• Keep our land clean • Bike path Keep our land clean Saturday, June 5 I headed out from the Wailua house-lots on my usual Saturday morning mountain-bike ride, riding through the Coconut Plantation, Waipouli flats, and along the old
• Keep our land clean
• Bike path
Keep our land clean
Saturday, June 5 I headed out from the Wailua house-lots on my usual Saturday morning mountain-bike ride, riding through the Coconut Plantation, Waipouli flats, and along the old haul cane road to Crack 14. It was a perfect morning, the sun was rising over the ocean, fishermen and walkers were out.
“A lucky we live Hawai‘i”, kind of day. At Crack 14 I decided to head mauka and ride some of the familiar trails between Kuhio Highway and old Kealia Road. When I arrived at the highway, my heart sank in my chest. There was a line of fence posts along the mauka side of Kuhio Highway heading towards Anahola. We were being fenced out of yet another part of our beautiful island. I was in shock. Why? I asked myself! Who was doing this? Whose fault is it that this is happening? The answer came to me. We the kanaka are at fault. Who trashed this beautiful ‘aina by dumping our garbage, old vehicles, beer cans and bottles and dirty diapers on it? Tourists did not do it! It was we, the kanaka of Kaua‘i. What choice do we give a property owner when we do this to the ‘aina? If we get injured on their property we sue them and juries made of us award ridiculous sums of money to us for our stupidity. We expect them to clean up the garbage we have left on the ‘aina. What can we do about it? We can pass laws that protect the state and private property owners from such stupid lawsuits. We can educate each other on how to respect the ‘aina. Use it but do not abuse it. º
George “Keoki”
Gosselin Kapa‘a
Bike path
A few weeks ago I was sitting on the lovely rocks at Kekaha Beach. Kekaha is where I lived my whole life. Well I was trying to visualize the highway path just a few feet from the beach where there were cars, trucks, but mostly bikes. I’ve tried to visualize what had happened to all of our sacred lands. All the wildlife animals and all our aumakua or protectors. What happened to all of our beautiful beach and brown sand which is now turning red. How about the local families and fishermen that lived on the beaches. Where are they going now? These questions are very meaningful to me. There is a very simple solution. Try to move the highway a little farther from the beach. Please!!!
Kelsey Hesapene
Kekaha
