MAHALO

911, HFD, PARAMEDICS THANKED FOR ASSISTANCE

My father-in-law stopped breathing at the dinner table.

I immediately administered the Heimlich maneuver and my wife called 911. This letter is to thank the 911 operator for staying on the line with us during this stressful time and helping to save my father-in-law with instructions on what to do.

The Honolulu Fire Department and city paramedics came. Thanks to the public employees of Honolulu, my father-in-law from Redding, Calif., will have another Thanksgiving day. Mahalo.

HIGH DEFINITION TV

KGMB, OCEANIC NEED TO THINK OF VIEWERS

It's about time KGMB9 television and Oceanic Time Warner dismount from their high horses and provide high-definition viewing for their customers

Viewers buy expensive HD-capable TVs, pay monthly subscriber fees and enjoy other major-network programming, only to be denied CBS for apparently financially greedy reasons.

Why don't their commercial advertisers command that these broadcasters provide comparable HD service? Why is there not a groundswell of dissatisfied subscribers demanding the best service available for the rates we pay?

The superior quality of HD tends to direct viewing to those channels. With choices, we find ourselves tuning to the more-enjoyable viewing channels and begin to disregard what is on KGMB9-CBS. Their good community relations may be suffering among us unhappy viewers. What say you, providers?

DEMOCRATIC MONOPOLY

EX-GOVERNORS SHOW THEIR NARROW HORIZONS

I have taken a deep breath and the passage of time has quelled my passion. On Sunday, Nov. 4, your paper featured three former Democratic dynasty governors, George Ariyoshi, John Waihee and Ben Cayetano, in a news article.

They said, "Republicans in the Legislature should be irrelevant given their numbers." How sad that their horizons are so small and their prejudice so grand.

In recent legislative elections, Republicans garnered approximately 40 percent of the entire vote, in addition to overwhelmingly electing Gov. Linda Lingle. Obviously, we lost many elections by narrow margins.

What the former governors should have understood a long time ago is that monopolies, including political monopolies, do not work in the best interest of anyone, except those exploiting the situation.

The Democrats' status-quo monopoly produced one of the nation's most-expensive-per-child and poorest performing education systems, an antiworking man economy, poor business climate and a regressive tax system. Republicans led by Gov. Lingle have made a difference.

It seems the former governors are blinded by political bias and extreme partisanship. Too bad.

CROSS COUNTRY

HONOLULU MARATHON THANKED FOR ITS HELP

It is wonderful that the Honolulu Marathon Association is sponsoring our cross-country champions in the Footlocker Western Regionals. I know it can be quite expensive for some of our prep athletes to do this, as I had to pay for our expenses out of pocket when my daughter, Anne Kawasaki, won in 2000.

Competing on a national level gives you a different perspective on where you stand and helps students evaluate their potential for running at the collegiate level.

It also gives college coaches a chance to see how you perform with other top athletes.

Way to go, Honolulu Marathon.

TEEN BOARD'S VIEWS

MASS TRANSIT WILL BENEFIT OUR CHILDREN

I was really heartened to see Advertiser's Teen Editorial Board members express their support for Honolulu's mass-transit system (Letters, Nov. 16).

Our generation is truly the one that will benefit from the system, and I hope that our government leaders will listen to our voices. The time to build it is now.

There are those individuals who are trying to defeat this project with their political wrangling, and they would do well to remember this traditional Native American proverb: "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors — we borrow it from our children."

RECYCLING

HAWAI'I NEEDS TO LOOK TO OTHER STATES' EFFORTS

Hawai'i needs to follow Oregon or other states that have redemption programs.

In Oregon, there are machines outside of large grocery stores that redeem containers. They take glass, plastic and aluminum cans and bottles purchased in the state. Smaller stores are required to redeem containers if they sell that beverage.

Hawai'i is lagging far behind other states in its recycling efforts. It is absolutely pitiful. Oregon, for example, has recycling containers for glass, paper products and metals at every home that get picked up by Waste Management Co.

What is the problem with Hawai'i's lawmakers that they have not have started some kind of recycling program until just recently?

I am sure all citizens of Hawai'i would like to know the answer to this, I know I do. It is downright disgraceful.

PEDESTRIANS

GOVERNMENT MUST DO MORE TO PUSH SAFETY

The tragic accident involving Gwen Isa, an AARP volunteer working to raise awareness on pedestrian safety, is a horrible and recurrent theme in our streets.

Hawai'i has been ranked one of the most dangerous states to be a pedestrian or bicyclist.

What can we do? Tell the governor and your representatives that the state must take action to comply with federal guidelines on pedestrian and bicycle safety immediately.

In addition, the governor must release funds to implement SB 1191. And tell the city to implement the publicly mandated Charter Amendment 8. The longer our government waits, the more of us will die.