O'AHU ASSET

WAIMEA VALLEY GARDEN BEAUTIFUL, PEACEFUL

As a volunteer worker at and frequent visitor to Waimea Valley, I object to Michael P. Rethman's letter (March 21) describing the valley as "seriously degraded," "an embarrassment" and "slum-like."

One must look beneath cosmetic problems to discover the beauty that has always been there and always will be. The world-class botanical garden displays native Hawaiian collections, breathtaking ginger, heliconia and hibiscus gardens, and hundreds of other rare and beautiful plants and trees from all over the world.

The understaffed gardening crew works hard to fight against invasive weeds, aided by a well-managed volunteer program.

Whenever visiting friends and relatives ask me where to go on O'ahu, I send them to Waimea Valley. No one has had anything other than the highest praise for this beautiful and peaceful place. Mr. Rethman and his wife should return for a closer look. April would be a great month to do it.

ENVIRONMENT

BAN ON PLASTIC BAGS: IT'S TIME TO JUST DO IT!

I read in the paper about a proposed ban on plastic bags.

The retail industry's justification for continued use of plastic bags was that they needed more time for people to get used to the idea and to educate customers about reusable bags.

This is just a way of postponing a switchover.

When restaurants and bars went non-smoking, a date was set and posted and the ban went into effect.

All the stores need to do is put up notices and when the date comes — that's it.

The public will adjust; there are plenty of stores now selling reusable bags.

If anyone wants one I have about 10 myself. Want one?

HYDROGEN FUND

THANKFUL FOR WORK OF INVESTIGATIVE PANEL

Many thanks to Sen. Donna Mercado Kim and her investigative committee for looking into the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism's award of the hydrogen fund contract.

I watched the televised hearings and I was very impressed. One thing that came across clearly was that DBEDT dropped the ball and didn't follow the proper procedure in awarding this very lucrative contract.

Too often, taxpayers are left in the dark about how these decisions are made, and are too willing to accept "that's the way it is" as an explanation for questionable actions.

In this case, however, the committee is making an effort to shed some light on DBEDT's decision.

I am grateful that someone is standing up for the public's interests. And I know that whatever good comes from the committee's investigation, it will be because Sen. Kim and her committee took their responsibility seriously.

TORT REFORM

MALPRACTICE SUITS HAVE GOTTEN OUT OF HAND

I approve of medical tort reform bills. While it may be legitimate to hold medical practitioners accountable in some measure for proven gross negligence (as determined by both their peers and gathered evidence), the malpractice liability suits have gotten way out of hand.

In Ka'u, where we live, it is hard to attract local physicians and RNs because their income is lower here and their liability insurance remains high.

The fault lies primarily with laws that do not restrict the unscrupulous demands of some lawyers and some patients that are unjustified and far out of proportion to real need.

This robs other patients of access to ever-scarcer medical resources.

What the law really should do is penalize both plaintiffs and their lawyers who flout reason and compassion in favor of pure greed.

AUTISM

U.S. MUST LOOK AT WAYS TO MAKE VACCINES SAFER

It's good that your paper is finally covering the Hannah Poling case, in which the government conceded that vaccines had "aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder which manifested with features of autistic spectrum disorder." That's spin for vaccines caused autism.

You write that this case is unique because of Hannah's mitochondrial disorder. In fact, it is not unique. While mitochondrial disorders have been estimated to occur in 0.2 percent of the population, one study estimated that nearly 16 percent of autistic subjects had a definite, probable or possible mitochondrial disorder.

At the Kennedy-Krieger clinic, 47 percent of autistic subjects had a marker for mitochondrial disorder. In the U.S., we could be talking about thousands of autistic children with mitochondrial disorder whose autistic symptoms could have been triggered by vaccination.

This does not mean that vaccines are bad, but it does mean that we should change our vaccine program.

We should take this opportunity to look at ways to make vaccines safer. Giving fewer vaccines on each visit could help. And why would anyone still want to inject mercury?

TRANSFORMATION

PARENTS ARE THE KEY LEADERS IN EDUCATION

The March 2 Voices of Educators column, "Needed: Leaders to transform education," reflected the concerns of the authors that the government education system needs major transformation.

But the key leader was never mentioned. The leader who knows the needs, wants, habits and potential of each child was not mentioned — not once in the entire article.

What better indicator of mistaken values and priorities than to prescribe correction without even mentioning the parent — the responsible/accountable one. The one who will suffer consequences for mistakes and rewards for correct choices for life.

This reminds me of the memorable national TV interview show in which then-Sen. Phil Gramm was faced with a devoted educator who spoke with conviction of his dedication to each child. Gramm asked: "Does that include my children?" After being told, "Yes, certainly," Gramm simply said, "What are their names?" That made the point crystal clear.

There is no hope for government education unless we change the focus from top-down to bottom-up. For society to flourish, the top (the authors and the government bureaucracy) is expendable, the bottom (parent) is essential.

The authors miss that mark. Should we send them back to school?

SCHOOLS

ROTARY HAS PROGRAM TO GET KIDS TO READ MORE

It was gratifying for members of the Rotary Club of Honolulu to see the March 16 article on Borders' decision to greatly increase the number of books shown face out on their shelves. Their research shows this increases book sales, and therefore reading.

Our Rotary project to install white vinyl rain gutters in classrooms is based on this logic. We install them free so books' attractive cover art is displayed. Teachers tell us children read more when books are face out.

One mother reports the children who visited always gravitated to the toys. She installed these bookshelves in her family room and the children now head straight for the books.

Our club wants to expand this program. Public elementary and private schools serving disadvantaged communities can contact our "Rain Gutter Bookshelves" chair, Honolulu attorney Greg Markham, through our office at 922-5526.

We sincerely appreciate generous support by Hardware Hawaii and assistance from Wai'anae Coast, Metropolitan Honolulu, and Pearl Ridge Rotary Clubs at schools in their communities.

TRANSIT

PHILEAS MAGNET-RAIL IS O'AHU'S BEST OPTION

The Phileas Magnet-Rail is the way to go. With the rapid population increase in the Leeward area, a mass-transit system is needed. There are too many people living in the Leeward area commuting into town. Having a mass-transit system that will transport people from one end of the island to the other will help alleviate the traffic conditions.

The Phileas Magnet-Rail best fits in Hawai'i as a mass transit system. Not only does it take less time to build the "virtual rail," but also it is much cheaper to build than the mass-transit that runs on steel rails. In addition, the magnet rail produces less noise pollution than the steel rail.

With the amount of people living in Hawai'i who commute every day, we need a mass transit system that is fast and affordable to use so we can all enjoy the extra time to sleep in a bit longer.

CITY SHOULD CONDUCT SOME NOISE TESTS FIRST

The city plans to spend billions for a "steel-wheel-on-steel-rail" mass-transit system. Engineers have calculated the theoretical noise levels for an O'ahu rail system and found them to be negligible.

However, to reassure the public, the city should arrange for realistic noise tests to ensure that the noise levels will be negligible. Such tests would consist of choosing a U.S. city that now operates a steel rail system like the system the city plans to build.

Next, record the actual steel rail noise levels in that city at distances of 50, 100, 200 and 300 feet from the rail line — during the early morning, morning rush, midday, afternoon rush and late-night hours.

After alerting the public of the dates and times noise tests will be made, play the recordings at typical places along the O'ahu rail line at the above distances and hours.