• Rocking the boat • Protestors don’t represent me • Welcome to Maui … I mean Kaua‘i • Corporate bullies • Respect and the office of president Rocking the boat Hanalei boating making waves again? Am I the only one
• Rocking the boat
• Protestors don’t represent me
• Welcome to Maui … I mean Kaua‘i
• Corporate bullies
• Respect and the office of president
Rocking the boat
Hanalei boating making waves again? Am I the only one sick and tired of reading about this? Protest drugs, protest guilty drug dealers being given leniency after trying to kill people (certainly not the first time), protest drugged up mothers who are allowed to keep their innocent children.
Taking away the boating again takes away jobs from not only the haole, but the locals. Let it go already haole-wanna-be-Hawaiians. Concentrate your energy in trying to save the Hawaiian people from dying due to drugs. Boating will always be in the ocean. Will you continue to let the drugs consume the land?
M. Norton
Hutto, Texas
Protestors don’t represent me
The protestors waving signs and intimidating tourists claim to represent the residents of Hanalei. As one of those residents, I am definitely against their confrontational activities. The fact is that, despite the County Council’s claim, the North Shore is indeed a Visitor Destination Area. Tourists come here to savor the beauty and magic of Hanalei. While here they spend money on boat tours, gifts and restaurants.
Nobody wants to bring back the days when dozens of fly-by-night boat operators were monopolizing our beaches and parking lots. The ideal way to have handled the problem would have been regulation — with strict rules about days of operation, offsite patron parking, approved engine types, etc. Instead, the picketers back then rejected compromise and demanded nothing less than prohibition — which the governor (illegally) ordained. Prohibiting something while protecting a few favored businesses seems to be endemic in Hawai‘i.
Even in those bad old days, Hanalei Bay was neither destroyed nor even degraded by the boats and people kept coming. The one thing that will drive people away is the loss of the Aloha spirit. Sun-seekers can save a lot of money traveling to Caribbean islands if they are happy with surly service and hostile natives. It is the beauty and the people that make Hanalei unique. I’m sure killing off the tourist trade would be welcomed by the retired gentry but those of us with children and grandchildren on the island fret that our progeny will have to leave for lack of jobs.
On another topic n to the letter writer on Maui who complained about over-crowding and is considering moving to Kaua‘i, there are many here who feel the same way about Kaua‘i — and would love to prevent you from moving here.
Stan Godes
Hanalei
Welcome to Maui … I mean Kaua‘i
So Scott Richman (“What’s the future for Kauai,” Letters, July 21) wants to know if he should move from Maui to Kaua’i, since living in Maui has become untenable and in his words “an extension of living in California or O‘ahu.”
Scott, Scott, Scott. Haven’t you heard? Kaua‘i will be worse than Maui soon. There are over 11,000 units of developments on the drawing boards and under construction on Kaua‘i. There are over 18,000 units being planned for future development over the next 10 years. Developers from California and O‘ahu are descending on Kaua‘i like “monkeys in the Wizard of Oz” because our development approval system is severely flawed and easily controlled by them. If all of the units are built as planned, the island of Kaua‘i will double its physical structures, quadruple its number of automobiles, and put Kaua‘i in a much worse position than Maui is in today. All of this is occurring even though our local population needs a small fraction of that amount to provide a home for their families. These poor local families are being priced out of Kaua‘i by developers who are selling Kaua‘i to Californians and beyond because they can’t compete with their buying power. The answer to your question Scott is “No,” don’t move to Kaua‘i. There is a very high probability you will be disappointed once again.
The Planning Commission and County Council here are unable to do anything to stop it. The mayor can’t see it. And the people of Kaua‘i are sadly disorganized into splinter groups of whining, complaining, letter writing, environmentalists that have been equally ineffective. The only chance Kaua‘i has to turn the tide is for the unhappy population and environmental groups to unite with one voice, thereby obtaining the collective power to change the current system that is allowing this island to morph into another Maui. That, and that alone, is the only chance Kaua‘i has.
Scott, you seem like you would be a wonderful asset to this decaying piece of paradise. Please give us a chance to fix the problem first, and if we’re successful, bring your aloha spirit and join us. In the meantime, might I suggest the Christmas Islands.
Gordon Oswald
Kapa’a
Corporate bullies
Mahalo to Michael Mann and Sandy Kinter for their intellegent comments on Wal-Mart’s attempts to bully our island into accepting a larger version of their lies on our island. Our mayor and County Council have taken a bold position in helping to keep Wal-Mart in check and, I respect them greatly for this. I have been teaching my students for many years now, about just how ruthless and un-community minded Wal-Mart is through a thorough study of their practices in the United States, and their continued blatant use of sweat-shop labor in third-world countries. I do not shop at Wal-Mart and have not done so for many years. It is empowering to shop at our local stores and makes me feel happy to stay away from a corporation which does not (just go to “Sweat-Shops” on the Internet and see what comes up) care about communities or employees. Wal-Mart must be put in their place, that would be within our laws, based on our community needs.
Elen Verzosa
Kapa‘a
Respect and the office of president
I find it very disturbing that so many of the public can’t seem to show disagreement with President Bush without resorting to name calling. Mentley (“Open letter to Americans,” Letters, July 21) used the words “Deranged Boy King.” It is sorrowful that people don’t have the vocabulary to disagree without name calling. Whatever happened to civil discourse? I disagreed with Bill Clinton’s ruling by polls and or popularity but never called him names. He was and perhaps still is immoral. Admitted to perjury, had his law license revoked, but wasn’t sent to jail as some people wanted Libby sent. But I don’t recall him being referred to as a Nazi or Mussolini, or a Stalinist. Mentley refers to only the Republicans going on August vacations; are the Democrats staying in Washington and working? I don’t think so. Mentley seems to overlook that our Congress voted Bush the authority to use force at his discretion but they only refer to Iraq as “Bushes War.” Strange. Whether you approve of the Iraq War or not it was an overwhelming vote by Congress that approved it. Another frustation about the anti-war people is they never address what they would expect to happen if we would withdraw immediately. Guess they don’t have or don’t know what foresight is. Those who would expect that if we would just be nice and leave the Islama-fascists alone they would do likewise are dreamers. They want our Western way of life destroyed and Sharia law to rule the world. I for one don’t want our women being required to wear veils or burhkas. Please, disagree with anyone all you want and vote the way you want, but Bush was legally elected regardless of allegations he stole the election. I pray for a return to respect for the office of president regardless of what you think or how you voted.
Bob Yount
Kalaheo
