Restaurant workers now have equality

There were a lot of smiles among Honolulu's restaurant workers as they celebrated the City Council's approval of a smoking ban -- a new ordinance that gives them the same protection already afforded to every other employee on our island.

And they were ecstatic when Mayor Jeremy Harris reversed his earlier position and signed the bill into law. There were some anxious moments knowing the mayor had vetoed a similar measure in 1995, at the urging of the all-powerful and wealthy tobacco industry.

Thank you to the seven City Council members who put public health ahead of their personal financial gain, and thanks to the mayor and all who fought so long and hard on behalf of the thousands of waiters, waitresses, hosts, hostesses, managers, bus persons, enter- tainers and others who were being treated as second-class citizens for all of these past years.

Keith Haugen
Musician and entertainer

Visitors like breathing clear indoor and out

A big mahalo to the Honolulu City Council for banning smoking in restaurants.

We citizens of California have been able to dine out smoke-free for several years, and I expect the idea also will spread through the state of Hawaii in no time.

I'm looking forward to my next visit to Oahu when I will be able to breathe clean air indoors as well as outdoors.

Robert Ristelhueber

San Jose, Calif.

'Smoking ban' is really a health-care law

I would like to thank our City Council members for their excellent work on Bill 99, which extends workplace protection to include restaurants, nightclubs and bars. I believe the media have mislabeled this issue by calling it a "restaurant smoking ban," because we know it's about protecting the health of the employees and patrons.

I appreciate former Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura's decisive stance in support of this bill. He took the time to hear the concerns of his community and in turn created a bill that will meet the needs of many. I applaud the other Council members who introduced and supported this bill, Gary Okino, Duke Bainum, John Henry Felix and Steve Holmes, for taking this step in restricting smoking to help protect the current and future workers in this industry.

Toni Ann Symons

[Quotables] "Hugh's been dedicated to the young people of Hawaii for 30 years. He's at the top of his game. Sometimes it's nice to leave while the band's still playing." Evan Dobelle President of the University of Hawaii, on the retirement of Athletic Director Hugh Yoshida. "I've got in this program cousins, uncles, brothers and sisters. Why would I defraud them?" Montez Ottley Laie resident, convicted of defrauding 5,000 investors of nearly $67 million in a Ponzi scheme from Hawaii to American Samoa and the mainland.

Legalizing suicide would be tragic

Legal or not, assisted suicide has been practiced in Hawaii for many years.

When my mother-in-law became depressed, she attended meetings held by the Hemlock Society. She was not seen by a psychologist or by her minister. These Hemlock Society gatherings were not hidden, secret meetings tucked away somewhere. They take place regularly at hotels and resorts statewide.

The Hemlock Society has full-color brochures, magazines and even members who give advice on current methods of suicide.

My mother-in-law attended several meetings of the society before taking its advice. Just a few days before she died she was visited at her own home by a Hemlock Society volunteer.

On her death certificate they wrote the cause of death was suffocation. She had taken sleeping pills and placed a bag over her head.

Her autopsy showed that she was a healthy, 73-year-old woman.

Assisted suicide under the cover of "death with dignity" is murder, self-inflicted or not. I wish she were alive today. She would have loved seeing her grandchildren.

Depression is a very serious condition. I think our kind, island society can do better dealing with the woes of our aging ohana members. There is no place for the legalization of suicide in Hawaii.

Karyn Herrmann

Blaming victim makes lawyers look bad

I have to wonder about Michael Ostendorp, Clyde Arakawa's lawyer, making an issue of whether Dana Ambrose was wearing a seat belt when she was killed. I can just imagine Ostendorp defending a murderer, claiming the murder wasn't the fault of the person who shot the victim, it was the victim's fault for not wearing a bulletproof vest.

Perhaps tactics like this contribute to the negative image of lawyers mentioned in columnist Rob Perez' series of stories on lawyers ("When lawyers go bad," Star-Bulletin, Feb. 10-12).

Nobu Nakamoto

Put real officers in the traffic vans

The whole reason that there is a problem with the van cam system is the question, "Who died and gave these civilians police powers."

All the uproar could be solved with a very simple move: Put uniformed police officers behind the cameras, put a big Honolulu Police Department sticker on the side of the van and maybe even put a dome light up on top.

If I got a speeding ticket from a uniformed police officer, there would be no question raised in court to its validity. The police officer is a deputized entity, sworn to uphold the law.

Or why don't we just offer our existing police force a $27 bounty per traffic citation? How much you want to bet that traffic instantly crawls to a stop everywhere in the state?

Ooops! Did I say bet? Er, fugettaboutit!

Blaine Fergerstrom

We need more cops, not more cameras

Regarding the state's traffic van cameras to catch speeders: If the Legislature had really been concerned about safety, and not merely an additional source of revenue, it would have more wisely used the $14 million to hire additional police officers.

Not only would our highways be safer, but our communities, too. It's still not too late to do the right thing.

Stephen T. Molnar
Kailua

If not the mall, where will homeless go?

The city wants to remove the homeless from the Fort Street Mall for the benefit of business and patrons.

This raises many questions: Where will they move to? Who will be affected by the move?

Is shifting the homeless around a solution? Do the homeless have human rights?

Are these people homeless or simply houseless?

Will moving the homeless out of the Fort Street Mall answer any of these questions?

Steve Tayama

Republican proposal for relief fund is fair

A Feb. 14 Star-Bulletin editorial claims the House Republicans' effort to refund the Hurricane Relief Fund is nothing more than "an extra loud dose of tiresome political rhetoric." That's not true.

It's also misleading to suggest that Republicans are relying on "drama" to kick start Hawaii's economy. There are many sound and responsible bills we have introduced to resolve our current fiscal plight created by Hawaii's Democrats. That the majority refuses to support or even give hearing to these approaches reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of our economy and a disconnect from the suffering experienced by working families.

And that your editorial board is tired of these "perennial" ideas is an odd criticism given that these "perennials" have never been tried.

There are only two legitimate uses of the fund surplus. The first is to keep it intact to pay for losses resulting from a future hurricane. The second is to refund the surplus to those that paid into the fund. Both choices present issues of fairness and equity.

As an initial matter, all the policies that the fund once covered have expired. Second, using the surplus to cover losses from another hurricane requires, in my opinion, amendments to the fund's governing statute. But even if the statute is amended, how can we determine which homeowners to compensate?

Of course, the details to that question can be worked out -- assuming the interested parties want to work it out.

This approach would help to address losses from a hurricane that may come in the future. But Hawaii's in the center of a raging economic storm right now. We have lost jobs, lost incomes and lost opportunity. Many have even lost hope.

That's why the better choice for the fund is to return it to those who paid into it. This will return significant capital to the economy and in a way that will benefit far more people than would spending it on an overpriced government or leaving it intact for a natural storm that may not come for decades hence.

We should convene a joint hearing of the House and Senate Consumer Protection committees to determine an equitable way to return the fund to homeowners. It could use for guidance records and receipts kept by the fund's board.

This is a fair and reasonable approach to address the fund surplus. It should be implemented by the 21st Legislature and the governor.

Rep. Joe Gomes
R, 51st District (Waimanalo, Keolu Hills, Lanikai )

Bottle bill would help keep Hawaii clean

The state Legislature is now discussing a bottle deposit bill, HB1256. This is a bill that should be passed this year. Last year the Legislature gave the soft-drink and other industries time to come up with their own bill and they have devised a very inadequate bill that would cost the taxpayers of Hawaii more than $10 million a year.

HB1256 has been introduced by legislators as a far less costly and much more effective way to recycle our bottles.

HB1256 would stop bottle and can litter, extend the life of our land-fill areas, help keep litter off our beaches, and recycle about 80 percent or more of the state's 880 million beverage bottles and cans at no cost to taxpayers. The bottle bill would provide a 5-cent incentive to recycle, paid to the person returning the bottle.

HB1256 has received strong support from the state Department of Health, the City and County of Honolulu, the County of Maui, and many community organizations. The states with bottle laws average 80 percent recycling of beverage containers. No bottle bill has ever been repealed. Think how much litter this would keep off our beaches.

Marge Freeman
Wailua, Kauai

Ailing need state's long-term care plan

I was denied long-term care insurance by two different insurance plans. Almost without a doubt, these denials were due to a post-polio condition and weakened lungs from scoliosis. I will need some kind of nursing care down the road.

Lastly and most certainly, it makes me sad to envision losing or depleting all my funds, maybe even before I die.

For these reasons, I support the state's proposed long-term care financing plan that will cost us only $10 a month for a $70-a-day benefit when we qualify.

Sandra Inayoshi

Gambling is here; let's make it legal

The debate over legalization of gaming in Hawaii really begs the question. Notwithstanding well-publicized arrests and prosecutions, illegal betting on sporting events goes on unabated and untaxed in Hawaii. It would be a good bet that some prosecutors and police can and do place bets on the parlay cards and the "six-five" regularly. Wagering on sporting events, especially football, is virtually universal, aided and abetted by the news media's free and easy publication of point spreads.

The least our dedicated public servants can do is end the hypocrisy.

Jun Chun Chung

Gambling will add to Hawaii's suffering

Karen Nagata ("Anti-gambling crowd doesn't reflect Hawaii, " Letters, Feb. 15), is short-sighted in her assumption that gambling is the cure to all of Hawaii's ills.

Yes, it will create construction jobs, as long as resorts don't bring in outside contractors. It may create resort jobs, but no guarantee there either. Who's to say the resorts won't bring in their own people?

As parents it is our responsibility to teach our children good stewardship principles of the resources and provisions that we have, not to throw them away on the unreasonable expectations of "hitting it big." That is the delusion the gambling industry wants to project to unsuspecting victims.

If gambling comes to this island Hawaii' social problems will increase substantially. Gambling is highly addictive, destroys families, seduces young people and links to a host of other detrimental effects on society -- including crime, bankruptcy, divorce, child abuse and suicide.

For the sake of the tranquility of these islands and the future of our children and grandchildren, please do not fall victim to the grand illusions and falsehoods of the gambling industry.

James Roller

Waahila should be lesson for HECO

We have witnessed the death throes of Hawaiian Electric Co.'s destructive power line project on Waahila Ridge.

Retired Judge E. John McConnell found that the proposed 138,000-volt power line through Manoa's mountain ridge was unjustified in light of modern technology and also destructive of the conservation district's environment, view planes and cultural practices.

He recommended that the Board of Land and Natural Resources deny the permit.

HECO has wasted between $5 million and $10 million (its estimate) of taxpayers' and ratepayers' money on promoting this project, in spite of a firestorm of objections from all segments of the community. Why would the company arrogantly ignore the very customer base it serves?

Hawaiian Electric is in business to serve its owners, the stockholders. The Public Utilities Commission allows the company to collect from ratepayers more than 9 percent on its capital investment as profit. The more HECO can invest in power delivery, the more it can charge ratepayers.

Perhaps the most important reason why Hawaiian Electric continued to push for this doomed project is the consequences of a denial to build through a conservation zone.

This has never happened before. It represents a precedent that may make it doubly hard or impossible for HECO to get conservation zone permits. In HECO's view, this is a devastating restriction of its operations.

There is an important lesson here to be learned by Hawaiian Electric. The company can no longer expect to run its projects through communities and wilderness areas without developing public support and full and honest justification of the need of the project.

HECO has the resources to do this. Now all it needs is the will.

Jim Harwood
Member
Manoa Neighborhood Board and Malama O Manoa

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