• Path is a wonderful thing • Ban smoking on beaches • Corporatism at its worst • Where is our Doppler? • Take the blame for your life Path is a wonderful thing Recently I rode my bike on the
• Path is a wonderful thing
• Ban smoking on beaches
• Corporatism at its worst
• Where is our Doppler?
• Take the blame for your life
Path is a wonderful thing
Recently I rode my bike on the new path, from the North end of Kealia Beach to the new bridge where the new pavement ends and back again.
It was glorious, like the day. I counted 110 people “not using” the bike path. They must have accidently stumbled onto it. I say this because Glenn Mickens and Ray Chuan, the poo-bahs of contrarianism, told us nobody would use this path and that it was a waste of money. I can tell you this: Nearly all of the people I passed were smiling and outwardly happy. Most of the people were walking. Most of the people were couples, or groups of family and friends, sharing this path together. I stopped at one of the pavilions with an 180-degree view of the ocean and the coast. It was priceless. The sun was hot, so I was very glad the pavilion had a roof. That it had a roof was another victory over chuckleheads we’ve elected.
The path had the same turnout, the same expressions, and the same joy I’d seen on another new path in another place and time. In that place and time the contrarians and chuckleheads had the good sense to keep their mouths shut. To the ones here that did not have such good sense: “I told you so!” I told you so more than once. This path is a wonderful thing that we’ve done. Now, let’s make it better and longer.
Peter Antonson
Wailua
Ban smoking on beaches
Banning smoking in “enclosed public settings” is an excellent step in the right direction.
I would love to see Hawai‘i, or at least Kaua‘i, take a step further by following suit to what some Californian communities are implementing: banning smoking on beaches.
For people who enjoy the beach as a place to rejuvenate and commune with the purity of nature, it can be extremely annoying, if not hazardous to one’s health, to have the misfortune to be downwind of a smoker. A smoker 50 or 100 feet away can succeed in fouling the air for all others present. I don’t think they realize this.
Studies have shown that secondhand smoke has more carcinogens than direct smoke, such as the heavy metal, cadmium, included in many tobacco blends.
Another benefit of banning smoking at the beach would be the decrease in butt litter, which many of us have observed. Not only are those butts an eye-sore, they pose a threat to many of the marine and bird species.
Let’s take the smoking ban to another level.
Sarah Smith
Princeville
Corporatism at its worst
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” Benito Mussolini.
Is there any question what’s running the Hawai‘i state government?
Isn’t it time for the monarchy’s lawful and pono return, and to send off the corrupted state system cursed by how it came to power in the first place? I for one, have had enough, and I have no issue saying so. Why?
The state attorney general told the Maui court, under penalty of perjury, that the Superferry bailout legislation that just undid the environmental law was GENERAL legislation meant to exempt “ANY large capacity ferry vessel” and that this special legislation coincidentally had to happen expediently for just one corporation’s benefit, but this was absolutely not a law to provide aid to one corporation, and thus it’s constitutional.
And the judge bought it?
Whether you’re for or against the Superferry, we have a whole state that knows the law was for Superferry! We have an attorney general who knows he is a public liar, sworn to uphold the laws of the state, and we are living with a system that is in denial of its own insanity.
On a federal level, we also have an attorney general who doesn’t know if U.S.-sponsored waterboarding (strapping a person to a board to drown them head first) is torture — and he’s confirmed by the senate to be the new leader of law in this country?
This is not a democracy, but thank you to Mussolini’s insight — corporate fascism or just as appropriate, a plutocracy (government controlled by the very wealthy).
What we see in this form of government parallels the Roman Empire, once strong, that collapsed on itself. And the current form seems destined for the same.
May God bless what follows, as it comes from the people holding pono.
John Taylor Cragg
Anahola
Where is our Doppler?
Anybody else notice the lack of Doppler coverage for the northern two-thirds of our island. Although the Doppler station at Numila gives great coverage for the southern sector of our island, we are blind from Wailua to Waimea northward. Just watch the north shore of O‘ahu on Doppler and you can imagine how nice it would be to be able to see storm cells approaching our north side.
NOAA is a federal agency as is the PMRF Makaha Ridge tracking station above Polihale. Our mariners, local fisherman, surfers and anyone else needing vital weather information to make safety decisions should have access to the Doppler you can see spinning most days at the end of the ridge. Where do our helicopter crashes seem to happen? Wouldn’t it have been nice for those living on the north shore to see red blobs sitting mauka of their homes for days on end during March of last year?
I can imagine the answer from the feds already. Giving local people access to the data from their Doppler would jeopardize our national security.
Jeffrey Irons
Niumalu
Take the blame for your life
It appears to me that some people just love to feel that they are victims of some greedy person or organization. What a shame.
I worked for 20 years as a grocer clerk. I worked six day a week, sometimes 10- to 12-hour days. Some of that time I worked on my own, not being paid because I wanted to finish a job I had started. But I was lazy because going to work every day doing a job I was used to is easy. I became “not lazy” was when I started back to school as a high school drop out.
As a dentist, I was competent. But as a businessman, I was incompetent because I did not become wealthy. Whose fault was it that I did not become wealthy? It was my fault, not some other person’s, not some greedy organization’s, not a political party’s fault. No, it was my fault for not getting more education on how to improve my income.
My point is, if someone is not wealthy it is their own fault, perhaps “cause they feel something else is more important,” as Janos Samu says.
But that is still their fault — not a bad thing, just their own choice. So if you are not satisfied with your station in life, do something about it, but don’t claim to be a victim. Take the blame and admit that you are/were lazy or incompetent. I did.
Gordon “Doc” Smith
Kapa‘a
