• Great run • Workers’ comp letter • Peace, beware • Calcium tips • Boardwalk and bike path Great run While on vacation at spring break time, my son Randall and I stayed on Kaua‘i with Lightnin’ Fiberglass owner John
• Great run
• Workers’ comp letter
• Peace, beware
• Calcium tips
• Boardwalk and bike path
Great run
While on vacation at spring break time, my son Randall and I stayed on Kaua‘i with Lightnin’ Fiberglass owner John Kubeca.We were doing the regular tourist adventures, but with the help of John and of Jeff Guest of Moto Hawai‘i, we were able to gear up and run in Kaua‘i’s Off Road Riders (KORR) Dirt Bike Poker Run through the A&B Kaua‘i Coffee fields.
Little did we know that this event would be the top attraction of our three-plus weeks on the islands. We are still telling people about mingling with the locals — over 500 riders — and of riding the 42-mile course. It proved to be terrific fun, scenic, and an excellent way to really meet and get to know the residents of Kaua‘i. It is our hope that this event will continue for many years to come, as we would certainly like to do it again.
KORR did an outstanding job organizing and putting on the run, and without A&B Coffee’s generosity, it would not exist.
A hearty thank you goes to all involved.
- Wayne M. Wilms and Randall A. Wilms
Long Beach, Calif.
Workers’ comp letter
If the writer of a July 22 letter on workers’ comp is a reflection of public service from the Governor’s Office, we should be concerned. The letter, “Democrats Hurt Workers’ Comp Reform,” was all about politics.
He seems to know little about workers’ compensation and cares even less that injured workers would have been hurt more than helped by the Administration’s new rules.
Even unions realize that reducing workers’ compensation premiums is good for employers and ultimately good for employees. But we do not believe in sacrificing the safety of workers to achieve lower premiums. The new rules would have seriously compromised the ability of workers to find qualified physicians willing to accept workers’ comp patients. The new rules would have formalized the system, requiring claimants to seek legal help much sooner. And the new rules offered no guarantee that premiums would be reduced.
The Legislature did the right thing by overriding the Governor’s veto of S.B. 1808, In the next two years, all stakeholders will come together to craft a more meaningful reform than the Administration’s attempt at rule-making, which, rather than clarifying the law, sought to change the law; injured workers deserve no less.
- Clayton Dela Cruz
ILWU Local 142
Peace, beware
Terrorism will end when every person on the planet knows he is a human being.
Maybe we should all wear sandwich boards that read, fore and aft:
Peace
I am a human being first.
I am a black, Pagan, Canadian second.
Fill in the blanks: I am a _______ second.
Anytime any stupid god, religious fanatic or politician tells you to go next door—across the street, across the city, across the country, across the world—to kill another human being tell him/her/it/or them to stuff it.
Better make sure your sandwich board is bullet proof.
Calcium tips
The Sunday USA Weekend (7/15-17/2005) had an article about osteoporosis. The author wrote to eat calcium-rich foods. The article showed a glass of milk. Period. What an opportunity for education.
In the Spring, 2005, edition of Good Medicine from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, there is an article by A. J. Lanou, Ph. D, which outlines a review of an article in the March, 2005, Pediatrics. It discusses the fact that plant foods are better absorbed than dairy products. Here’s a partial list of recommend foods (which should have been in the Weekend): One cup of kale, or 2/3 of tofu, or 1 2/3 C. broccoli provide the same amount of absorbable calcium as one cup of cow’s milk. (Or you could use one cup of fortified or soy milk or Basic 4 cereal). Dairy products also contain nutrients that interfere with calcium balance. Dairy protein and sodium increase the risk of urinary infection. PCRM agrees with the article about the necessity for children to exercise to grow bodies.
Boardwalk and bike path
I can recall the days of the early 70’s living and working in California. I had the opportunity to rent an old charming beach house once home to Charlie Chaplin, a 5-bdrm, 3-bath, 2-story along the boardwalk. Santa Monica’s version of integrating business with a coastal multiuse walkway lateral to the Pacific coastline. It rented, at the time, for $250 a month. (Attention Kaua‘i; This is the definition of that elusive word: “affordable”.)
Along with this pathway, stretched fron Santa Monica southward through Venice and Marina del Rey, were many stores: boutiques, candle/wax, fortune tellers, gyms, street vendors of all kinds, you name ’em, they got um. And yes, incense and bars, bars; bars that reeked with the smell of pakalolo late into the night.
At Lydgate Park and Kamalani Bridge-Playground, the multi-use walkway differs a lot. There are no hundreds of small stores which a fee can be extracted from to handle “maintenance,” and the drunks, homesless, dope deals, crime and its consequences that ensues. Here, we are blessed with safety conditions, less litter, clean air, tranquility, serenity and peace of mind. More and more we will see moms strolling the newborn; the elderly with canes and hoovarounds — there are 3,000 diabetics in Hawai‘i — the option to park your car to go to the market, hair salon, cafe, outings and more.
To the critics, what I’m trying to say is that you have a choice. Enjoy a better way of life. Or you can live in Santa Monica on the boardwalk.
