Chemical Use On Kauai

Organize! Be Restless! (March 7, 2018)

I just read Klayton Kubo’s post on CB. I will go much further than his urgent asking to know what is in the pesticide spraying.

I have a nephew whose infant daughter was deeply affected by such spraying on Kauai. If any of us as individuals were caught poisoning the air, water and soil deliberately in ways that produced demonstrable negative medical effects, we would be charged with felonies!

In my view it is long overdue that those who authorize such poisoning by chemical companies also ought to be arrested and charged with felonies. No escape by paying fines! Penitentiary imprisonment for 20 years would be my sentence if in charge.

Note to Klayton: Don’t bang your head against the wall — organize! Be relentless!

— Jon Olsen, Jefferson, Maine, longtime Oahu resident

Aid In Dying

Keep Medical Data (March 6, 2018)

Medical objections to Hawaii’s medical aid-in-dying bill require careful scrutiny.

It is useful to look at a report from the Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium, September 2016. Dr. Charles Blanke, a respected oncologist and researcher at Oregon Health Sciences University, reports that there was no abuse of those who chose to use what in Oregon is called “death with dignity,” which the Hawaii bill is based on.

Using statistical analysis to look at the Oregon Health Authority’s meticulously kept data on the “death with dignity” law, Blanke reported that, “In Oregon, multiple rules have to be followed, and no evidence has emerged that the strict criteria are not being adhered to.”

Nurses, social workers, doctors and caregivers have their ethics and commitments to their practice which should not be doubted. However, they are personal in nature, and as such, they should not become the basis for law or Public Policy. As citizens, we should insist on evidence based data to develop laws and public policy.

We should note that the American Public Health Association supports access to medical aid-in-dying, and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative care has changed their position from opposition to neutrality.

— Malachy Grange, Honolulu

Guns In Schools

Remembering Hee’s Time At OHA (March 6, 2018)

The issues of “guns” and “violence” in our schools and in society in general, have been kicked down the road for many decades.

If Clayton Hee wants to make this an issue that sets him apart, he also needs to wear the label of the poor management and possible fraud at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. As former chair he bears much of the blame brought to the public’s attention by OHA Trustee Kelii Akina. That’s why Akina has called for a forensic audit.

— Michael Doolittle, Hakalau

Reasonable Gun Regulation

Drop The Illusion (March 6, 2018)

Re: The March 6 Community Voices on gun regulation. Very reasonable, etc., but even “semi-automatic” weapons are not designed or used for “hunting, self-defense, or legal gun sports” — they are assault weapons designed for war!

It’s time to drop this illusion, tell the truth and look at the record of use — and join the intelligent drive to ban them, as well as the automatics.

Also, I wish you or someone would publish the truth about the revered Second Amendment and how it was ratified to preserve slavery.

— Tom Tizard, Kailua

Letters? We Get Letters

No More Backbiting (March 5, 2018)

I stopped commenting on Civil Beat stories since your change from Comments to a separate Letters section.

I wanted people reading a particular story to see my comment on that story.

I don’t expect them to read through a long list of Letters on various topics to get to my comment on my topic of interest.

But I also realize the old system, which allowed fake names and backbiting between commenters, wasn’t working.

— Bob Jones, Honolulu