• Repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy • Racism hurts us all • Fear of lawsuits hurts everyone • Don’t try to titillate • Mahalo, good Samaritans Repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy I, a graduate of the U.S. Air
• Repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy
• Racism hurts us all
• Fear of lawsuits hurts everyone
• Don’t try to titillate
• Mahalo, good Samaritans
Repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy
I, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, support Congressman Patrick Murphy’s bill, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act.
This bill will repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy so that well qualified service personnel, like Army Lt. Dan Choi and Air Force fighter pilot Victor Fehrenbach, can continue to serve their country.
I have signed the petition at: LetThemServe.com
I never had any problems with any gay man or woman while I was serving in the Air Force. While I was living in Santa Cruz, I found gays to have personalities just as varied as any other group of people. Some were great and some were jerks.
I find those who attack gays often fall into the latter category.
John Zwiebel, Kalaheo
Racism hurts us all
My husband and I are white.
We come to visit Kaua‘i and stay in Kapa‘a for two to three weeks each year. We will return permanently in two years.
Whenever we visit we support local culture. We go to Koke‘e to learn about nature and attend the Banana Poka festival for conservation. We only buy Kaua‘i coffee whether here or at home.
We volunteer on beach clean-up, contribute to support the protection of monk seals. We attend all University of Hawai‘i games on the Mainland. We purchase tickets at local concerts and charity events and even donate to local boys’ baseball teams when they ask for support along the roadside.
Last Sunday we stopped to buy huli huli chicken by the roadside to support a local charity. The stink eye we got from the local 20-something made the chicken taste not so good.
Yesterday we went to the Farmer’s Market at Lihu‘e by KMart. The sign said $5 for pineapple. I tried to give the lady the $5 and she flips the sign over and it reads $8. I put my money back. I watch as the lady sells a local lady a pineapple for $5. That left a taste in my mouth like eating pineapple and milk at the same time.
Racism hurts us all.
Celeste Bordner, Valley Springs, Calif.
Fear of lawsuits hurts everyone
In response to David Camp’s letter (“Public health care option needed,” Letters, July 2), I can’t address every point he makes. He portrays lawyers as scapegoats whose litigation costs, he says, are trivial.
But the cost of litigation is just the start of the nasty side-effects. For every dollar that litigation adds to the cost of health care, there is an unseen cascade of additional costs.
The New England Journal of Medicine recently reported that 40 percent of malpractice suits are frivolous. But even if somebody wins a million-dollar lawsuit against a hospital or a medical device company, that lawsuit costs everyone involved — including you — much more than a million dollars.
In addition to court fees, every defendant had to hire a lawyer. And there were probably a dozen defendants because the plaintiff probably sued the surgeon, the internist, some nurses, the hospital, and God knows how many others. For lawyers, lawsuits are routine.
But for everyone else, they can be terrifying. Doctors must devote time, energy, money and their attention to their defense. Patients suffer while their doctors deal with attorneys.
Soon, the doctor will start ordering expensive and unnecessary tests, just to avoid a lawsuit. They also become more reluctant to talk openly with patients.
Insurance premiums rise for hospitals and doctors and that cost is passed on to patients. Pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical device companies become fearful; they stick to proven techniques and avoid innovation.
Many people suffered pain, fear and financial hardship to arrive at that million-dollar settlement. And of course, the plaintiff only gets a half-million because the lawyers got their half. To cover the cost of the lawyers, everything is more expensive.
The fear of lawsuits deprives everyone of things that make life better.
Christopher Becker, Lihu‘e
Don’t try to titillate
It was with deep disgust that I read of the “prostitution” arrests of three men by the Kaua‘i Police Department on March 25 (The Garden Island, June 2).
Not only is one of these men still in custody for this paltry “crime,” but pictures of all three men were included on the front page of the newspaper. Why? Because “clothes were taken off?” Please.
At a time when residential burglaries on the island are skyrocketing, it is incomprehensible that the KPD would commit their time and resources to poring over the “intimate services” ads on Craigslist, and arranging “sting” operations in imitation of tabloid TV. This activity does not protect the citizens of Kaua‘i in any meaningful way.
Nor does publishing pictures of these men in the newspaper make us safer. Where are the pictures of rapists, thieves, etc., who have been recently apprehended?
This is junk journalism at its worst. I suggest that you, the KPD, and Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho focus on informing and protecting the people of Kaua’i, rather than trying to titillate them with this brand of rubbish.
Doug Clark, Kalaheo
Mahalo, good Samaritans
Thank you to Glenn and Keith for changing my flat tire at the Hanapepe Bon Dance. They were so nice.
Thank you to family and friends who visited me at the hospital and at home.
Thank you to doctors, nurses and staff at KVMH.
Also thank you to the family who helped me on the side of the road in 1971 when I ran out of gas.
Rachel Kishida, Hanapepe
