Regardless of my personal opinion on the Thirty Meter Telescope, the Oahu rail project or the endless luxury condominiums planned for Kakaako, it’s extremely difficult to bear comments like, “We’ve come too far, the project must continue.”
At any given point in time, we can consider (or reconsider) what is right and proceed from there.
I noticed a very short article the other day in the Star-Advertiser about how South Carolina recently canceled a nuclear power project after years of timeline and budget overruns (“Palmetto State cancels 2 nuclear power projects,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 1). Although $9 billion was spent and the two units were nearly 40 percent complete, they canceled it.
“Ceasing work on the project was our least desired option, but this is the right thing to do at this time,” a key corporate representative said.
Nancy Aleck
Manoa
—
Supply-side does work — for rich
Of course it works!
The “supply-side orthodoxy” to which a recent commentary referred was never meant to benefit the general population (“Supply-side orthodoxy doesn’t work, and never did,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 2).
It is, and always has been, a cynical subterfuge benefiting only the obscenely rich and their paid-for politicians and in-house lackeys like the Hoover Institution.
These ideas took off like a rocket with the Reagan administration and have not slowed down a bit. It is painfully naive to treat these ideas as serious economic theory when we live in the midst of out-of-control income inequity, homelessness, and increasingly larger portions of the population who are even having trouble feeding themselves and their children.
Bill Myers
Kuliouou
—
OHA must seek TMT solution
Peter Apo failed to catch the spear in his excellent commentary (“Loss of TMT would do cultural damage,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Aug. 6).
He missed the main issues: The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is responsible for the welfare of the lands at the summit of Mauna Kea and its beneficiaries are all Hawaiians.
The trustees should negotiate a solution to this impasse. Not to do so would be a dereliction of their duties.
It is important to note that the telescope controversy is not a zero-sum game where one side wins enormous benefits at the expense of the other. In this case, there is only one huge group of beneficiaries: the Hawaiians — all 500,000 of us — the opponents, and more than 1 million non-Hawaiian citizens.
If the project dies, nobody gets anything but access to an empty mountain. Not even the trustees are excluded. If the constituents of those who face election in 2018 blame them for the loss of this critical project, they could lose their jobs.
James Growney
Diamond Head
—
Plant-based diet key to diabetes
Thank you for discussing the diabetes problem in Hawaii (“Diabetes growing in isles,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 5).
Sunday’s New York Times Bestsellers list (Star-Advertiser, Book Report, Aug. 6), includes “How Not To Die,” by Michael Greger with Gene Stone.
Chapter 6, “How Not to Die from Diabetes,” is 21 pages of evidence that with a diet of 100 percent plant foods, Type 2 diabetes can be prevented, arrested and even reversed with a healthy-enough diet.
Dr. Terry Shintani’s most recent presentation to the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii is called, “Diabetes, Pain and Cancer: How to Get Your Health Back in 10 Days.”
For most people, diabetes symptoms can be reversed quickly by eating a whole-foods-plant-based diet.
Patrick J. Moore
Nuuanu
—
Universal health care inevitable
The reason our country will be moving eventually to universal single-payer health care is because there is not a single other country that has a successful free-market health care system. On the other hand, there are at least 50 other countries with universal single payer (USP) and not one has ever revoked it.
Why is this? Because it is not feasible for insurance companies to insure sick and old people loaded with pre-exsisting conditions. The only way to cover them is to do what all other countries do with this high-risk pool — put them in with everyone else.
Our medical costs are at least double every other country and yet we have worse outcomes. Their countries are much happier with better outcomes and longer life expectancy. Not only is USP less expensive and everyone is covered, it is the only thing that can actually work in the long run.
“Access” to health care is not health care.
Jim Quimby
Kamehameha Heights
