• Hunting a bonding experience • Shields for Senate • OHA trustees working together • What will next year bring? Hunting a bonding experience In response to the Sunday letter from Nicolai Barca of Kilauea, why was Mr. Barca so
• Hunting a bonding experience
• Shields for Senate
• OHA trustees working together
• What will next year bring?
Hunting a bonding experience
In response to the Sunday letter from Nicolai Barca of Kilauea, why was Mr. Barca so heartless in putting down hunters?
Was it necessary to say that hunters drink beer? On how we “hop-skip out of the mountains with a full pack of meat, a smile on our face and some big boar tusks to show our friends?”
Did the beer cans that Mr. Barca found have pig’s blood on them? They could of had bird do-do, chocolate, ketchup or even worm guts on the beer cans. Most hunters that I know drink Coors Light. Mr. Barca never mentioned those cans.
We do pick up trash but sometimes our bags are full of meat. So where should we put the trash we pick up from the “motor bikers, off-roaders, hikers, campers fisherman and bird watchers?”
I’m a meat-and-potato man but there seems to be a lot of vegetarians who live up in the North Shore that are against hunters.
When I was growing up, my father didn’t do many activities with me. When the fall came in my early teens, my father, myself and our hunting dog enjoyed the quality time and bonding together in the outdoors.
If the many hunters on Kaua‘i want to continue having the right to hunt, vote for McCain.
• Bob Moulton, ‘Ele‘ele
Shields for Senate
I would like to point out that there were at least seven potential solutions to our failing state public hospital situation that were sitting on state Sen. Roz Baker’s desk last legislative session.
All of these proposals dealt with eliminating or modifying the certificate of need process. They are still there on her desk, or in the waste basket next to it.
She told us that she would not support any of them. Any of these proposals would have opened the way for a non-government hospital to open on Maui, the Big Island, or anywhere they wanted. It would not have cost us a dime.
They could have in turn bought MMMC, reallocated its resources and made it into a part of a system on Maui that would include the Westside, MMMC and the new state of the art hospital in south Maui.
Modern medicine, with no cost to the taxpayers. That alone would save the taxpayers anywhere from $25 to $65 million a year, which is what it takes the Legislature to keep MMMC in the black every year.
In the same paper there was a story about three orthopedic surgeons leaving the Big Island. They only have one left. The reason they leave is because they can’t afford to practice here, because the taxes are too high and the cost of medical malpractice insurance is too high.
Hawai‘i could enact tort reform, which would limit frivolous law suits and protect the doctors in other ways. Texas did this a couple years ago and now has 7,000 more doctors. Not fewer.
The problem with Roz is that the solutions are right in front of her, yet she refuses to even consider them. She had an opportunity to deal with the C.O.N. last year and did not. The whole Senate had an opportunity to deal with tort reform last year and they did not.
One of them, Sen. Tommy Waters (whose wife is a medical malpractice attorney), even announced in session “the end of tort reform” just as though he had defeated the bad guy. No conflict of interest there, right?
The answers are right here in front of us, we do not need any more task forces or studies. We could pass this legislation and invite other non-government hospitals to come to Maui. This would give us great medical care and tons of new jobs to help our economy.
The answer is clear. Vote for Jan Shields on Nov. 4. Put someone in office who understands medical care and will try to get us better hospitals, and more jobs. Roz may not be able to see the answers. Jan sees them clearly.
• Laura Van Wagner, Kihei, Maui
OHA trustees working together
OHA Trustee Rowena Akana’s childish attack on fellow trustees Haunani Apoliona and Colette Machado on Tuesday can be summarized by one word: election.
Akana is making false and ridiculous assertions to knock out trustees running for re-election on Nov. 4. In her letter, Akana criticizes Chairwoman Apoliona’s travel on OHA business, but Akana fails to address the fact Akana is the biggest spender among trustees.
Akana solicits invitations to take trips when she has no board chairmanships and regularly goes to Las Vegas, claiming board business when there is none. She flies on unrestricted tickets, making personal stops. She took a trip to the Cook Islands after she falsely claimed she headed a health committee of the board — when we have no such committee.
Akana regularly violates board policies and uses trust funds for personal gain. She is the trustee who used OHA money to pay for her beauty salon bills for three years before she was reprimanded by a state audit in 2001.
Akana is the trustee who wanted to hire Jack Abramoff as a lobbyist. Abramoff is now in prison after being convicted of stealing millions from Native Americans. Good thing OHA didn’t hire his firm, as Akana insisted, as OHA would be among the victims of his scams.
The majority of OHA trustees are working together and diligently to meet its mandate to better conditions of Native Hawaiians. The exception is Rowena Akana, who is up for re-election in 2010.
• Oswald Stender, OHA trustee
What will next year bring?
As a tourist visiting from Dallas, Texas, we are totally shocked as to what is happening to this beautiful island.
We have a timeshare in Po‘ipu and have looked forward to returning each year to this beautiful island. What we now see is ugly black garbage bag-looking fences with big, ugly peepholes. Is this some sort of new Hawaiian art changing the landscape of what used to be a beautiful island?
We believe those who put the fences up and already destroyed the landscape should be totally responsible for removing the fences. We would rather look at green weeds than those fences.
We love the small town of Koloa and the Po‘ipu area — what are the politicians doing to stop this mess?
When all this construction is complete, maybe 10 years from now, are you going to have major highways leading from the airport to take care of all the traffic leading to all these new condos and homes? That will also magnify the ugliness of this area.
Hopefully, someone will come to their senses and start controlling what is happening.
I was encouraged to write this after reading the Koloa/Po‘ipu nightmare letter. We agree with Bill Murphy. Glad someone is speaking up for all of us.
Hope to be back next year and see some improvement. It was getting bad last year and it is worse this year — what will next year bring?
• Gail Mersbach, Dallas, Texas
