High-needs keiki need your kokua
Regarding the state Department of Education’s concerns about the gap between high-need students and their peers (“Officials consider seeking $50M to further aid high-needs students,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 7), as a volunteer who helps mainly Micronesian children with their homework in the afternoons, I see an unmet need for early intervention.
Any activity, in or out of school that will provide someone to just talk in English to these children regularly — about anything (games, friends, or whatever) — helps them learn language and social skills.
These students also fall below their peers during summer vacation. Often their time is spent “hanging out” or playing video games, while their peers are engaged in special activities that offer language growth and comprehension.
Working with these children has enriched my life immeasurably, and will do the same for other kupuna who can spare the time.
Bobbie Slater
Pacific Heights
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Duterte’s ends justify his actions
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s no-nonsense brand of eradicating drug related crimes has drawn strong protests from the international human right advocates and the United Nations, who contend police activities there violate human rights (“In the Philippines’ war on drugs, killings escalate,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 23).
Duterte was elected on the strength of his campaign promises to cure the country’s social and economic ailments and vowed to free the nation from the grip of corrupt public officials and drug criminals so that it can move forward.
Critics have denounced the methods being used by Duterte in fulfilling his campaign promises as immoral and antithetical to democratic principles.
But reports indicate that most Filipinos believe that Duterte’s actions are necessary to shield the future of young Filipinos from the destructive effects of illegal drugs.
Duterte’s actions may be disturbing to some, but ending the culture of drug violence and corruption justifies such actions.
Filipinos should determine their country’s future without foreign intervention.
Rod B. Catiggay
Mililani
Ho‘opili project goes against food goal
I can’t help but marvel at the irony of our governor “postponing” his campaign promise of “doubling local food production in Hawaii by 2020” pushed back 10 years till 2030 “Ige postpones local food goal,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 11).
It was only late last week that the governor’s smiling face was on the front page, dressed in his best new aloha shirt, breaking ground for the D.R. Horton- Schuler Division’s Ho‘opili development that will take some 1,500 acres of prime agricultural land out of that use for development of some 11,000 homes.
Clearly agricultural sustainability is not a priority.
The chutzpah of this guy is remarkable.
Gordon Fowler
Aiea
Carbon tax could slow climate change
Honeycreepers disappearing because of climate change has made national news.
How many more articles about the effects of climate change will we have to see before we start taking serious action to stop it?
According to Oxford University’s trillionthtonne.org, we have to take immediate action. With such little time, we need to do more than simply change our light bulbs.
According to Elon Musk, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and dozens of our world’s greatest thinkers, the fastest and most painless path toward stopping climate change is to put a price on carbon dioxide.
A revenue-neutral carbon tax would create rapid demand for renewable energy as burning fossil fuels would become more expensive for companies and individuals alike.
At the same time the revenue would be returned to households to cover costs during the transition. It worked for Vancouver, and it can work for Hawaii.
Jeffrey Kim
McCully
Hope Solo is poor sports role model
The USA women’s soccer team traveled to Hawaii to play a game, but canceled when Hope Solo sent out pictures of the turf at Aloha Stadium.
Imagine the faces of all the keiki when the game was canceled.
Couldn’t the team have done some formal clinics or autograph sessions for the keiki?
In the Olympics, the women’s soccer team lost to Sweden and Hope called the Swedish team a “bunch of cowards.”
Sweden played for the gold medal; got the silver.
Hope should get a gold medal for poor sportsmanship.
Hope got suspended, then fired from the USA team.
In Hawaii, we say “Life’s a bachi.” Be arrogant, treat people badly and fate has a way of flipping your life upside down.
Allan Asato
Pearl City
More would vote if politicians listened
Nobody listens to the reason voter turnout was low.
It is because all the candidates want to raise our taxes and build the rail system.
The cost of living is already high and all the people running for office don’t care.
Adriano Eliazar
Kalihi-Palama
Lee Cataluna often our local truth teller
Lee Cataluna is a treasure.
Please keep her column coming to us. She is often our local truth teller — sometimes it is done with humor and sometimes with just hard and powerful insights into our island life.
Whatever she is saying is a much-needed message, and her love for Hawaii and our people shines through. Thank you for carrying her message.
Mary Ann Marciel
Kailua
45 responses to “High-needs keiki need your kokua”
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So now Clinton wants everyone to believe she’s had pneumonia. You don’t go limp, get pulled into a van, feet dragging behind, because you have pneumonia. This woman has some serious problems. She should be taking care of her own health before ruining that of our nation. It’s like watching a Greek tragedy play-out right before our eyes. As Obama, she lies continually. So much, that believing anything she says has become impossible for most Americans, yet she continues.
Oh – Not defending Clinton , but have you ever had pneumonia? I have 3 times unfortunately. You can violently shake and feel like one is at their end, people can die from it. The weekness is horrid. I do not know if she had/has it. Just saying.
Just got over it last week. Zithromax works wonders. Never had any issues with consciousness, at all.
I agree. One day of rest and you feel much better. But the antibiotic is important.
Now that we get pneumonia relief from the Vaccine, We are much safer but there are other bacterial strains that can still attack us kupuna.
Well, according to a CNN interview with clinton, she has some history of just keeling over.
“Cooper asked about Bill Clinton’s remark in an interview with Charlie Rose that she has occasionally become dehydrated and gone through episodes like Sunday’s, and how many times that has happened before.
“I think really only twice that I can recall,” Clinton said.”
“…. that I can recall,”???? So, memory problem as well.
If Mrs. Clinton will not listen to the “life and death” advice from her own doctor… can you imagine her taking any advice from military advisers… who she doesn’t like in the first place???
You can be sure the campaign didn’t seek hospital help nearby, as they wouldn’t have been able to control the flow of information from doctors they don’t control. Clinton’s health is serious business. The woman has severe problems, and the nation is entitled to know. While it will infuriate Kool-Aid drinkers on the far left, the nation isn’t entitled to see, or know about Trumps’ taxes. That’s just a fact, and is not disputable. There is no law, or directive that candidates must display their returns. Of course Clintons’ campaign will continue to beat the drum, as it’s all they’ve got.
So nice to hear from all of the MDs providing a Dx without physically seeing the patient.
There is more than ample evidence, both video, and from the mouths of the Clinton surrogates, that the woman has serious health issues. To deny it is ridiculous at this point.
I agree with Jeffery Kim. A tax on Carbon is needed to compel us to reduce climate pollution.
Got to be two democrats since all they know is taxes and more taxes.
lol, so much better to be a republican and just use a credit card. Right little earl? Lets just rack up another trillion in deficit spending. We can find some sucker to lend us money. Who needs to pay taxes when we can always borrow.
So you think we are not taxed enough already?
If so, feel free to pay my taxes.
On the other hand the more tax we pay, the more we feed the insatiable maw of GGW – – Gummint Gone Wild – – with no end in sight.
no thos, we pay enough taxes. Sadly though our taxes are misspent by feeding out of control prison and military industrial complexes. You are right, these are “Gummint Gone Wild – – with no end in sight.”
News Flash!!! 10,000 years ago when homo sapiens began populating the world, Earth was coming out of an ice age and has been doing so since. In order to accommodate this, the temperatures of the planet have been rising. As the temperatures have risen, homo sapiens have multiplied in population. Then, in the 1970’s, the Earth began to cool again and the progressives believed this was do to carbon pollution but then the cooling stopped. Then in the 1990’s the Earth started to warm again and again, the progressives believed this was do to carbon pollution and tried to implement a number of government controls to stop this. Soon after, it was discovered in emails that the data for global warming was being manipulated by the so called climate scientists to further push their agenda and they were discredited. Since then, countries that once imposed climate carbon taxes have since rescinded them but there still exists a group trying to push it. The only constant about the climate is change and no tax or law will prevent it.
Uh, time to read or re-read your Paleo-history. Not even close. Pay specific attention to the Pleistocene glacial and inter-glacial periods. (I won’t even mention the Anti-penultimate Pleistocene period. 🙂 ) About 10,000 years BP, agriculture was becoming well established and most of our familiar animals had been domesticated. It’s around that time that fairly complicated settlements in places like Anatolia begin to appear. If you’re looking for the time that humans began to leave Africa, start thinking about 180,000 – 200,000 BP. Oh yeah, don’t forget the “mini ice-age” in Europe in the late Middle Ages.
A carbon Tax can also damage our economy.
We need to weigh the damage to our economy and the benefits we get for the small amounts of carbon we produce compared to the mainland.
Wow. A ray of rightness.?!!! The billionaires and well paid economists will do just fine in a carbon tax environment. The little guy, the middle class, will be crushed by the economic turbulence such a tax would generate.
Meanwhile, global warming has paused for the last 20 years and none of the priests of the Church of Global Warming can explain why.
No pausing. Much of the arctic ice has disappeared. Polar bears who live on that ice are dying out
Yes, Let’s get Hawaii to add a “Carbon Tax” to it’s already long list of Anti-Business rules and regulations.
Wiliki: Take your comment and substitute “Rail” for “Carbon Tax” and you will finally get what we have been saying for years.
Nope. What you’ve been saying for years is to kill rail.
Without rail our children and grandchildren have no future.
wiliki says:A carbon Tax can also damage our economy.
Worse than that a carbon tax is INTENDED to damage our economy.
Free preschool for needy kids.
yes…The DOE is slowly developing such a system. It should have been done 30 years ago but better late than never.
Complete waste of time as proven by repeated studies of the Head Start program—benefits gone by grade 3. But hey, progressives pretending to accomplish something is a core political value.
Yes so much better to keep kids ignorant. lol Make perfect Trump supporters.
Ignorance of voters explains a lot about the state of affairs on Oahu and in this state.
For over 50 years it’s the democrats who have kept the voters ignorant so they will continue voting democrat. When LBJ signed the famous Great Society civil rights legislations he said: “This will keep those N _ _ _ _ _ _ voting Democrat for the next 100 years”! And we have been voting democrat for over 50 years and we are are still lied to and are worse off economically than we were 50 years ago. Keep them ignorant and keep giving them FREE stuff and they will keep re-election the same self serving politicians time after time. You don’t even have to leave Hawaii to see it.
stanisious, there are reasons why Hawaii has been democratic these past 50 years. Perhaps the number one reason is that republicans have abandoned republican values. Today they are little more than witch doctors who follow the new republican motto: Deficits Don’t matter.
O’bama is the worst president in US history.
Boots errs.
The longer a child stays trapped in the DOE maw, the worse the academic achievement.
That’s what a lot of teacher’s think. They seem to have no respect for early education teachers.
They’re wrong and they don’t know that they’re wrong.
(Actually, HIDOE has had free pre-K for specially “needy” kids for years.)
That’s what I’ve been telling wee lee kee for some time now.
Wikiwiki is not being upfront about all those preschoolers that are hanging around the old guy.
pre-K is not the same. I think kids are put in pre-K because they’re not emotionally mature enough for the other kids in kindergarten.
pre-K is not a substitute for pre-school. It’s remedial kindergarten. Teachers should not equate the two.
The more one repeats something ad nauseam, the LESS others will empathize or give credence.
Like the boy that cried wolf.
Nope. Something that needs to be said.
There is no such thing as “free pre-school”. That only exists in the minds of the Kool-Aid crowd.
IRT Adriano Eliazar,
You’re right. People don’t turn out to vote because it’s becoming an exercise in futility. The elected officials are supposed to “represent” their constituents but they don’t.
Instead they represent themselves and the brainwashed union drones keep getting the same inept politicians elected.
The high cost of living frustrates Eliazar.
He doesn’t think that politicians care enough about the problem to solve it.
I disagree. Just caring alone is not enough. We need good leadership to work together towards worthy goals.
Mayor Caldwell is just such a leader. He has reached across the party line do endorse Council Person Kimberly Pine, a Republican, in her election this year.
He cares.
According to Elon Musk and his league of “Worlds Greatest Thinkers”.That taxing via Carbon Tax is the “Fastest, Painless way to achieve Climate Change.. Let’s see. This guy first is a Millionaire,who’s millions he made thru Government Subsidies. A guy who has No Worries when one of his Rockets expoldes ie: SpaceX
This guy who owns Tesla and SpaceX and PayPal? And yet receives MILLIONS in US subsidies? That guy? Talk about Gaming the system!lol
Don’t get me wrong,I’m all for Solar (Not Wind),but Solar. The thing to remember is that without the SUN you can’t store Solar (Unless you have Choke Batteries and how long is that going to last?) and without the Wind you cannot store Wind!
With Gas and Oil we can! Not to mention that about 52 % of Products made, like, cloths ,shoes ,Computers , Smart Phones , Trucks,Cars,Tires,Perfumes, Medical products and supplies….I can go on and ON! All are made from OIL!
We should not forget,we need Fossil fuels to get us to the “Promised Land Of Clean Energy” ! We’re almost there,but we’re not there yet! For now we need oil! Cheap Oil!
Also has he and his world thinker ever consider the cost to small Companies who are already struggling?d’oh! and to think, this is the Best way to achieve halting Climate Change? by Taxing us ?Tax and Tax some more ! Keep doing this,Taxing to our small Companies and we could end up seeing “Leagues” of Solyndras!
Lastly, Mr. Kim in regards to The Hawaiian Honey Creepers. The main cause of their demise is this…. Man! Deforestation and predatory feral animals,like Cats!