Your editorial, “Pesticides study reassuring but that should not be the last of it,” (Star-Advertiser, Our View, March 13) fails to acknowledge that no scientific study will ever prove beyond all doubt the health risks from pesticide contamination by biotech seed companies.
My mother passed away from Parkinson’s 15 years ago, but a study just out last year connected Parkinson’s to the contamination of Hawaii milk by the pesticide heptachlor in the 1980s.
The 40-year lag between probable cause and probable effect means that no study will ever conclusively pin down the causes of deadly illnesses that kill people like my mother late in life. Effectively, the responsible individuals and corporations get a free pass.
It is up to our legislators to adopt the precautionary principle and assume that this health risk exists — unless the biotech seed companies and other farming interests can show independent, peer-reviewed studies proving beyond all doubt that absolutely no risk to our health or to the environment exists.
Jan Becket
Manoa
Health care costs must be controlled
It was refreshing to read Dr. Ira Zunin’s take on what is wrong with U.S. health care (“Health care would benefit from Big Pharma reform,” Star-Advertiser, Wealth of Health, March 5).
It is clearly about costs and why they are so out of control. Tackling insurance companies to control costs is like going after a check-out clerk in a supermarket to lower food prices. Insurance carriers pass on costs they themselves have to meet, adding in their own margins.
As long at the prevailing ethos remains one of meeting costs rather than controlling them, U.S. health care will itself remain on critical life support.
Confronting industry lobbyists, overhauling administrative hospital practices, and cracking down on the litigious climate need to be at the forefront of any informed debate.
A function of the media in democracies is to adopt causes in the public’s interest and ferret out wrongdoing. This is not happening enough.
Victor Saumarez
Lahaina
Obama extended health legacy of FDR
The question presented to Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk — “Is Obamacare achieving its goals?” — yields a partially emphatic yes in response (Star-Advertiser, RedBlueAmerica, March 13).
Obamacare begins the fulfillment of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s final address to the nation, when he called for universal health insurance throughout the United States.
Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights was a proposed drafting of inalienable rights: employment, with a good living wage; freedom from unfair competition and monopolies; housing; medical care; education; and Social Security.
As Mathis writes, “Now it’s true: Obamacare isn’t perfect.” It doesn’t help everybody, but it does provide health insurance to 20 million Americans who would otherwise be without coverage. And that’s a lot.
The quest for the universal health care envisioned by FDR, one of our greatest presidents, is becoming actualized by another of our greatest presidents, Barack Obama, father of Obamacare.
Stuart N. Taba
Manoa
‘Test prep’ season like Christmas for some
As a public school teacher, I am on the email lists of many “educational” corporations that try to sell me something.
Around this time every school year, I start receiving “test prep” pitches. One that arrived this week started with, “Testing season is here!”
In public education, there’s an entire season devoted to standardized testing, during which authentic learning takes a back seat or gets off the bus, and which “education” corporations exploit for shareholder profit.
Testing season is to education corporations what Christmas season is to retailers — the most wonderful time of the year, when schools desperate to meet the growth mandate might buy anything that promises results.
For students and teachers, it’s a time when entire curricula are packed away and replaced with test-taking strategies and practice, practice, practice. New-kindled curiosity is smothered by test anxiety.
Our keiki deserve better.
David Negaard
Wailuku, Maui
Trade deficit proves inequity of our trade
Trade is an issue in current political campaigns and the U.S. trade deficit for 2015, $484 billion, proves there is inequity and unfairness in our trade deals.
The end of sugar on Maui provides evidence of a trade deal that directly impacted workers in Hawaii. In October 2015, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Mexico dumped subsidized sugar on U.S. markets, materially injuring U.S. growers and workers.
When our own economy has been adversely affected, it seems to me international trade is an issue worthy of serious debate and reflection.
Jim McDiarmid
Mililani
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.
“State’s wildland firefighters need more resources” Star-Advertiser, March 14:
>> Give them tools they need to survive and work. The ground literally burns and dangerous wildfires can “jump” firebreaks. Simple work it is not.
>> Hear, hear! There is a serious need for modern, updated equipment. These people risk their lives to keep us safe.
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“UH gets $845,000 grant to battle coastal erosion” Star-Advertiser, March 14:
>> $845K to study erosion!
>> What a terrible waste of money.
>> The more data and studies we have, the better the decisions can be made. If there are prudent ways to prolong the inevitable, they should be explored.
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“Lawmaker lobs profanities at fellow Republicans”
Star-Advertiser, March 15:
>> The bigger story was buried: The budget for a new school in Ewa was cut in half so the speaker can have those same funds diverted to his district for an unneeded school.
>> This is why so many people are voting for Donald Trump. We’re sick and tired of the same old politics in this state and at least McDermott is passionate enough in his belief for the new shcool that he’ll go after fellow Republicans to get his message across.
>> Rep. Bob McDermott should not have chosen the speaker to attack. Nor should he have abused his fellow Republicans. Can he really call himself a politician?
>> Who wants to call themselves a politician?
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“Faith groups seek a way forward on homelessness” Star-Advertiser, March 15:
>> I’m grateful for the conference. My church participates in Family Promise, which has a good record of finding housing for homeless families. We also do a monthly hot meal and food distribution, but few homeless come — most are elderly people living on Social Security.We’ve had people sleeping on our lanai, but because we have a preschool, we have to be extra careful. We had to evict one guy who began using our grounds as a toilet. Beyond the health issues involved, it meant that we risked him exposing himself to little kids. But the needs are so great — I’ll never forget the dad, a widower, who came to our food distribution with his young children for several months because he’d lost his job.
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“Lawmakers consider releasing nonviolent offenders early to ease overcrowding” Star-Advertiser, March 16:
>> Who cares if these guys are crowded? They broke the law.
>> If the state wants to ease overcrowding, then don’t arrest these so-called criminals.
>> If the state decides to do “early release,” don’t just release them. Instead, make them do community service or other duties. Everyone who commits a crime needs to pay the penalty.
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“Expert on fixing homelessness ‘gets it’ Star-Advertiser, March 16:
>> The “whiz kid” type from the mainland is a common mythic figure out here. It has recurred many times in the past. Some dude claims a big-time reputation on the mainland and comes out to teach the natives how to tie their shoes. He typically fails and mysteriously disappears after garnering much hot air and salary.
>> Simply providing free housing for the existing homeless might work in Utah, but Hawaii faces very different problems because our homeless population continues to grow through immigrants moving here with the intent to freeload, drawn by our no-waiting-list free health care and welfare and year-round beautiful weather.
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“Na‘i Aupuni will not fund ratification” Star-Advertiser, March 17:
>> Act 195, which became law with the governor’s signature on July 16, 2011, seems to be a fraud and is completely coming apart. Na‘i Aupuni admits its funding came from the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs and that it will “return” the balance of $100,000. Also, it is washing its hands of the “process” by completely separating itself from the ratification process.
>> Na‘i Aupuni is literally asking Native Hawaiians to “buy” into the process.
