Letters for Wednesday, January 17, 2007

• Health care, or sickness care?

• Hidden agenda

• Bike path questions need answers

• Abating noise,

good county chore

• More experience, please

Health care, or sickness care?

Thanks to William Rusher’s editorial (“The other side of health care,” Media Voices, Jan. 16) bringing to light some of the health care issues challenging our country. But let’s get it straight. Most of the time when we use the term “health care,” we are not really talking about staying healthy. We are talking about the cost of being sick.

Discriminating against people who are destroying their bodies by ingesting or inhaling toxic substances is downright mean. Instead of punishing those who succumb to the Standard American Diet mindset, why not reward those who take good care of their bodies?

Instead of subsidizing industries that produce unhealthy results for our citizens and environment, why aren’t we directing our tax money to subsidize farmers who grow and sell vine-ripened produce locally? And then give discounts to people who buy these nutritional foods. Even our government knows that those who eat six to nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day will be substantially healthier in body and mind.

What about directing our tax money to provide healthy snacks for our school children, thus starting them at an early age on the road to health rather than to the almost epidemic proportions of diabetes and other toxic-food related illnesses? Or to dietary supplementation which has been shown to maximize health and minimize disease? What greater asset does a country have than its citizenry?

This is where our health care debate needs to be going: How can we change the paradigm in our country so that we honor our magnificently-designed body by giving it the fuel it needs to run its full course smoothly? Many of us, including our government, give more thought to what we put into our cars than what we put into our bodies.

It’s time for a true health care revolution.

Kapa‘a

Hidden agenda

This is in regard to the Koke‘e Master Plan in which plans are to put a toll station up at Koke‘e in order to generate income for the state parks and recreation. Now, in this plan they say that local residents will not be charged a fee in order to go up to Koke‘e at this time, but is it said — or has it been brought up — that they can charge Hawai‘i residents at a later time? What I’m trying to get at is unless it’s in the newspaper that local people will not be charged now or ever, I feel there is a hidden agenda just to get support for this bright idea and, once implemented, Hawai‘i residents will need to purchase some kind of tag or sticker in order to proceed through this toll station.

I just don’t see the DLNR heads stopping at just charging the visitors and not making money on all the others who continuously travel to Koke‘e.

Dover, Del.

Bike path questions need answers

Use some common sense. $50 million for a 2.5 mile bike path, sometimes called a pedestrian/horse path?

Isn’t it illegal to have animals on county property, such as dogs and horses on beaches? Where’s the environmental study and why is it being built illegally with no permitting? Who will benefit from this $50 million project? Will it be the majority of our population when there are 71,000 registered “passenger cars” and only 437 registered bicycles (.0063 percent of “passenger cars”) on Kaua‘i, according to our motor vehicle department’s records?

Do we need another park/playground when the county cannot maintain our existing parks?

What are maintenance costs?

Are there more important, higher priorities?

Would parents of Kaua‘i rather live with a very expensive “playground” or with their children and grandchildren living on Kaua‘i in their own affordable homes? Wasn’t there a bike/pedestrian path in this same location before?

Why did it fall into disrepair and become overgrown with weeds and buried in sand and dirt? Why can’t one out of seven council members show “We the People” where the benefit lies in this project? What are the liabilities to the county when cyclists, pedestrians, horses and possibly an auto or motorcycle causes injuries or a death on this path? Will all bicycles and horses need to be registered (licensed) and insured to use this facility? With $50 million already spent on an unfinished 2.5 mile “path” on county and property given to the county, how much will it cost to complete the entire project, especially when any new land will have to be purchased? Can the federal agency funding this project demand their $50 million back if they decide the funds were not used in the manner in which they were intended for: relieving Kaua‘i’s traffic congestion? How will these funds be paid back if the money is recalled? Can, or will any councilmember please answer these questions?

Lawa‘i

Abating noise, good county chore

Kaua‘i County’s Kalepa Village rental apartments in Hanama‘ulu have a serious noise problem with motor bikes roaring up and down on the adjacent Leihu Road off Kuhio Highway. Posting of “Residential — Quiet Please” signs may help.

The bikers add to the noise of frequent low-flying tour helicopters and passenger jets taking off from nearby Lihu‘e Airport, to say nothing of the occasional military jet fighters screaming low over the field in a show of “power.”

Noise abatement seems a reasonable job for the county of Kaua‘i.

Lihu‘e

More experience, please

Now, with Barack Obama’s possible run for the presidency in the headlines, undoubtedly the first attacks upon him will be phrased in terms of his “lack of experience” — and justly so.

It will be difficult for him to defend that lack in the face of the outstandingly successful presidency of the past six years. We’ve been fortunate, indeed, to have a truly experienced president who was son of a president, governor of one of our most outstanding states, intimate with chief executives of hundreds of American corporations, surrounded by skilled statesman such as Cheney and Rumsfeld, and able to work knowledgeably and closely with the various intelligence agencies of our government.

No, Obama will simply not be able to benefit from the kind of experience our current president has had.

Kamuela, Big Island