Letters for Tuesday, June 12, 2007

• Beauty versus artifice

• Yearbook frustration

• Fix the gym

• Growing economy, shrinking roads

Beauty versus artifice

Hello from the Midwest. I was thrilled to see the “1,000 Friends” lawsuit initiated. Our family is willing to help keep Kaua‘i beautiful. When we visit, we do not want a fancy resort. A place like “Coconuts” will stop us from coming to the Waipouli area. The uncrowded shoreline, the clean beaches, the peaceful lifestyle is what we love. We do our best, when we visit, to eat local, shop local and behave local. I don’t know how the new resorts help the local economy. I cannot speak about any experience but my own. In the Midwest U.S., megaresorts in places like Lake of the Ozarks and Branson, Mo. have made those places fake-fancy. The authentic natural beauty of the places is buried under artifice. I planned to be on Kaua‘i this July, to learn more and see how I could help. But an illness has waylaid me. I hope to be on your beautiful island in October.

Kathy Deutsch

Florissant, Mo.

From the Web

Yearbook frustration

In relation to the letter “We want our Yearbooks,” I can understand your frustration, neverthless, your blame probably is misplaced. I know from experience, as the first year that Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School was built, I was hired (three days before the school year began on an emergency hire situation) to teach both Reading and Newswriting (which included the yearbook). Although our yearbook arrived on time, it looked pretty terrible and I (as the teacher in charge) was blamed for its appearance. What most people didn’t understand at the time is that we were pretty limited on what we could do with the budget we were given (enough to get only black and white books with no covers) and the fact that the school was new and had no old yearbooks to work from nor any clubs and sports to speak of or to get pictures from. The students and I did our best considering the budget and circumstances we were dealing with, but until today even I shudder at what that first yearbook looked like. Who did I blame? Well, maybe a school system that is devoid of funds, but then that would get you into a much larger blame game involving state, county and federal government spending, and so forth. For you CKMS students who don’t have your yearbooks yet, hold off on the blame (as it can be really hurtful especially in a public forum like this), and wait for the explanation. I’m sure nobody intentionally withheld your yearbooks, and they’re probably stuck at a printing press somewhere and will hopefully get to you before the end of the year. If they don’t get to you before the end of the year, ask the school to schedule you a yearbook signing day in the summer, as I know that’s what you are eagerly waiting for.

Noah Evslin

From the Web

Fix the gym

I think that we should make Kalaheo Neighborhood Center Gym a better place to play basketball by adding a wood floor over the concrete and make the ceiling a little better to prevent less injuries and game cancellations.

I have been playing basketball on Kaua‘i for over six years. Most of the games played are at Kalaheo Gym. Numerous people get bruises and get hurt when they fall and hit the concrete floor. Also many of our games have been canceled by rain outs. Basketball is an indoor sport. It shouldn’t be canceled by rain. But the poorly built ceiling of Kalaheo Gym lets some rain droplets through causing the floor to get slippery and even more people get hurt. Like the playground at Lydgate, I think that we should have a workday over the weekend to repair Kalaheo Gym’s ceiling and floor.

A lot of people (all ages and genders) use this gym to play basketball. We should all work together to make Kalaheo Gym a better and safer place to play.

Canaan Higa

Island School eighth-grader

Growing economy, shrinking roads

It seems that the growing amount of people on Kaua‘i plus all tourists that come to visit have created very unsafe and crowded conditions on our highways.

There have been numerous car crashes resulting on deaths or serious injuries, because the roads are not made to handle the amount of cars. Back when my grandparents moved here, the roads were perfect for the size of Kaua‘i and the number of people that lived here. But in the last couple of years, there’s been more building and more tourism plus more people coming to live here and that all equals more cars. The roads here are not even kept up properly, they have ruts and holes in them and on top of it all the roads are just too small.

This problem is growing larger every day and for instant relief the state could open the old cane road so that people could take bypasses to get around traffic. Another would be extensive repair on the main roads of Kaua‘i so that people could drive and feel safe. The final idea would be to put a limit on how many cars there are on the island. Because the roads are getting more deteriorated and there are more cars here almost every day. So eventually action should be taken to improve the roads of Kaua‘i.

Allen Dynes

Island School eighth-grader