• Grove Farm requests approved • Traffic woes turn deadly • Couldn’t read on • End the cartoon uproar • Where does greed start? • Common sense needed Grove Farm requests approved On Valentine’s Day, I attended a meeting of
• Grove Farm requests approved
• Traffic woes turn deadly
• Couldn’t read on
• End the cartoon uproar
• Where does greed start?
• Common sense needed
Grove Farm requests approved
On Valentine’s Day, I attended a meeting of the Kauai County Planning Commission on the subject of another request for rezoning by Grove Farm Properties Inc.
After all the representatives of public groups spoke against the request, all four members of the Planning Commission approved the request unanimously.
After the meeting, I asked one of the members of the Commission (who had complained about the amount of time members had to spend on meetings) if the Planning Commission had ever denied a request by the Grove Farm Properties Inc. He replied that it had never happened.
This made me wonder why they hold these hearings if the result is so routinely decided. If they skipped these hearings, it would save time and money and the result would be no different.
After this conversation, the thought occurred to me — is there any record that any member of the Planning Commission ever, on any request by Grove Farm Properties Inc., voted to deny the request, or are Grove Farm Properties Inc. requests always approved unanimously?
I should think that the answer to this question would be of interest to all citizens.
Traffic woes turn deadly
My wife and I are frequent visitors to Kaua’i. We just arrived back in the Chicago area after a 17-day stay. We were not surprised when we read in The Garden Island that a woman had been killed as a result of an accident near the Coconut Marketplace. There are many improvements that the government officials have ignored way too long.
How many deaths does it take before improvements in the traffic flow are made? Synchronization of traffic lights would be a great start. The frustration to drivers and pedestrians is so obvious. The residents and visitors to Kaua’i deserve a much better effort.
Couldn’t read on
I stopped reading “A Lot of Explaining To Do” (Forum, Feb. 19, Cokie & Steven Roberts) in the third paragraph: “… Republicans … had one clear, common goal: to get the president a second term.”
It’s not about service to one’s country, government of the people, or the collective good for all. It’s about power; about getting elected, reelected and amassing huge war-chests of cash to do so by enacting favorable legislation to those to provide those funds.
End the cartoon uproar
Is all the uproar about the Danish cartoon depicting Mohammed finally over?
Without a doubt, publishing such a cartoon was inappropriate, but I was much more struck by the international uproar that resulted. The cursing of leaders and nations, the burning of flags that even involved children.
What kind of training is this?
I would like my Muslim friends and neighbors to know that this is what frightens us about you, not your religious beliefs. I will not make fun of Mohammed because you have every right to your own beliefs. As for me I follow Jesus Christ. If someone were to try and make fun of Jesus in a comic I would not like it either, but I do not need to defend him because he is God. I would just pray that those involved come to know Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life as God’s word says.
I challenge you similarly in your faith, if you are able to have such a faith in a God who does not need to be defended, you will not feel the need to be so aggressive.
Then you will be seen as the good people you are.
- Gil Morency
Ontario, Canada
Where does greed start?
The letter by Jaana Makipaa (Letters, Any heroes out there?, Feb. 18) was interesting and had some good points and others I strongly disagree with.
When I first moved to Kauai several years ago I was astonished at the minimum wage paid some people here. Compared to the cost of living it appears many are way underpaid. The problem with her asking for heroes is who is to determine how much money is legitimate profit and where does it become greed?
Who is to determine where that point is crossed … Jaana? … or the government?
That’s where the difference between capitalism and dictatorship is so obvious. Under a dictatorship the government tells you how much rent you can charge, how much you can charge for food, how much you can charge for a car and where you must work. I don’t have an answer for the problem but asking people to voluntarily decide what is legitimate profit and what is greed is a dream. Rents and property here are inflated, how to fix it, I don’t know.
Common sense needed
It seems that everything is sexual harassment for a woman scorned. How’s hearing someone describe his medical exam or watching a video of naked skydivers sexual harassment?
How did a woman of such frailty ever get into the police department anyway? Sheryl Sunia was a homicide detective, so did the men have to clean the investigation site to shield her from things that may make her cry? Sunia claimed in tears of how she had to watch a video of naked male skydivers, yet she’s working on something to do with sex crimes at the police department. Why isn’t she equally, if not more traumatized, by reading police files or viewing pictures of sex crimes? I’m sure those files have much more offensive information than hearing a guy describe a genital exam.
It doesn’t take a HPD detective to figure out that things just don’t add up, but the scary thing about this lawsuit is that she may just win because sexist stereotypes are on her side. Women are stereotyped to be morally superior and emotionally fragile — something women’s groups are quick to denounce, but they sure are quick to go back to that “well” when is serves their purpose.
HPD needs to fight this claim. For too long men have coward in the wake of a woman making a sexual harassment accusation, but it’s time to put some sanity and common sense back into the original intent of this law, which was to protect citizens from harassment.
