• Majority favors ferry • The hate rhetoric • Hate-speech and propaganda • Difficult to assess • Safety not rocket science Majority favors ferry My congratulations to The Garden Island for the accuracy of your reporting. Yes, the people who
• Majority favors ferry
• The hate rhetoric
• Hate-speech and propaganda
• Difficult to assess
• Safety not rocket science
Majority favors ferry
My congratulations to The Garden Island for the accuracy of your reporting. Yes, the people who testified at the meeting were activists for or against a specific cause, not environmentalists. Environmentalists are true scientists engaged in the study of planet Earth. As far as I could see, only one of the participants fit that description. Even though, as a layman, I disagreed with some of his conclusions, I couldn’t argue with his credentials.
The participants at the meeting were mostly older men and women, who seemed to be afraid of the unknown. The political leaders who were present did nothing to allay those fears. In fact they seemed to be happy with the situation. It occurred to me that President Bush isn’t the only politician to instill fear in order to get re-elected.
Not many young people testified. I testified in favor of allowing the Superferry and the four new 350-foot Young Brothers barges to begin operations without an EIS. I have every confidence in the managers of those two business to take every prudent precaution to keep Hawai‘i as safe as possible. It is unthinkable that we should muddy the waters with useless bureaucratic meddling, in the form of an oversight committee, at significant expense.
I talked to a few acquaintances that I knew were in favor of a state ferry system and asked them why they were not at the meeting. They all told me that with the majority of the people of Hawai‘i being in favor of the ferry, there was no point in exposing themselves to possible harm.
Harry Boranian
Lihu‘e
The hate rhetoric
Juan Wilson’s column (“Island Breath: The SuperConspiracy,” A10, Oct. 21) on conspiracy is heavily flavored with “Hate Bush Rhetoric.”
I would refer him to his dictionary as to lies. It is defined as stating something one knows to be untrue with the intent to deceive. Not a shred of evidence that Bush knew the WMD statements were false. Every one of the Western World’s intelligence services thought Sadam had WMDs, so no lie. As to his tossing out the Geneva Convention, it states among other things that prisoners must respect the laws and customs of war. I doubt that beheading people and gassing with poison gas or setting bodies on fire and hanging them from bridges qualifies as the customs and laws of war. Blowing up the World Trade Center to me doesn’t come under the customs and laws of war. So no qualifying for Geneva Convention protections. Abu Ghraib, acknowledged as cruel and a PR nightmare. As to his comments about fear mongering; a classic example is depleted uranium lies and how opponents theorize the damage the Superferry will do. As to cheap happy motoring, maybe Wilson hasn’t bought gas lately. As to cheap oil, I wonder if Wilson is aware that drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and ANWAR would in a few years make us independent with our own oil supplies? It’s not politically correct to go against the environmental wackos. As for me, personally I would kick Bush out of office just for the fact that he, Bill Clinton and the first George Bush did nothing to close our border with Mexico and still aren’t. Surely somehow things have to get better. Hope so.
Bob Yount
Kalaheo
Hate-speech and propaganda
The column SuperConspiracy (“Island Breath: The SuperConspiracy,” A10, Oct. 21) spewed hate-speech and propaganda. The simple fact is legislatures frequently redraft statutes to clarify intent. There is nothing new or strange about it.
The author uses an old technique: first, compile a list of emotionally charged adjectives — immoral, corrupt, illegal and the all time favorite conspiracy. Anyone not following their agenda is all of the above and more.
This is self-righteous to the max. The implication that those who fall in line are moral, honest, law-abiding and all the other virtues of the Christian calendar. The propagandist convenientently forgets the vices of pride, anger, zealotry and dishonesty.
Suzanne Woodruff
Kapa‘a
Difficult to assess
I went to the only elementary school I know of in Lihu‘e, and that was called Wilcox. I had this to contribute: In less than two years, our electric bills will double because the price of fuel will double due to consumption by Chinese and other places where vehicles are sold in great quantity.
Kaua‘i is unique insofar as hydro power is abundantly available. Given the pressure by environmentalists on any “damned” project, no investor in his right mind would put up a dime to furnish us with cheap electricity. What it means is this: Lights out for Kaua‘i. Protesters on surfboards have ruined our reputation for investment of big bucks.
They also proved whales mean more than people.
Protesters are too caught up in the moment to realize that the same kinds of protests caused the loss of a war in Vietnam … which in turn now gives hope to Venezuela (now arming), Cuba and of course, Iran, to tighten their military power and ransom our safety for something else we hold dear.
How can these people call themselves 1,000 Friends of Kaua‘i? I live on Earth, and they are doing damage that is currently difficult to assess.
Don Paulo
Kalaheo
Safety not rocket science
The new traffic light on Kaumuali‘i Highway near McDonalds in ‘Ele‘ele — the yellow flashing warning lights, east and west — are ridiculously placed.
One is placed approximately 50 yards around a blind curve almost hidden by the plumeria trees. The other one is placed about the same distance close to a huge monkeypod tree near the overhead bridge with the same situation around a blind curve.
Without earlier warning, both eastbound and westbound traffic will run into a dead stop or possibly a whole line of stopped vehicles ahead of them. Most of us who drive through this area every day are aware by now of the traffic lights. But, what about the tourists and those who rarely drive in this area? There should be a warning sign (traffic lights ahead) at the top of the guard rails coming from the east and one at the start of the guard rail west just before you leave Hanapepe heading towards ‘Ele‘ele.
Whoever planned this should have been more observant and realized the possibility of rear-end accidents that can occur in that area. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out.
Howard Tolbe
‘Ele‘ele
