HILO SUPERCENTER

WAL-MART STORE ON DHHL LAND NOT PONO

Thank you for your article on March 20 about the Wal-Mart supercenter planned for Hilo on Hawaiian Home Lands.

I found it to be quite exciting that we (the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands) are now dealing with the big boys.

As we all know, the Hawaiian Home Lands were set aside to assist Hawaiians with at least 50 percent blood quantum. Being part Hawaiian with 7/16 Hawaiian blood running through my veins, I have spent the last 50 years of my life as someone who does not qualify for a DHHL lease.

I nearly gave up hope that I might one day qualify, but now I see that the Waltons (the founding family of Wal-Mart) have accomplished what I have always dreamed was possible. Who cares if the Waltons are 0 percent Hawaiian? Who cares that the bones of our ancestors at the Ke'eaumoku Street Wal-Mart were handled with cultural disrespect (at least they put them in a Matson container)?

I guess the answer is: "Me, I care."

Whoever said you have to be 50 percent Hawaiian ancestry to get a Hawaiian Home Lands lease forgot the caveat — it's 50 percent Hawaiian or a multi-billion-dollar machine to get a lease.

FISHERIES

HB 1848 WILL HURT, NOT FIX MARINE RESOURCES

I concur with William Aila's comments regarding House Bill 1848 (Letters, March 19).

The language of this bill reads like an effort to use good science and cultural mana'o to protect and manage our fishery resources. Upon closer inspection, this bill will only stall enforcement and management measures, place additional hurdles and create more red tape to protect a threatened fishing area or species.

Time is not on our side. Our marine resources are dwindling at an alarming rate. What upsets me the most is that this bill wants to use tax revenues to fund a fishery policy advisory task force largely made up of special interests.

Before more money is spent on another task force, how about funding the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources conservation enforcement officers with a 24-hour live dispatch and communication system to ensure officer safety and better reporting of resource violations?

Let's fix and improve the existing systems designed to protect our resources before funding another task force.

HOUSING

BILLIONAIRE'S KAHALA GESTURE SHORT-SIGHTED

Japanese billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto's vision of providing housing for less fortunate families of Hawaiian descent, although well-intended, is rather short-sighted. It addresses only the tip of a much more serious problem in our community.

Giving only eight families homes to live in on Kahala Avenue is not what other philanthropists in Hawai'i would have done to improve the lives of the community's needy.

A true philanthropist's approach would have been to improve the quality of life for the thousands of other families who struggle daily to find affordable housing.

Mr. Kawamoto, it would behoove you to perhaps model the vision of other area leaders such as the Weinbergs. Only then will your efforts be recognized by all.

PSYCHOLOGISTS

PRESCRIPTIVE TRAINING SHOULD BE INCREASED

Senate Bill 1004 and House Bill 1456, which propose prescriptive rights for certain psychologists, are flawed.

There is no argument that Hawai'i could use more qualified psychiatrists, but why should the public settle for non-medical personnel who are allowed to prescribe medication?

The issue of psychologists prescribing drugs comes down to the health, welfare and safety of the more than 100,000 people who annually visit community health centers and the health, welfare and safety of the general public.

Most community health center clients are already on medication because existing dual diagnoses. The diagnoses may include diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, congestive heart failure, asthma and most likely some degree of depression and/or anxiety.

In lesser degrees there is a diagnosis of psychosis. In some instances there is an additional diagnosis of substance abuse.

If psychologists want to prescribe medication on top of existing medications, then public safety dictates a better qualified provider.

The proposed training in SB 1004 and HB 1456 falls short.

At a minimum, psychologists need to attend nursing school with an advanced practice degree in prescribing psychopharmacological drugs.

If there is a problem with a lack of teachers to teach nursing, then fix it.

Our community health center clients deserve no less; and so does the general public.

CRASH INVESTIGATIONS

NOW WE KNOW REASON ROADS CLOSED SO LONG

The recent series of articles on the Department of Transportation withholding accident data has revealed the true and insidious reason behind another issue about which there has been a great deal of public frustration. That is the complete shutdown of key roadways for hours after fatal accidents, with complete disregard for the thousands of commuters spending precious time stuck in the resulting traffic tie-ups.

Requests for explanations have been met with police and DOT responses that the scene must be treated as a potential crime scene, and that all evidence — no matter how minute, or time consuming to gather — must be collected, and that this is for the benefit of the victims' families, the prosecution of negligent drivers and safety of our citizenry.

We now know that is untrue. The reality is that the data are primarily being gathered to protect DOT from liability lawsuits.

2008 BUDGET

FUNDING ITEM FOR CITY TRANSIT STUDY CLARIFIED

I'm writing to clarify the apparent confusion over an item in our proposed 2008 budget, the integrated multimodal transit financial analysis.

The budget provides up to $1 million for the study, which will refine and elaborate on financial data that is included in the alternatives analysis for the Honolulu High-Capacity Transit Corridor Project that the City Council received last October.

The data in the alternatives analysis helped us recommend an affordable minimum operable segment — out of a full, Kapolei-Manoa transit system — that the city would construct with federal help. The council approved a variation of that MOS just last month.

Among the subjects of the proposed study will be interim construction financing for the fixed-guideway project as work begins in a few years. The study would be overseen by the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services because it requires the financial expertise that lies in our department.

This study could not have been done earlier in the planning for the fixed-guideway system because the City Council had not yet selected the minimum operable segment for the project.

The proposed analysis is a logical next step toward building a mass-transit system for O'ahu without wasting taxpayer money.

KUKUI GARDENS

WHY HAS DELEGATION BEEN SILENT ON SALE?

On March 3, you reported that Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson refused to approve the sale of Starrett City, a privately owned but federally funded housing project in Brooklyn, New York. The representative from that congressional district, as well as both U.S. senators from New York, had been vigorous in defense of the project and in seeking to block the sale.

As reported on March 25, Hawai'i's congressional delegation has been the target of a expensive PR and lobbying campaign organized by McNeil-Wilson Communications to support the sale of Kukui Gardens. What was not reported is that this same firm advised the re-election campaigns of Sen. Daniel Akaka (2006), Sen. Daniel Inouye (2004), and Rep. Neil Abercrombie (2004, 2006). The firm even claims on its Web site to advise Abercrombie's official congressional office.

The parallel between Starrett City and Kukui Gardens cannot be avoided. It is an obvious and nagging question why those members of Congress who represent Brooklyn cared enough to save affordable housing while Hawai'i's congressional delegation has been silent and invisible.

RELIGIOUS LEADERS MUST SPEAK OUT

Rick Daysog's comprehensive article on the Clarence Ching Foundation (Page One, March 25) is sadly similar to another "broken trust" that dominated the news not so long ago.

The convergence of money, political influence and land is an old story. What makes this so appalling is the role of the three Catholic institutions (St. Louis, Chaminade, St. Francis Healthcare) in this mockery of faith.

Roman Catholic Bishop Larry Silva has spoken eloquently about the moral obligations of these institutions, and apparently is being ignored. It is time for him and other religious leaders to speak out until they are heard and heeded. It is not too late for a just result.

WWJD? Not what the leaders of Kukui Gardens and the Clarence Ching Trust are doing!