• Health care reform will make it worse • Discrimination is discrimination • Eliminate bunker downhill lies • We need ‘Miracle Grow’ for body parts Health care reform will make it worse Thank you, Garden Island, for the great article
• Health care reform will make it worse • Discrimination is discrimination • Eliminate bunker downhill lies • We need ‘Miracle Grow’ for body parts
Health care reform will make it worse
Thank you, Garden Island, for the great article on Tuesday, “Overtreatment: More Medical Care Isn’t Always Better.” I hope articles like this will help make medical consumers become more educated. I was a practicing family physician at Kaiser Permanente, both in California and Hawai‘i for 35 years. I was also a professor of family medicine. I spent most of my career urging people to stay away from doctors and, instead, change their lifestyle. The recent health care reform bill that just passed will only make things worse. It was nothing more than a massive gift to the medical industry and did nothing to correct what is wrong with U.S. medicine. American medicine, with one of the worst records in the Western World, is dominated by drug companies and technology companies. There are no incentives for doctors to be cost-effective, quite the opposite. Insurance and Medicare will pay for almost anything they ask for. The problem is that all this technology and all these drugs are dangerous, and in many, if not most cases, ineffective. One of the largest causes of death in the U.S. are medical errors, over a hundred thousand deaths per year. Cut your calories, stop cigarettes, decrease or eliminate animal products, exercise in the sunshine every day and manage your stress. If you think you need a doctor, whatever he or she recommends, google it before you agree to anything. If someone recommends surgery, get at least one second opinion. Mahalo to the Garden Island and the Associated Press for educating us!
Gordon LaBedz, MD, Kekaha
Discrimination is discrimination
Civil unions are only about civil rights. As a child born in the late ‘60s, I grew up learning that to treat someone differently because they had a different skin color was wrong. I grew up learning that not hiring an individual because they were a woman was wrong. I grew up learning that firing someone because they were too old was wrong.
So I ask you, why is it acceptable to deny someone rights because they are gay? Oh that’s right, we deny them their rights because some religious beliefs tell us being gay is wrong so it is acceptable to deny gays the same rights as everyone else.
If I had the same rights as heterosexual people, I wouldn’t have to wait outside in the waiting room while the person that I love is inside the emergency room getting treatment by doctors. If I had the same rights as heterosexual people I would be allowed to make decisions for the person I love instead of waiting for a blood relative to fly here from the Mainland. If I had the same rights as heterosexual people I would be allowed to automatically inherit what should legally be mine. If I had the same rights as heterosexual people I could do many things that I am not allowed to do because I am “different.”
What makes me so different that I do not deserve the same rights as those people with color, feminine gender, or age? Oh that’s right, because religious beliefs are more important than my civil rights.
Discrimination is discrimination no matter how you disguise or justify it.
Gays and lesbians are not the boogie man. We will not go away simply because you do not believe in us.
Erik Taylor, Kapa‘a
Eliminate bunker downhill lies
In response to Mr. Hulsman’s reply (6/3/10, “Take a lesson for tough sand traps”) to my opinions of Wailua G.C., I will say this. He is really fortunate to be able to play there and avoid the downhill lies that are present in some of the bunkers. I may not play as often as he does but I do feel obligated to make note of the condition of the municipal golf course that MY father designed and built in 1960-61 or thereabouts. As a summer hire, we always worked on cutting down the ‘back’ edge of sand traps and pushing the sand back into the middle of the traps to fill in the low spots/level out the traps. It seems today’s golfers only know how to pull the sand when smoothing their footprints causing the higher ‘back edge’ in bunkers. Learn to smooth the sand with a back-n-forth stroke…unless, you’re a perfect golfer like Mr. Hulsman who avoids all bunkers or does something else. Let’s prevent downhill lies in bunkers. Let’s prevent downhill lies in bunkers.
Samuel Shirai, Lihu‘e
We need ‘Miracle Grow’ for body parts
Gardening is becoming a passion of mine.
I am experimenting with different fertilizers, manure and mulches. Today I bought a liquid concentrate of Miracle Grow. Only 1/3 cap per two gallons of water and it’s supposed to be make everything grow big and healthy.
I had a thought, if only there was a Miracle Grow for body parts. A product to make your body parts healthy and grow big.
Whoever can market a human version of Miracle Grow will win the Pulitzer of all Pulitzers…
No more plastic surgeries or locker-room embarrassments. Just imagine drinking a cup of Miracle Grow or pouring it on the body part you want enhanced.
When I was a kid they said to rub ‘Crisco’ on the body parts you wanted enhanced, I actually tried it and my body part shrunk. I asked my doctor why? He said of course that would happen, Crisco is shortening.
Like I said I am experimenting in formulas for my newfound hobby and passion. Guess I drifted off a little.
James “Kimo” Rosen, Kapa‘a
