• Weary of Wal-Mart • Timing is everything • Supercrazy • Cartoon causes a stir • Maybe it was the Menehune Weary of Wal-Mart I have boycotted Wal-Mart for more than 15 years for the following reasons: • Wal-Mart is
• Weary of Wal-Mart
• Timing is everything
• Supercrazy
• Cartoon causes a stir
• Maybe it was the Menehune
Weary of Wal-Mart
I have boycotted Wal-Mart for more than 15 years for the following reasons:
• Wal-Mart is considered one of the most viciously anti-union companies in the world. They have stopped at nothing to prevent their employees from exercising their democratic rights to form unions. They routinely fire union supporters, intimidate through surveillance, close down union-leaning stores and more. Those on Kaua‘i who supported the nurses in their recent strike might consider this before they give their hard-earned money to a corporation so large it sets the standard for employment practices across the country. Is a few cents less for a loaf of bread worth that?
• Wal-Mart harms local businesses. Time and time again, family-owned main street businesses, built with the sweat of generations, have shuttered their doors after Wal-Mart’s arrival, with its unfair pricing advantages, public subsidies and fast-track permitting unavailable to small businesses. We all suffer when our communities lose the uniqueness, expertise and familiarity which small business provides. Is a cheaper papaya worth that to us?
• Wal-Mart’s low prices are possible because people in developing countries work for pennies an hour to produce Wal-Mart’s goods. While some argue that $2 a day is better than nothing to impoverished workers in Honduras, it takes a very hardened heart to dismiss the cruelty of the conditions under which these workers labor. Is that cheap pair of jeans so important to us that we can ignore the 14-hour workdays, six days a week, which are required to produce them? In our American arrogance, will we accept this deal to save a few bucks?
I am pleased and proud that communities across the nation have begun to stand up against predators like Wal-Mart. Now each and every one of us should ask ourselves if saving a few dollars is worth such high prices.
Hanalei
Timing is everything
Are we Americans being manipulated or what? How convenient for the Bush enhancement group that the kangaroo Shiite court declares Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentences him to hang just three days before the election. There’s your justification for the war, you ignoble doubters.
Who’s next? Look around. There’s a whole slew of guys committing crimes against humanity. Take your pick, but be a little more careful. There’s a limit to how much of this profligate spending of men, women and the nation’s resources we will endure. The results of Tuesday’s election will be a good indication.
Lihu‘e
Supercrazy
If we want to stop these people who would force the Superferry upon us, then forget about help from politicians and forget about signing petitions. We need to be prepared for a battle when we try to separate greedy men from their money. It is sort of like stepping into a hog pen during feeding time — it can get dangerous.
I learned this lesson about petitions being ineffective in days gone by.
We all signed petitions against a development at Nukoli‘i in the 1980s.
The response was overwhelming against the project. We forced a special election from the huge flood of petition signers we secured.
This occurred during the Edwardo Malapit administration, which supplied a favorable atmosphere for the just about anything the developer’s wanted to do — legally or politically.
Even though the people spoke overwhelmingly with signed petitions, the court, led by a judge that news sources said was an investor in this project, threw the petition out of court, canceled the special election and allowed a company from Japan to buy its version of a special election.
It was the first and last time in American history that this has occurred.
This shows you how perilous it can be when you try to separate hogs from their food at feeding time.
Make no mistake that it is feeding time for the Superferry and the only way you can stop them is by quickly retaining an aggressive environmental lawyer from off-island (no Kaua‘i lawyer will risk offending a potential client).
Then efforts can be focused towards forcing an Environment Impact Statement and/or keeping the hogs in court until they squeal and roll over.
The North Shore ran the boaters out; why can’t we stop the Superferry?
Ask for legal contributions rather than signatures and hit the hogs where it hurts or just sit back and watch them spoil this very special place.
Koloa
Cartoon causes a stir
I am totally outraged that The Garden Island would print the so-called political cartoon by Ed Stein that appeared in the Nov. 5 newspaper (President Bush in a military cemetery). An attempt to make something humorous about this country’s fallen heroes who have fought and died so bravely in the Iraq war is in such poor taste that you and the entire staff on the paper deserve the name that you are often referred to as “The Garbage Island,” and that’s exactly where my paper has gone, right into the garbage can. You and all of the left-wing news media simply can’t stand the fact that President George W. Bush is doing the correct thing in the Middle East. You’re all such a bunch of panty waists you won’t print all of the good reports that come to us from those brave service men and women who are serving in those countries. Every one of you is all gloom-and-doom Bush-bashers who will print anything to prove your hatred of this administration. It’s a pity that this island has only one newspaper.
Wailua Homesteads
Editor’s Note: The syndicated political cartoons TGI prints appear in newspapers across the country. While they poke at Democrats, Republicans and many public figures in between, our readers should know that yesterday’s cartoon was in no way intended to diminish the casualties suffered in the Iraq war, American or otherwise.
Also, we hope you recycled the newspaper instead of threw it away. Mahalo for reading.
Maybe it was the Menehune
This is regarding the Oct. 31 article on the legendary “Night Marchers.” I have heard of a family which had many house and family health problems. They sold their house because it happened to be on the path of those ancient marchers. Those marchers are the little people or Menehune who inhabited Hawai‘i over a thousand years before the Hawaiians came and subjugated them into slavery. Is it possible to infer that those night marchers are the restless spirits of a defeated people?
Lihu‘e
