Your Views for June 19

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Fine young man

Fine young man

I hear people talk about young people acting badly, but I recently came across a young person doing the right thing. I found it very encouraging and thought others might also.

My friend and I returned to her car to find a note on the windshield. It was written by a 9-year-old and said he was sorry to have banged her car with his door. He went on to say he would pay for the damage and left his uncle’s cell number.

The car door had an impressive dent with a deep scratch. My friend called the number on the note and left a message. The call was returned in a timely manner and arrangements made to take care of the damage.

I realize most 9-year-olds probably would not think to leave a note, but this young man obviously has adults in his life teaching him to do the right thing.

So, thanks to the adults for setting a good example, and thanks to this young man for willingly taking responsibility for his actions. You know who you are.

With that kind of integrity, we can only hope he will grow up to be president some day.

Julie Moore

Hilo

Response to Miller

Mr. Harold D. Miller’s letter (Your Views, June 12) is misleading and disingenuous. He implies that an accountable care organization (ACO) in Hilo is, more or less, a “done deal.” It leads our readers to believe we are on the verge of a landmark agreement. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Although the concept of an ACO is being bandied about in the medical community, its creation is not even on the drawing board. To the best of my knowledge, there are no real proposals on the table, and no specifics have been discussed.

I find it baffling he surmises that my nonparticipation in a fictitious ACO “could hurt my patients and the East Hawaii economy.” I was not aware that I, single-handedly, wielded so much power.

His catchy phrase, “Hilo is halfway to greatness,” sounds delusional. It is unfortunate Mr. Barry Taniguchi is being used as a pawn to promote his agenda.

He tries to allay my “fears” of an ACO. I am not afraid of an ACO. I simply think it is a waste of our time and limited resources.

Our community efforts and resources would be better spent supporting Hilo Medical Center. Our hatchery for producing primary-care physicians in the future, the Residency Program, was supposed to be self-supporting soon. Our political leaders failed to procure adequate interim financial support for this fledgling program, and HMC is reportedly going to pick up the tab to the tune of $2 million.

HMC already is sustaining losses of $2 million or more a year trying to provide primary and specialist care to East Hawaii. All this in the face of $7 million in cutbacks and layoffs HMC announced.

Let us get our priorities right!

Pradeepta Chowdhury

Hilo