Imported nurses undermine the cause

Many of Hawaii's nurses can't afford to strike, but we are doing it anyway because we believe changes need to be made. However, the imported mainland scab nurses -- specifically hired to undermine local nurses -- are contemptible because they only want money.

They make as much as three times what Hawaii nurses make, and do they even care why we're striking?

Some patients have to sit longer in their own filth, or go a couple of days without a bath while nurses are forced to concentrate their attention on saving higher acuity patients, a concept that is not understood by the businessmen who run these hospitals.

These businessmen have to learn that a patient is not a number, and a diagnosis does not guarantee an outcome. Hawaii nurses care about improving patient care and working conditions because this is our home, and our friends and families may one day require these services.

The things these imported mainland scab nurses care about are their huge paychecks and their free vacation.

Gerald K. Nakata, R.N.
Kapolei

Nurses are concerned about patient safety

I am one of the many nurses walking a picket line. I have become quite disillusioned to find that my place of employment for the last 12 years does not agree that I should be compensated for in my retirement years. Kuakini hospital was initially a Japanese retirement home for men who had lost their wives and could not care for themselves as a result.

The medical center is losing sight of its mission to take care of all who cross its doors, including its employees.

Kuakini has the highest fall ratio of patients in the state. This is the result of not having enough nurses caring for patients. Instead, Kuakini wants to blame the nurses for the falls by saying we call in sick too much and that there is enough staff. It's hard to believe that supposedly intelligent people running this facility actually believe that they can run nurses 16-plus hours a shift, sometimes daily, to make up for the lack of nurses; and not expect nurses to get sick or tired.

I have learned to be more fearful now of those people I am working for. I don't want them just to give in and give us our package, but to understand why we deserve it. I have a feeling I am going to go work elsewhere now because I love my profession too much to settle for second best for my patients.

Heather Kaio, R.N.
Kuakini Medical Center

Words of Korea vets elicit old memories

The book "A Foxhole View: Personal Accounts of Hawaii's Korean War Veterans," edited by Louis Baldovi, is a must read for those who lived through that period when Hawaii and our nation were involved in saving South Korea from being taken over by the North. The personal accounts of our boys from Hawaii during those months and years of combat or captivity from July 1950 to July 1953 bring home the anguish of war and its cruelties.

For those of us who were attending high school then, our thoughts were always, "Are we the next ones to go?" and "Infantry, infantry, infantry!" -- for that was the greatest need during that tumultuous time. We were watching with hawk eyes to the defeats and victories of our allied forces.

When the ceasefire agreement was signed at Panmunjom on July 27,1953, we all breathed a great sigh of relief. Although the war did not end with permanent peace in that region; the agreement halted the aggression of the invaders and expansion of their ideology to others. In that sense, we own.

Roy E. Shigemura

Hawaii needs Carroll in Washington

The long list of 42 aspirants for the U.S. representative seat for the 2nd congressional district in Hawaii is unbelievable. The only major candidate who lives in the district is John Carroll, a practicing attorney. He lives there, went to school there (University of Hawaii-Hilo and surfs there. In other words, Carroll is not a carpetbagger.

His credentials are impressive: past chairman of the Hawaii Republican Party, elected five times to the Hawaii state Legislature and military service in Korea. He also was an airline pilot with Hawaiian Airlines for three decades.

Right now, Hawaii does not have a voice in Washington. The president and the majorities in both the House and Senate are Republican, and Hawaii has three Democrats in Congress. The federal government doesn't know Hawaii exists because we have no Republican voice in Washington. The people of Hawaii should elect Carroll. Hawaii will then have a voice in the nation's capital and Governor Lingle will have a friendly Hawaii Republican congressman to work with. It makes sense.

Robert M. Lowe

Don't make too much of Lott's remark

In response to the Dec. 8 letter "Politicians went too far in honoring Thurmond":

Trent Lott's comments were uncalled for. To suggest the United States would have been better off with a racist in our nation's highest office is patently offensive to American sensibilities. That being said, it's easy to make too much of what Lott said. I don't ascribe his comment to any personal prejudice on Lott's part; it was more of an expression of "we're all good ol' Southern boys" in an unguarded moment of solidarity.

Strom Thurmond was the presidential nominee of the breakaway Dixiecrat Party in 1948. He carried Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and his home state of South Carolina. Lott was referring to southerners and not the GOP. The GOP wasn't even involved.

Thurmond has been one of the great senators in the history of our country, despite being a racist Democrat at one time. He was actually the most progressive in the Senate on hiring black staff after the Civil Rights bill passed. He was the first Southerner to hire black staff in 1957.

On the other hand, only two years ago Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.), a one-time KKK member, stated on national television, "I'm a white n-----." Where was the outrage then?

There is some ugliness on both sides of the aisle, and we have to work to make sure it never happens again.

Sandra Anderson
Hilo, Hawaii

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