• Parking pass may be an option • Island experience • Botched or not botched? • You cannot have it both ways • Keep tradition alive Parking pass may be an option I was happy to see the efforts to
• Parking pass may be an option
• Island experience
• Botched or not botched?
• You cannot have it both ways
• Keep tradition alive
Parking pass may be an option
I was happy to see the efforts to support our county Parks Department.
When visiting the Mainland, I noticed that every California beach had a parking area requiring a $4 parking pass. Whether you were there 20 minutes, two hours or the whole day … $4. Five beaches in one day of driving the coast … $20. Not even locals were exempt, which was going too far.
What if we had a $10 per day parking pass? Some 280-plus cars a day off the Superferry … $2,800 a day, minimum, for the Parks Department, $84,000 a month for the parks and parking lots.
Then add in the rental cars. The rental companies can keep $1 per day for processing the passes.
We could provide more jobs caring for the parks, the restrooms and roads.
Cars coming in would pay their share of the infrastructure.
Kaua‘i residents would be exempt by virtue of their prepaid car registration and license plate.
Police could easily track or ticket cars with no pass, or expired tags. There would be a database. We can track all cars coming onto the island and who is in them for crime and security purposes.
Bar codes on the pass or sticker would allow rapid identification and processing at the ferry or rental company, or for the police.
In the spirit of supporting a sustainable community.
Virginia Beck
Lawa‘i
Island experience
I had a very profound experience on Kaua‘i and also on the Big Island of Hawai‘i where a Hawaiian ancestor visited me named Keakahulilani. She was filled with and breathed the aloha spirit and showed me her village in the Waipio valley on the Big Island. She showed me how the ancestors used to live the aloha spirit with a discipline called huna.
Kaikelani “Lani” Ho‘ala
Yorktown, Va.
Botched or not botched?
The dictionary says the meaning of the word “botched” is “bungled.”
If this war in Iraq is not a botched one, what is? Botched intelligence said that there were weapons of mass destruction. Then we heard the words “mission accomplished” telling us that the war was over. Abu Ghraib is an example that “botched” is not a strong enough word.
This election has proved that the American citizens are not fools and that Karl Rove, George Bush, Rumsfeld and company can carry on for only so long.
This administration has shamed this country by its hateful acts.
The Democratic party victory will not be seen as a division of our country. Rather, it will be seen as the success of our democratic institutions. In our democratic process, we have the gentle Democrats who have no desire to impeach Bush for his lies and unjustified acts which have killed thousands of our young men and women and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Instead they want to work for the welfare of the citizens. This is clearly not hate mongering. Will this irrational right wing attack ever stop? I’m sure they are figuring out ways to attack Nancy Pelosi and the other Democrats.
Vi Herbert
Kilauea
You cannot have it both ways
If this society is to be free, then it has to be free for all types of legal expression — including political cartoons in a time of war that you don’t consider appropriate. Those of you who are constantly carping on the appearance of political cartoons that are “unflattering” to Bush or that you consider demeaning to the memory of fallen soldiers are not being genuine with your arguments. You are likely the very same people that don’t understand why Muslims in other parts of the world get so upset about cartoons with depictions of Muhammad.
“It’s just a cartoon after all. What’s the big deal?” Granted, their response may be extreme, but their (anger) is just as valid as yours. You cannot have it both ways.
If you are upset because people aren’t being responsible, on the other hand, I might agree with you except that I seriously doubt you speak out nearly so vociferously in other cases where people are being irresponsible. I doubt you speak out when some neo-Nazi skinhead kills some homosexual or even when they stage rallies in places to drum up support for their hate-mongering. I doubt you spoke out when James Byrd Jr. was dragged behind a pickup truck at the end of a chain in Jasper, Texas by a group of white supremacists to the point where he was beheaded on a culvert. Those things get nary a peep from the right wing, but a political cartoon unkind to Bush in the newspaper has you all up in arms. You can not have it both ways.
As far as I am concerned, you people have zero moral capital until you get some perspective.
Michael Mann
‘Ele‘ele
Keep tradition alive
To all of those who don’t really know … I am an island girl who is truly in love with being able to live on Kaua‘i. I am proud to say that I have loved growing up on Kaua‘i and, most important, I am able to raise my children on Kaua‘i. Kaua‘i has always been a place where family values and traditions strive. I am in love with my family tradition of making Hawaiian salt. Even though I am only 31, I have been in the salt beds since I was a baby. Every summer my father and his extended ‘ohana would gather on the weekends laughing, talking, playing and working as hard as I have ever been known to work, just to create a product that is never sold but given away with love and aloha. I have two daughters now and since they were babies, I make sure that every year they are in the salt beds. Learning how to respect and love their culture, their family, their extended ‘ohana … learning the value of hard work.
Think about all the great family traditions you have in your family, something that brings together you and your kids, your parents, your extended family. Doesn’t that fill your heart? Now think about that being ruined by the total disrespect of others. How would that make you feel?
Think about my frustration in finding out that the county has no intention of standing up for a place that needs the protection. A county that has desecrated an area in more than one way and not owning up to the mistakes that were made.
I ask that you help me understand, why would we really want to ruin an Old Hawaiian Tradition, loved, shared and valued by many?
Ku‘ulei Santos
Hanapepe
