• Product of Kaua‘i • Majority misrepresentations • Rapozo’s double standard • Think locally Product of Kaua‘i In behalf of her Kaua‘i High School classmates of 1950, we congratulate and offer our aloha to Dr. Rubellite Kinney Johnson of Honolulu
• Product of Kaua‘i
• Majority misrepresentations
• Rapozo’s double standard
• Think locally
Product of Kaua‘i
In behalf of her Kaua‘i High School classmates of 1950, we congratulate and offer our aloha to Dr. Rubellite Kinney Johnson of Honolulu on her appointment last week to the Hawai‘i Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The 17 members will serve 10-year terms.
Many of us grew up with this former Lawa‘i girl named a “Living Treasure of Hawai‘i” in 1983 by the Honla Hongwanji Mission of Hawai‘i.
Rubellite’s father, Ernest Kaipoleimanu Kinney Sr., was a foreman during the building of Kaumuali‘i Highway on Kaua‘i and a member of Holy Cross Church in Kalaheo, while also assisting at the Koloa Hawaiian Church where Ruby attended. Mother Esther Kauikeaolani Ka‘ulili came from a distinguished local family that included brothers Springwater and Lordie Ka‘ulili. (The latter loved to play tennis with my father, the late Rev. Howard Smith of Koloa.) Ruby gets her middle name Kawena from a part-Chinese grandmother from Puna on the Big Island who raised eight children. Her grandfather Rev. Solomon Ka‘uili pastored both the Lihue Union and Koloa Union churches prior to being named a judge for the Koloa district. He died in 1923 before taking office. Johnson can also trace her haole roots back to pilgrim New England and earlier.
This wahine is a veritable United Nations, a classic Hawai‘i cultural and ethnic melting pot.
Dr. Johnson retired as professor emeritus of Hawaiian Languages in the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages of the University of Hawaii/Manoa. She is, arguably, the world’s leading living authority on the study and interpretation of the epic 2,600-line Hawai‘i chant, the Kumulipo. Her knowledge of the laws and history of the monarchy era is encyclopedic.
Little did playmates at Kalaheo Elementary sense this future brilliance when they teased Ruby about her strange name deriving from the pink tourmaline gem found in granite. Nor when she was just one of us teenagers struggling to satisfy taskmaster Mary Mildred Jones in English and Spanish classes “amid the ironwood and cane fields nigh.” She later graduated with honors from University of Hawai‘i.
And it was her family upbringing and the education through Hawai‘i’s fine public school system of those decades, combined with the patriotism of us World War II kids growing up on Kaua‘i, which forged her very outspoken love for America and its freedoms. No sovereignist she. Thus Hawai‘i’s citizens may count on Rubellite to bring needed balance in the years ahead to this important governmental forum.
Ray Smith
Wheaton, Ill.
Majority misrepresentations
House Finance Chairman Marcus Oshiro recently stated that “you might see welfare checks delayed, you might see housing projects delayed, you might see longer lines or greater waiting periods to get services,” due to recent tax collections.
This is both inaccurate and unnecessary, and may cause undue stress to many Hawai‘i citizens, particularly our most vulnerable. It is also troubling that majority leaders are telling the public there will be “tremendous restrictions” in the state budget as a result of lower than expected tax revenues for fiscal year 2007. These claims once again are false and could cause unnecessary panic.
We want to reassure the public that there will be no budget shortfall, and public services will not be cut or delayed, as has been claimed.
The Lingle-Aiona Administration is taking a cautious approach to managing the state budget as we await the next revenue forecast by the Council on Revenues in September. This is not any different from how Hawai‘i residents manage their family budgets. Like most working people, the state receives income on a monthly basis, and cannot spend more than it receives.
As the administration has done for the past four-and-a-half years, spending will be closely scrutinized to ensure fiscal responsibility. The administration followed fiscal prudence when Gov. Lingle and Lt. Gov. Aiona first took office in December 2002, and inherited a $250 million budget shortfall. Even after turning the economy around and generating a $732 million budget surplus, the administration has continued to ensure prudent fiscal management.
We are committed to maintaining this responsible approach to managing taxpayers’ money, while ensuring state services are properly funded.
Robert Piper,
Deputy director of
budget and finance
State of Hawai‘i
Rapozo’s double standard
At a recent Planning Commission hearing, Councilman Mel Rapozo emphasized that he was testifying against the bike path pavilions as an individual concerned citizen. However, as an individual citizen, the councilman used the services of the county clerk, along with county stationery and county-owned equipment to present and advocate his personal position.
During council hearings, Councilman Rapozo has consistently pointed out his past experience in law enforcement and that everyone must follow the law. Well, Mr. Rapozo broke the law while providing testimony at the last Planning Commission hearing. He used a county employee on county time, county stationery and county equipment for his personal agenda.
Councilman Rapozo should be reprehended for violating the law and be required to reimburse the county for the use of a county employee and county equipment.
Michael Murray
Puhi
Think locally
Susan Ann Allyn (“Big ideas littler in Hawai‘i,” Letters, July 18) has some good ideas about how the building of residences should be. I would go one step further and include businesses. But it is not the people coming here nor the builders who have caused the problem, it is the county government. They could require that all homes and businesses would be built in a manner in line with the plantation style. They could require off-street parking with on-street parking slowly removed. Wal-Mart is willing to do this but they were stopped for the time being. I’m hopeful that that will play out in the courts in a manner that is in line with what the population majority wishes.
As to this state being a country … forget it. It is one of 50 and will remain that way because the Hawaiian state voters will never approve going back to the past.
Is that a shame? Perhaps, but that is the way it is and wishing and whining will not change the fact.
Gordon “Doc” Smith
Kapa‘a
