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POSTED: Monday, December 15, 2008

State gets it wrong on ceded lands

Gov. Linda Lingle and Attorney General Mark Bennett's Dec. 11 guest column, “;State has not changed position on ceded lands,”; includes misstatements and does disservice to the Hawaii Supreme Court's opinion.

In January, our Supreme Court held that “;that the Apology Resolution and related state legislation, give rise to the State's fiduciary duty to preserve the corpus of the public lands trust, specifically, the ceded lands, until such time as the unrelinquished claims of the native Hawaiians have been resolved.”;

Last week, the governor filed her opening brief to the U.S. Supreme Court where the state argued for the first time in this 15-year case that native Hawaiians have no legal claim to the ceded lands. This position is inconsistent with the Apology Resolution and the proposed Akaka Bill because they both state that the 1893 overthrow of the kingdom of Hawaii was an “;illegal overthrow”; and that “;the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or over their national lands to the United States.”;

The governor has tried to justify her “;no legal claim”; position by incorrectly maintaining that the Hawaii Supreme Court found that the state does not have good title to the ceded lands. In fact, the opinion expressly stayed away from that issue and predicted that “;the issue of native Hawaiian title to the ceded lands will be addressed through the political process.”;

The unanimous decision of our highest appellate court should be applauded for accurately concluding that:

“;In this case, Congress, the Hawaii state legislature, the parties, and the trial court all recognize (1) the cultural importance of the land to native Hawaiians, (2) that the ceded lands were illegally taken from the native Hawaiian monarchy, (3) that future reconciliation between the state and the native Hawaiian people is contemplated, and, (4) once any ceded lands are alienated from the public lands trust, they will be gone forever.”;

The Hawaii Supreme Court's decision advances the process of reconciliation between Hawaiians and the state, and the position advanced in the governor's appeal unfortunately thwarts that process.

  Editor's note: Bill Meheula is the attorney for the plaintiffs Pia Thomas Aluli, Jonathan Kamakawiwoole Osorio, Charles Kaaiai and Keoki Maka Kamaka Kiili.

 

Underground wires to protect cell phones

Reality check for people who think cell phone service is entirely independent of the Hawaiian Telcom's landline structure.

Most wireless calls travel along a Hawaiian Telcom “;landline”; cable at some point between the cell site, Hawaiian Telcom facilities and the wireless company's switch. Very few cell sites use microwave direct to their wireless company switch.

In the event of a power outage Hawaiian Telcom rules as it supplies the 60 volts/20 mA for your landline phone to operate normally.

However, if the telephone poles (carrying HECO power, Hawaiian Telcom landline cables) go down in a disaster, then you have essentially had it except for VHF/UHF radio communications from the military, police, fire, civil defense, HF/VHF ham radio and satellite phones.

Losing power is one thing. Having all the poles go down is another long and tedious recovery process.

We need to get those cables underground in critical areas.

Government rescue will make things worse

The federal government is making bad choices in reaction to our economic troubles. The creation of jobs is not the goal of economic activity. People work for the purchasing power they can exchange their labor for. The whole direction of the labor movement has been an attempt to cut hours while holding up annual incomes for workers.

Government-created work, subsidies and attempts to manage the private economy hurt rather than help. If such programs worked, Roosevelt's National Recovery Act and WPA would have lifted us out of the Great Depression.

The inflationary policies of the Fed that led to the housing bubble should not be repeated by flooding the economy with more than $1 trillion in new money that is not backed by real savings and investment. This will reduce the value of dollars earned by everyone and continue to disrupt business planning and investment by denying the economy a constant and predictable measure of value.

A strong economy is one in which business entities seek efficiencies and worker productivity is high, allowing for a high standard of living.

Do you associate the words “;efficient operations”; and “;worker productivity”; with government-run programs or with private industry?

Why all or nothing with automakers?

It is unclear to me why our elected and appointed governing leadership is willing to make decisions about which financial institutions to save and which to let expire—business triage 101, if you will—but not willing to cull an automobile manufacturer, or in some cases to amputate a diseased subsidiary to try and keep the parent company alive.

I would be interested in seeing the thoughts of other readers of this paper on the subject.

Mental-health quick fix will be costlier later

When she became director of the Department of Health in 2002, Dr. Chiyome Fukino said: “;The department's priorities will focus on substance abuse, long-term care and mental health for both adults and school-age children”; (Star-Bulletin, Dec. 19, 2002). It seems Fukino needs to reflect on these statements and get her priorities straight. On Nov. 26, during a TV news report, Fukino cited a study that compared the outcome of case management services to community mental health centers and stated there was “;no difference in outcome whether a person is seen three hours per day or three to four hours per month.”;

I question the validity of this study and argue that community-based case management and community mental health centers service individuals at two entirely different levels of care. Reducing the number of hours per month or eliminating services altogether might seem like a quick fix for the budget now, but it is very likely that it will end up costing the state more money in the end: “;Evidence shows that offering a full range of community-based alternatives is more effective than hospitalization and emergency room treatment”; (U.S. Public Health Service Office of the Surgeon General, 1999).

Furthermore, poverty can exacerbate the risk factors for mental illness and impeding access to treatment and services, therefore it would seem logical that given the current global economic crisis, we are likely to see a rise in the number of individuals who become mentally ill. Cutting services at this time could be the biggest mistake the state of Hawaii makes.

Columnist should stick to what he knows

Charles Memminger's Dec. 4 “;Honolulu Lite”; column about the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada and the government takeover was a stitch.

However, he should have blue-penciled out the last two paragraphs about the auto company bailout. He should confine his writing to what he understands!

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