Letters 8-22-2012

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GOP position

GOP position

Moral high ground?

I have to think that much of the argument about abortion and birth control is based on an amazing amount of ignorance.

Rep. Todd Akin believes rape victims have some special ability to prevent pregnancy.

Russ Limbaugh believes a woman must take a birth control pill every time she wants to have sex. Many men in government are amused by the whole issue or feel it is their moral duty to scold us for having sex at all.

With the unfortunate lack of responsibility for fatherhood in many parts of our culture, it is imperative that women have as many options as possible for their very survival.

Republican men have their work cut out for them if they think women will vote for them.

So far, their moral high ground is pretty darn low.

Louise Winn

Honaunau

Medical costs

Now and then

When I read in West Hawaii Today the sad story about the poor victims of the theater shooting and the many problems the wounded survivors face, I was taken aback by one of the victim’s high cost — to the tune of $83,000— for a prior appendectomy.

In 1960, I had an emergency appendectomy with a stay of four days at a hospital in Seattle. Mine was a more complicated surgery, as for many years my appendicitis had not been diagnosed as such, and my appendix was very scarred and had grown onto the sacrum.

My physician, house call included, charged me $250 and the hospital cost was $90, a total of $340, which brings the cost of an appendectomy today to 244 times more.

I thought this might be of interest to your readers.

Ursula R. Ekern, R. N.

Kailua-Kona

School buses

Not on schedule

I am writing hopefully to bring some attention to the sorry state of our school bus system.

The buses are always late, both with pickup at the bus stop and on Wednesdays, when everyone who has children in school knows that school lets out early.

School begins at 8:15 a.m.; the bus picks up the kids in Kona Palisades between 7:50 and 8 a.m. (at Kakahiaka Street), then it takes 15 to 20 minutes to get to Kealakehe High School.

My child tells me everyone who rides the bus arrives late for school every day.

When I called the school, they said they “have nothing to do with the bus system.”

Who rides the buses? Where are the students being dropped off and picked up?

This is just typical of the lazy Kona bureaucracy we have been dealing with since the 1970s.

Kalehua J. Perry

Kalaoa