Lingle's campaign continues to operate as the real "smear machine." Churning out lies, half-truths and innuendo, they are like their congressional counterparts, continuing to hold no regard for individuals or institutions, ethics or democracy.

There is a palpable viciousness in their tactics and cravenness in their spirit. This degradation was exacerbated by the local media, who further defined Lingle as an agent of ambiguous change and nothing more.

Lingle's continuing smear campaign is the local incarnation of a national GOP strategy. Hopefully, the Democratic Party will not emulate it.

R. Harding Teves

Doctor-assisted death is a matter of choice

Thank you for publishing the March 12 View Point column by Ruth Ellen Lindenberg, who furthered the discussion on doctor-assisted death with dignity. It served to explain to the uninformed that the position taken by proponents is rooted in the concept of personal choice by the terminally suffering in a free society such as ours.

Ramsay

Security's overreaction led to woman's suicide

Lives were destroyed and innocent family members must suffer because a hotel security guard overreacted by "busting" two consenting adults having a romantic interlude in a restroom.

A lecture would have sufficed after the two attorneys were found "doing their thing." The humiliation of being caught was punishment enough.

In my 32 years with HPD, I have observed consenting adults having trysts when they weren't supposed to be doing such things in public. But never did I, or any of my colleagues, ever make an arrest for such activity. The information remained in our notebooks.

Perhaps the hotel security guard should have suggested to the couple that they rent a room since they were already at a hotel. The matter would have ended there. Lives could have been spared.

Philo Owen

Sand is filling up neglected Natatorium

Several feet of sand has piled up against the diamond head end of the Natatorium. It covers part of the walkway around the pool and drops into the pool itself.

Can nature be stopped from eventually filling the pool with sand?

Dick Perrine

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