Mahalo, David Matsuura
I was so sad to read in the paper that our good friend, David Matsuura, passed away at such a young age.
David was not only a special friend, but as a state senator he helped people save their pre-arranged funeral plans and cemetery plots when applying for Medicaid help and applying for extended care home facilities.
Many elderly people were canceling their funeral plans and getting rid of their cemetery plots to qualify for Medicaid because it was considered as assets in Medicaid calculations.
I met with David to see how he could help us. He did his research and found that I needed to explain this problem with the director of state Health Department, and he arranged a meeting for me. After meeting with director and staff, they concluded that having a funeral plan and cemetery plot actually saves the state money, as they do not have to pay for an indigent funeral and burial plot. So after a hearing, they changed the rule and allowed a funeral plan and a cemetery plot as exempt from Medicaid asset calculation.
David also carried on his father’s, Sen. Dick Matsuura, “green revolution” here in Hawaii by being the champion of preserving the forest and wetlands for future generations. He was a true environmentalist on a mission to save the Earth.
David followed the Matsuura family legacy of putting people and humanity first. A great family man, a man of faith, and just a “great guy” with a wonderful smile.
Jimmy Arakaki
Hilo
Idiots and miscreants
This is a response to “Playing the fool” (Tribune-Herald, Your Views, April 22).
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry!
The biologist in me wants to see how many of the idiot protesters and residents of these miscreant Republicans states (not including Ohio, of course) end up sick or dead of COVID-19.
There was an awful letter to the editor in the Tribune-Herald. He basically advocated “survival of the fittest.”
I know that “nature will find a way,” but I believe we should try to protect our species. We have more than a physical fitness standard for evolutionary survival. Humans have brains, and physical limitations are not the most important driver of our evolution. Case in point: the cosmologist Dr. Steven Hawkins.
Also, some of the greatest minds in history did their most productive work in their old age. And other of our greatest minds died of avoidable diseases, e.g. Isaac Newton. He died of heavy metal poisoning such as the industrial pollution that we subject ourselves to every day in this industrial age.
Mercifully, Mother Nature has given us a brief respite from pollution because we have agreed to socially isolate.
Lester Klungness
Mountain View