It's not a 'holiday,' it's just Christmas

I love the sounds, the charm and the special time that Christmas represents. Hanukkah and other faith-related holidays are also cool. But we are losing the real Merry Christmas.

Soon they will be trying to proclaim holiday cards, holiday carols, holiday gifts and holiday trees.

Non-Christians know it is going on. I say relax; most non-Christians are cool with Christmas. How do I know? I have asked them.

So what is this nonsense about lumping all under the generic word “;holiday”;?

Did Charles Dickens write “;The Holiday Carol”; about the Ghost of Holiday Past and the Ghost of Holiday Future?

A good friend (a Bing Crosby kinda guy) and other pals were at an old piano a while back playing these tunes:

“;Have Yourself a Merry Little Holiday.”;

Followed by “;I'll Be Home for Holiday.”;

And, of course, “;I'm Dreaming of a White Holiday.”;

Enough. If you don't mind me saying so, Merry Christmas.

War or not, it's all about the numbers

Now that virtually all of our powerful coalition partners - such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Macedonia and Tonga - have left Iraq, we can safely assert that the war is over.

They are no longer needed, since in the past six months or so, only one non-American member of the coalition forces has been killed in that country.

On the other hand, with more than a hundred American personnel having died and a few hundred others wounded there in that time, the American military presence will be needed for many years to come.

Let's just stop calling it a war.

Lax parenting helps bike thief get away

To the parents of the thief who stole my son's bike at Kailua Intermediate School:

Shame on you. Didn't it occur to you to question your teenage son when he came home with a brand-new red Raleigh Mojave bike with custom red-sidewalled Armadillo tires - and, I assume, no way of accounting for the money to pay for it?

Just so you know - I was driving my van yesterday down Kalaheo Avenue and I saw your son, a kid with a dark green backpack, riding the stolen bike. I rolled down my window and told him that was my son's stolen bike. He took evasive action, doubling back and forth while I chased him in the van, then he tore off down the beach access path just before Omao and Kalaheo.

I got a good look at your son. A lot of people living along Kalaheo are now on the lookout for that bike. If they see it, they will call the police.

I don't know what values you're trying to instill in your son, but if any of my kids ever pulled a stunt like that, I'd haul them before the owners of the property and make them confess to their misdeeds, shame them so badly they'd never try that again. I figure, either I can teach my kids the right values, or a few years from now it'll be the turn of the officers at Halawa prison.

Doctor visits should be in person, not online

As a retired physician and now largely a consumer of its medical services, I agree that our health care system is ailing and needs to be repaired.

However, I doubt that the recent attempt by Hawaii Medical Service Association purporting to provide 24-hour access to physicians through online telephone servicing will help much. Limited to 10-minute telephone consultations alone, it remains too superficial a process. In such a brief period of time, two complete strangers must share deeply personal and intimate information, which hopefully can lead to a resolution of the problem.

The lack of access to physicians is merely one of the many problems confronting all of us today. The larger, more pressing question is, “;Do most Americans have a personal physician that they can talk to, one whom they respect and trust?”;

I suggest that HMSA move to develop a program in which physicians are compensated on the basis of capitation. Instead of being paid a fee for providing each separate service, the doctor will be compensated for providing total office-based primary care services for the person. Charged not only to provide treatment for an illness, the physician will be involved with counseling and advising each patient to adopt lifestyles that can promote and preserve health itself.

Will it be coffee, tea or rail transit?

With the constant conflicting opinions in letters to the editor about rail transit, TheBus, cars, mopeds, bicycles and simply walking, I'm inclined to wonder whether anybody will actually make it to work, let alone decide whether they prefer coffee, tea, hot chocolate or a shot of vodka.

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