Illness prompts support from Iolani players, community

Recently a fund-raiser for my wife, Ann Kang, was successfully completed. Ann has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Since the diagnosis, Ann has received the support of hundreds of people from the community. Many have remembered her as a former Rainbow Wahine, when she played in Klum Gym. Others remember her as a teacher and coach at Iolani School. There also was support from strangers who simply seized this opportunity to show their love and humanity for someone facing the biggest challenge of her life.

The support of the media has been outstanding. The column written by Cindy Luis (Star-Bulletin, Oct. 18) showed a keen insight into Ann's career at Iolani School and in the community.

I also would like to thank KFVE for their support. Jim Leahy's and Chris McLachlin's insightful comments on the night that Ann was recognized at the Wahine volleyball game were poignant. Leahy's observation that the Wahine volleyball players were a sisterhood and the sisters were rallying around one of their own was insightful. If you are a member of the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team, you are a member of a special, select group.

We also would like to express our gratitude for the support of the Iolani School ohana. The term "ohana," I feel, is overused. But in this instance the term is appropriate. The Iolani community -- students, graduates, faculty, parents and friends -- has rallied around Ann and given her love and support, which has been overwhelming and appreciated.

I also would like to thank the many volunteers such as Lisa Simon, Scott Simon, Linda Look, Beth McLachlin and others who made the fund-raiser a huge success. I also am grateful to the many entertainers who dropped in to help. They were outstanding!

The financial support will help us meet the mounting medical expenses, but more important, the moral support, love and prayers received by Ann are appreciated. A minister recently commented that Ann is being included in the prayers at many churches in Hawaii.

Ann recently spoke with Lucy Wedemeyer, who shared that the common denominators of ALS survivors are a strong, positive mental outlook, faith in God and the strong support of others. Ann is fortunate to have all three. Thank you all.

Alan Kang

Staffing levels endanger patients

I am continually amazed at the spin that the nurses strike is being given. Anyone who thinks for one minute that this strike is about anything but safe care for the patients is not paying attention.

These nurses are asking for input into the number of staff needed for their patients. A nurse with too many patients fears losing one due to negligence. The stress this creates has caused many nurses to leave the profession, creating a retention problem. The other problem with getting enough nurses to come and stay in Hawaii is the low salary rate.

If we do not raise the level of input into staffing so that we are working in safe circumstances, and if we don't raise the pay rate to persuade nurses to stay in our expensive island state, we will continue not to have enough nurses.

Unless you and your family are immune to all illness, these problems will potentially affect your life in a disastrous manner. Do we want to wait for that to happen, or do we want to act now by hearing, understanding and acceding to the reasonable requests of the Hawaii Nurses Association?

Nancy Lee Potter, R.N.
Wailuku, Maui

Lingle should endorse House GOP candidate

As much as I admire Governor Lingle, I must suggest that she has made a rather bad mistake by not indicating any preference for a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives whom we could all follow. Now our votes will be scattered and the one small advantage we had is gone. I appeal to her to make a statement of her choice now, so that the fight for true and honest change in our state will not be lost. Any Democrat going back to Washington -- and believe me, Ed Case is a full-blown Democrat -- just makes it harder for us to break the terrible cycle that has brought Hawaii to her knees and puts the change we all want and need further into the future.

Don McDiarmid Jr.
Kailua

Lingle was right to rescind hiring order

I applaud Governor Lingle's decision to rescind former Gov. Ben Cayetano's executive order allowing political appointees to bypass the civil service recruitment process (Star-Bulletin, Dec. 13). I am so pleased to see her doing what needs to be done to restore hope to Hawaii. Not to dwell on the past, but I can understand how people feel when others try to make the system favor their pals.

I worked in such an island company for four years. I always felt like an outsider, even though I had helped to improve and enhance the company in several ways. I always felt as if I had no hope for advancement.

Many people I know feel "led" to come to Hawaii to live and work. I was one of them. Although we may not have the blood of Hawaiians, we feel and respect the spirit of Hawaii, no matter what race we may have been born into. We want to help Hawaii grow.

Hawaii made a wise choice to elect Linda Lingle as governor.

Bradley L. Duell
Founder and president
Chemical Consultants of America
San Diego, Calif.

Republicans want to keep us living in fear

In response to the letter "Too many Republicans will spoil the election" (Dec. 15), let's realize that when the radical right-wing Republicans get control they will not only take away the right for a woman to choose an abortion. After that they will attack all family planning to take us back to the old "blue laws" of pre-1950 New England, when it was against the law to even mention any form of birth control.

The reason the pawns of industry want a constantly growing population is so industry can sell more of its products and our military has a vast pool of poor people to feed into its constant wars to maintain our national security state. Notice how they have connived to have us living in fear since 1948 and change our enemies every few years.

We need more females in Congress since they are more empathetic and sensitive to the needs of children and families, unlike the men who want to persist in keeping the United States as the world's bully.

Edwin Corl

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