BETTER TO GIVE

THIS CHRISTMAS, THINK OF THE LESS FORTUNATE

It's that time of the year again. Holidays are coming up, and families scramble to get the best meals cooked and the best gifts. While we are thinking about the "best things," there are less fortunate people who cannot even have a decent meal or have money to buy gifts.

People without a family or even a shelter need our support and generosity, especially during this time of the year. The hungry should enjoy a delicious hot meal. The homeless should have someone to spend the holidays with under a roof. Children should have Christmas trees with presents waiting for them.

The saying "It's better to give than to receive" brings a whole lot of meaning to Christmas. Buy new toys for Toys for Tots, donate money to the Red Cross, volunteer for Big Brothers & Big Sisters or even spare some extra change to drop into boxes.

These are different ways we all can help. Everyone deserves joyous and memorable holidays.

AIWOHI CASE

LACI PETERSON'S FETUS WAS FOUND TO BE PERSON

My disgust at the Hawai'i Supreme Court ruling that a fetus within two days of birth is not a person is tempered only by compassion for Tayshea Aiwohi, who must live with what she did for the rest of her life.

If you ask her and if she was truthful, I would be willing to bet that for all intents and purposes, she believed that fetus was a person.

What is the difference between this case and the Laci and baby Peterson case? A man was convicted of second-degree murder of a six-month-old fetus in California. The jury in that case even explicitly said that the fetus was a person.

If the Honolulu prosecutor's office can appeal this case to the U.S. Supreme Court, I certainly hope it does. At least there will be some hope of rational thinking there.

Education before they get into drugs is the key. People make a conscious choice to take drugs. Once that choice is made, they are responsible for the consequences of their actions. Obviously in the state of Hawai'i, criminal and unlawful activity is mitigated by a lack of morals and a sense of right and wrong.

My prayers for the Supreme Court members who must live with their decision, for our prosecutor, who has done his very best to protect the rights of the most helpless of victims, and most importantly for the multitude of lives this decision will impact in a most negative and dark way.

WAIMEA VALLEY

OUR NATURAL PLACES MUST BE PROTECTED

There are no words to describe how unbelievably irritated, appalled and shocked I am that the City Council would actually consider allowing homes and an eco-tourism establishment in Waimea Valley.

Hasn't enough damage been done with the H-3, haven't enough burial sites been desecrated for homes, Wal-Mart or just sand for our homes? When are people going to realize that there is no monetary value for our natural places? When are our children's futures going to take top priority?

We have to protect and care for our natural places so our children learn that money once wasn't the main goal. Caring for the land was once how people lived.

Oprah Winfrey gets it that some places just should never be built on with homes or anything else. Why can't our own government?

OUTRAGEOUS

WIDESPREAD POTHOLES SHOW CITY INEFFICIENCY

Here you have the perfect reason government efficiency is so inferior to private enterprise: The city transportation people failed miserably to maintain the roads.

In private industry, the whole department would be immediately reorganized and many heads in management would roll. But there are no consequences or accountability for city staff: Practically the same incompetent crews that allowed it to happen without crying out loud are still in charge — except for former mayor Jeremy Harris.

Now they dare to announce that it may take decades to fix the roads and they need $500,000 to inventory roads. And then study the study. Decades? Are they out of their minds? That is so outrageous that it takes one's breath away.

PROFITS

BOTTLE LAW SHOULD HAVE CLOSER AUDIT

"Program at risk of fraud ... " Nov. 29 is a good review of the first state audit done on the bottle tax. Unfortunately, the audit doesn't address one of the most critical points: How much money are the recyclers making from the program?

Before the bottle tax was enacted, the recyclers paid 23 cents for each pound of aluminum cans and a smaller amount for each pound of scrap aluminum. Since the tax was placed into effect, recyclers no longer accept scrap aluminum, receive a penny a can and keep all the profits (at about 38 cents per pound) for the weight value of the aluminum.

With millions of pounds, and therefore tens of millions of dollars, at stake, it's no wonder the recyclers lobbied so hard and gave each politician in favor of the program large campaign contributions.

How is it that several recyclers on the Big Island not only pay the 5-cent refund but also pay the going rate for the weight of the cans?

The state auditor needs to go back and do an addendum to her report and inform the public as to the huge windfall profits being made by the recyclers and their connections to politicians who, in spite of demands from the people, keep a failing program in place.

SEMANTICS

DEAD PREGNANT WOMAN CANNOT BE 'KEPT ALIVE'

A front-page headline in the Dec. 1 Advertiser contributes to public confusion about the nature of death: "Woman kept alive to save baby: Beating leaves her brain-dead while 7 months pregnant." In his generally informative article, Kevin Dayton compounds the muddle, writing that, though "declared brain-dead on Sunday," she is in "extremely critical condition" and on "life support."

My complaint is not about what is being done to the body of this unfortunate woman but, rather, with the way we are talking about it. Here is a better way of describing these fairly common situations:

When a patient satisfies the neurological criteria for death, he or she is dead. Once death is pronounced, that which used to be a person has become a corpse. It is then deeply misleading to describe the former patient's condition as "extremely critical" and the medical interventions as "life support." It is better to say that, although the patient has died, a part of what used to be the patient's body is being mechanically supported until organs can be harvested or, as in this case, a fetus' life can be secured.

Notwithstanding the many miracles of modern medicine, the dead cannot be "kept alive."

COURT RULING

HAWAI'I CARES MORE FOR ANIMALS THAN KEIKI

So let me get this straight. A "person" is only a "person" if he or she is born and alive, says the Hawai'i Supreme Court.

OK, then I guess there would be nothing wrong with going out and stomping on some sea turtle eggs or nene goose eggs, right? I mean, it's not as if I'm killing actual "turtles" or "geese" since they haven't actually been born yet.

Of course, if I were to do that, I would be arrested and charged with cruelty to animals. Even though they technically aren't animals since they are still in the eggs. But that's Hawai'i for you. There is more concern for the animals here than there is for our children.

A person can go to jail for having too many pets or for leaving a dog in a parked car to die. But if a parent leaves an infant in a car or takes drugs and kills her baby, well that's just fine by Hawai'i's standards.

It looks as if the next endangered species in Hawai'i will be the keiki!

WAIKIKI

IS ACLU HYPOCRITICAL?

I visit Waikiki quite often, so if the ACLU will protect the so-called street performers, will it also protect the streetwalkers and drug dealers who are also very annoying?