Hospital staff outstanding
On my 96th birthday I asked a good friend to take me to the ER at Kona Community Hospital. X-rays confirmed that I had pneumonia.
Everyone who cared for me, both in the ER and in room 101, were vigilant to my needs.
From the minute I was admitted, each person with whom I had contact — from the ones inserting the IV, nurses, aides and CNA, to those who took my temperature and recorded my progress — were kind and gentle.
We are very fortunate to have such dedicated and caring doctors and staff at the hospital. I’d like to express my appreciation to all of you.
Until a hospital is built in Kailua-Kona, it would be helpful if more funds could be found for the Kona Community Hospital.
“Anne” Pauline E. Johnson
Kailua-Kona
Don’t make it easy for the homeless
I can see nothing but problems building a homeless village by our civic center, high school, and small boat harbor. They will be hanging out using the restrooms and looking for cans and bottles — especially at the civic center and harbor — and will soon discover that some people will leave their cars and boats unlocked, giving them untold treasures.
Homeless people have been around for hundreds of years but it seems in recent years, it has gotten out of control. Thanks to the ACLU, who sued to keep the mentally ill from being committed unless they volunteered, we don’t seem to have vagrancy laws anymore. So now we have the mentally ill, drug addicts, and people just down on their luck out roaming our streets.
As Benjamin Franklin said: “I am for doing good to the poor, but … I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed … that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”
Paul Prosise
Kailua-Kona
Japanese letter showed no aloha, respect
On Feb. 8, 1885, 900 Japanese immigrants came to Hawaii to look for new financial opportunities and many performed backbreaking labor for little money. On Dec. 7, 1941, within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor, people of Japanese ancestry in Hawaii were rounded up and thrown into concentration camps around Hawaii by order of the U.S. government.
To say the Japanese are lazy, incompetent and dishonest is entirely false. Although you have a Ph.D, your story is extremely rude and racist, and you obviously don’t know your history.
I am Japanese, born and raised in Kona. My parents were born and raised here, too. They worked in the coffee lands that they owned. They were honest, hardworking people. I served in the Army and Air National Guard for 30 years. Me, my family and many others of Japanese decent have worked hard to get to where we are now.
You speak of “racial discrimination” and “visitors search in vain for aloha.” You are discriminating against a race and you definitely don’t show the spirit of aloha. If you don’t like how things are here, then I would suggest you move. This is Hawaii, where aloha is found and felt almost everywhere. If you don’t find it, it’s because people don’t want to show you aloha because of your disrespect.
Respect others, and in turn they’ll respect you.
Carl Y. Nozaki
Kailua-Kona