Letters to the Editor

People in Oregon don’t want isle trash

Did you know that the garbage you toss each day will probably be shipped all the way across the ocean to us in the Pacific Northwest?

How do you feel about that?

As an Oregonian who lived on Kauai for 10 years, I feel pretty angry. You see, I know first-hand that Hawaii has not been serious about tackling reduction of consumption, reuse of resources and recycling. If that were the case, you probably wouldn’t need to ship your garbage to us. Guess what? We really don’t want your garbage! Well, perhaps there are a couple of people who plan on making a lot of money from enabling a lifestyle that’s not sustainable.

Please. It’s time for everyone to make changes. It’s no longer OK to consume without regard for the earth. Let your community leaders know it’s time to deal with the issue of waste and consumption in a responsible fashion.

Homeless mentally ill need treatment access

What is to become of the mentally ill people in our community?

Neither the homeless mentally ill nor those living with their families can be helped, according to current state policy that requires that one must be imminently dangerous to others or oneself in order to receive proper care. The net result is to force mentally ill people to be pulled into the criminal justice system in order to receive the care they need.

In 1984, Hawaii enacted the Involuntary Outpatient Treatment statute, which permits people with mental illness who are not dangerous to go through the civil justice system to get treatment. It is currently being used successfully in other states.

We believe Hawaii should make it a workable procedure so that people living with a nonviolent mental illness can be helped and no longer be a burden to the community.

Let’s pass law limiting scope of political signs

The political sign wars are upon us.

They are bigger than ever and out earlier, and there are multiples of them at the same property.

Many property owners are overwhelmed with requests. Some signs are put up without permission or placed on public property. Most significant, the signs do not tell us anything about the candidate

Unfortunately, this year with the special election for Congress, signs started appearing in March—even signs of candidates who were not running for Congress. Then the signs morphed into billboards and large banners, which are no longer mere signs. Candidates and their staffs encourage the practice of placing multiple signs on the same property, which belittles the intelligence of voters by suggesting that a candidate’s name has to be repeated over and over in order to win a vote.

When it is all said and done, I hope some of our candidates will protect the environment by controlling political signage and passing legislation to limit the size of signs and the time period when they can be put up.

Progress on horizon for school results

I’d like to commend the Star-Advertiser for revisiting last week’s encouraging news that test scores have improved at Hawaii’s public schools despite furloughs, and for noting that the "right takeaway … is not that we can put public schools on furlough with impunity" ("Let’s not test whether school furloughs are OK," Off The News, July 19).

Even with furlough days being restored, we cannot forget the challenges ahead. Starting this school year, at least 72 percent of a school’s students must be proficient in reading and 64 percent in math to meet "adequate yearly progress" under the federal No Child Behind Act. Each state is required to increase proficiency levels to reach 100 percent by 2013-2014.

I’m reassured knowing that our teachers and students will have support in the years ahead under the new state law that sets and increases minimum instruction hours in the classroom. The is a huge step in implementing a long-term solution to help our keiki succeed.