Paramedics need to resuscitate morale

I read the June 20 article about low morale in Office of Hawaiian Affairs. It was ironic to see the article next to a Corky cartoon that showed an ambulance rushing to the building that had a distressed OHA representative hanging part way out the window. It was funny because the city and county Emergency Medical Services department has a very bad morale problem too.

It has lost a huge number of paramedics, and its administration seems to be turning its back on field personnel. To counter such heavy losses it keeps hiring more emergency medical technicians. Understand, it takes 18 months to train an EMT to become a paramedic, and EMTs have an option to wait two to three years to decide if they want to take on that challenge. I hope the public knows what's going on, because there is a crisis and it looks like it'll only get worse.

Kaipo Kilinahe

Hawaiians recognized constitutional rights

Didn't the kanaka maoli exercise their right of self-determination when they created the Hawaiian constitutional monarchy, a multi-racial sovereignty?

Now Senator Akaka along with the rest of our congressional delegation maintains that we should overlook that part of history and return to pre-Captain Cook times (when ethnic groups other than Hawaiians did not have equal rights). How strange is this?

Paul de Silva
Hilo, Hawaii

Reject both extremes on separation issue

The debate regarding the separation of church and state would be more illuminating if more people read the Constitution. Nowhere is there proclaimed "a wall of separation" between religion and government. Rather, the First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

The "wall of separation" is a phrase from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802. He states: "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and state."

While it is possible that Jefferson wanted a higher wall than we currently have, people should keep in mind that the Constitution was written by consensus. The shrill proclamations made today by those holding extreme positions represent neither the majority of Americans nor the guiding principles of our Constitution.

Khal Spencer

[Quotables] "Being steadfast is a virtue. Being stubborn is not." Gregory O'Donnell, Damien Memorial High School president, on whether to follow through on the plans to forfeit two football games next season against St. Louis High School. "Education is always a political football. That's understandable. But I'm reluctant to see the superintendency become political football." Paul LeMahieu, State schools superintendent, seeking an extension of his contract beyond next year's political season.

Give state more time to comply with Felix

It has been reported by several news media that U.S. District Judge David Ezra is running out of options with regard to the Felix consent decree filed because the state was not providing adequate educational and mental health services to special-needs students.

Judge Ezra has already found the state in contempt for not meeting earlier deadlines. The state of Hawaii has asked for another extension in meeting the next deadline. citing the teachers strike as reason for the next delay.

Plaintiff attorneys Eric Seitz and Shelby Floyd have asked the federal court to appoint a receiver to oversee the state's compliance with the decree.

While I can understand the mounting frustration of the parents of the special-needs kids, I don't believe a receiver is going to do any better job than is already being done by the state, unless this receiver comes dressed in blue tights and a red cape with a big S across the front of his blue shirt.

I believe Judge Ezra has options left, one of which is to grant the additional time requested by the state. The state has made significant progress and needs more time for reasons beyond its control.

Patience should be the order of the day and I urge Judge Ezra to be patient and grant the extension and not appoint a receiver. Appointing a receiver amounts to adding another layer of bureaucracy to an already overburdened delivery system. The state's resources would be better spent concentrating on recruiting new special education teachers and mental health support staff as well as training teachers and staff already in the system. For the record I am not an attorney, teacher or mental health professional. I am a retired, taxpaying citizen of the state.

Henry E. K. Lee
Kaneohe

New INS fee will hurt U.S. universities

The new $95 fee imposed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service on each foreign student applying for a visa will have a devastating effect on U.S. universities' competitiveness. There also will be collateral damage, e.g. Americans entering Chile already must pay $61. What do Ted Kennedy and Jesse Helms have in common? (They both favor a delay in the imposition of this exorbitant new fee).

Richard Thompson

Dogs can be as lethal as loaded guns

Why is it that the news media and police make a big deal out of a couple of drunken, drugged-out punks who harass and call some homosexual activist names and try to scare them? (obviously if these people really had murder on their minds they would have engaged in at least serious physical assault.)

The same media and police do not give nearly as much attention to a dog murdering a young child and almost murdering the child's mother?

I'm not trying to defend punks who harass or assault people because of their perceived sexual orientation. It just angers me that so little concern is shown to the truly serious problem we have in this state regarding dogs. The fact is, dogs are more dangerous than loaded guns. Every dog is an animal and every dog is a lethal weapon.

The police referred to dog's murdering of the child as "a household accident." A household accident? Remember, the same dog and thousands of dogs like to run free on our beaches and in our parks and approach children on a daily basis.

Where is the concern for the safety of our children and the rest of us? The dog lobby is more powerful than the NRA/gun lobby could ever be.

Evette Shamon

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