Elderly in Hawaii got short end of the stick

Your editorial correctly suggests that by failing to help the elderly Windward Oahu couple separated by the rules governing community-care foster family homes, lawmakers are encouraging residents to spend down their personal assets in order to qualify for Medicaid (“Couple’s plight demands action,” Star-Advertiser, Our View, May 11).

Even more egregious is the slashing of Kupuna Care funding by 29 percent, since so many families are affected. 

The state-funded program helps thousands of elderly residents and their caregivers by providing critical services to those hoping to remain in their homes for as long as possible. It’s an important safety net that helps kupuna from impoverishing themselves by delaying or preventing the need for institutional care.

As our population ages and the demand for home-based care increases, there is no way to justify this inexplicable budget decision.

This much is clear: Hawaii’s seniors were forgotten at the Legislature this year.

Gerry Silva
State president, AARP Hawaii

Family suspected pesticides killed dad

It takes so long for truths to emerge.  

In 1965 my father, Rex Luard, moved up on Pupukea and planted bananas. His friend, who lived one street over and held a Ph.D. in botany, told my dad that he thought the dust from chemicals at the anthurium farm nearby were killing his plants. 

Dad died in 1988 of lung cancer. We always suspected the dust drifting down the hill might have been the culprit. 

Mahalo to those carrying on the fight against certain pesticides. 

Susanne Luard Lenz  
Waikiki

Publicly owned utility would answer to us

Enough corporate exploitation.

Hawaiian Electric Co. appears to have been actively discouraging rooftop solar here. 

With the possible collaboration of the Florida government, NextEra has reportedly been doing the same thing there.

The idea, of course, is to continue burning fossil fuels long enough to complete the installation of massive, corporate-owned solar farms.

Thus, while claiming to advocate rooftop solar, they intend to perpetuate a power-generating monopoly and preserve exorbitant price structuring.

Our electric rates are more than twice the national average. That’s excessive.

Hawaiian Electric Industries’ CEO’s salary of $5.6 million yearly, and an $11 million bonus contingent on the sale to NextEra, is grossly excessive. And who’s paying for it all? We, the consumers.

NextEra’s advertising touts the same promises that HECO has been making. Why should we believe them? Many in Florida don’t.

We need a publicly owned electric utility, answerable only to the public.

Don Hallock
St. Louis Heights

Misconduct rules overdue for review

What a relief for teachers that Chapter 19 of the state Department of Education’s rules of misconduct is finally under review (“Discipline policy scrutinized,” Star-Advertiser, May 10).

The proposed changes could offer a fresh new dynamic between students and teachers. 

They could redirect the focus from conformity and punishment to acceptance and assistance. 

Educators would be free to appreciate each student for his or her unique contribution to the whole rather than to expect that they be indistinguishable from it.

These guidelines could replace the criminalization of kolohe behavior with the understanding that high energy levels, exuberance and non-conformity are natural but not punishable. 

These proposals are a golden opportunity to ensure that we, ourselves, don’t expand the category “at-risk” by using penalty over patience.

Vicki Owens
Kailua

Schools should teach, not be ‘therapeutic’

Reading the article “Discipline policy scrutinized” (Star-Advertiser, May 10), I wondered if the state Board and Department of Education can handle their mission of education while trying to be therapeutic for social problems. 

I have daughters in public schools and want them to be educated in a safe environment. Possession of drugs, intoxication, disorderly conduct, assault, theft and carrying weapons threaten that environment. 

The state auditor noted in 2002 that the DOE’s school-based behavioral health program had “not ensured the efficient and effective delivery of mental health services.” Have these systems improved? 

Absent from your article was the public and private social services industry, which is trained to address serious problems. Schools should be empowered to educate, not given therapeutic mandates they cannot fulfill.

Patrick DeBusca Jr.
Kaneohe

FROM THE FORUM

Readers of the Star-Advertiser’s online edition can respond to stories posted there. The following are some of those. Instead of names, pseudonyms are generally used online. They have been removed.

“Not on our land,” Star-Advertiser, May 11:

» They don’t own the mountain (Mauna Kea and Haleakala) any more than we own the sacred air we breathe.

» These are commercial operations on conservation land. There is money to be made with these commercial buildings or these commercial buildings would never be proposed and there would be no investment backing. The word “science” is just a front for these money-making commercial operations to get past the conservation zoning laws.

» So it is a “commercial” operation. The fact remains that it will expand humanity’s knowledge of our sun. Haleakala means, after all, “House of the sun.” What better place to study the sun than on top of the house of the sun?

“Boxing with brother preceded man’s death,” Star-Advertiser, May 11:

» It was an accident and no charges should be pressed. It wasn’t a fight to kill one another. Enough damage done already. Peace be with the ohana.

» How does beating each other up resolve a disagreement? Does it prove that the winner is right and the loser is wrong? Deepest condolences to the Kamaiopili ohana because I’m sure there was no intention of this outcome, but physical violence is not the way to resolve an argument. 

“‘Ultra luxury’ tower a moneymaker,” Star-Advertiser, May 12:

» $3.7 million a unit, yet the slums of Kakaako house a shanty town of a thousand homeless tents. Shame.

» Averages really do not tell you much. When a penthouse goes for close to $20 million, what are the lower units really going for? I believe they went for around $400,000-$500,000?

» The sacred grounds are being desecrated; where are the protectors? This to me is worse than the telescopes on a mountain. Its effects will be far greater to the welfare of kamaaina in the very near future. We will all still be alive to witness the selling out of our finite, sacred land to foreigners and all will suffer the consequences.

“‘They gave their all to make sure we are safe’,” Star-Advertiser, May 12:

» Nothing but respect for Honolulu’s finest. The vast majority of them are good people, and I feel lucky to have them as a buffer between my family and the bad guys.

» Mahalo to all Honolulu Police Department officers. The public must stand by the brave men and women who put their lives on the line. 

“Electrical utility extends shareholders’ vote,” Star-Advertiser, May 13:

» Here comes the real hard sell.

» When I get stuff like this in the mail, I usually chuck it as junk mail, so it’s not a surprise there’s a bunch of votes not yet turned in. That 75 percent threshold that they need to approve is pretty high to begin with.

» Don’t they know that Hawaii doesn’t vote?

» Hawaiian Electric Industries didn’t get the results it wanted, so they extended the deadline to try and get a different outcome. What is this, the Deedy case?

“Spokes folks decry Hawaii,” Star-Advertiser, May 13:

» It’s difficult to design a bike-friendly environment when we have a lack of space. The King Street cycle track was a bad idea. There’s very little bike traffic utilizing the bike lane.

» The amount of usage does not justify the cost. For safety reasons some streets should not allow bikes.

» There aren’t that many bikes because there are no bike lanes. It’s not safe to ride a bike without bike lane infrastructure in place.

“Central Oahu park’s users celebrate exclusive fund,” Star-Advertiser, May 15:

» It has deteriorated terribly because, as is typical of the city (and the state), no maintenance is done. Broken sprinkler heads are not replaced; consequently, large areas of the park are just dirt and dead grass. Those expensive tile roofs above the toilets are covered in black mold. Trees need trimming. Most of the water fountains don’t work. Only the playing fields are maintained. Why not the rest of the park?

» Walking through the regional park near my home yesterday I kept thinking I would be ashamed if I worked there. It is dirty — filthy really — most of the water fountains are broken, the roofs leak into classroom areas. Pathetic.

» Bill 75 sets a precedent for other neighborhoods, parks, golf courses, etc., to lobby for a similar bill for the same benefit of keeping funds generated by their activities. That will reduce funds that are available for other similar purposes from the general fund.