• Green conspiracy • Tree cartoon progressive? • Keep dogs controlled •We are brothers and sisters •Lest ye be … Green conspiracy Should we be concerned that The Garden Island might be dabbling in advocacy when a local activist (Carol
• Green conspiracy
• Tree cartoon progressive?
• Keep dogs controlled
•We are brothers and sisters
•Lest ye be …
Green conspiracy
Should we be concerned that The Garden Island might be dabbling in advocacy when a local activist (Carol Ann Davis-Briant for the Koloa Community Association) publishes on a local advocacy site (Island Breath): “Louie Abrams and I will be meeting with The Garden Island on Thursday to get some information into the paper about the problem with all but eight of Koloa’s historic trees on the Knudsen estate being cut down,” and then on Friday morning the headline on the top of The Garden Island is: “Community rallies to save monkeypod trees in Koloa.”
Is it reasonable for eyebrows to raise at least a little bit? Especially when every single letter in that day’s letters section, and every letter in the following Monday’s letter section, are save-the-trees letters? Especially when the local activist’s post in the advocacy site also urged everyone to “write letters to The Garden Island?”
Suspicious.
Charley Foster, Lihu‘e
Tree cartoon progressive?
The political cartoon representing Koloa residents as old fashioned for wanting to save the local monkeypod trees and the property owner as somebody modern who was well within his rights to kill them because they were on his property seems to be backwards (Forum, Dec. 18).
I’ve been watching developers kill nature my whole life.
What is so progressive about that?
Progressive is people realizing that just because a special part of nature happens to be on your zoned piece of property, doesn’t make it yours. Nature belongs to all of us, not just someone with a piece of paper. I think it’s about time to elect a government that actually gets it.
Jason Nichols, Koloa
Keep dogs controlled
I was at Kealia Beach late in the afternoon on Monday with my sweet little 14-year-old small dog. We got out of the car and walked onto the beach just for a minute so I could breathe in the ocean air and to look for my husband who was surfing there. A brown truck pulled up and suddenly I saw a dog jump out of the truck and before I could pick my dog up the brown pit had her in its mouth. I started to scream and some young man came and started to beat at the dog with a stick to get him to drop my Mele. I was just crying and screaming for help. Finally the owner must have realized what had happened and he got out and also tried to get his dog to let go of my screaming dog. It was horrrible. People came running and finally they got Mele out of his mouth. We had to rush her to the veterinarian’s office and spent many hours having her face stitched up. She will live but we are both very traumatized by this.
The owner quickly disappeared. Please, please have your dogs tied into the back of your trucks when you come around other people and dogs.
Kealia was very crowded that day and it could just as easily been a small child.
I have a hefty vet bill and a very hurt dog. You know who you are. Please don’t let this happen again,
Linda Nusser, Kapa‘a
We are brothers and sisters
They say time heals all wounds. I have read the many letters and testimonies against the Superferry and I have seen all the protesters out in the water with keiki on their boards. Most of the complaints were about Kaua‘i getting invasive species, drugs, crime and they did not want us from the other islands to come there and ruin the beauty of the island.
How many of you remember Thanksgiving 1982? Yes, the year ‘Iwa devastated Kaua‘i. And after ‘Iwa hit we on the Big Island dug deep into our pockets and sent you thousands of dollars to help you as well as tons of food, clothing and other needs. Yes, we felt your pain and we gave. And then in mid-December when our economy was hurting we again dug into our pockets and sent you more than $40 thousand more dollars and another shipment of food, clothing and goods. I believe that amounted to over 10 tons.
We gave to you because you were our brothers and sisters. And now? Now you think we are druggies and thieves that want to mar your island if the ferry ever comes again. So much for aloha. But then when the next hurricane hits, I am sure we will still treat you like brothers and sisters.
John Gallipeau, Honomu, Big Island
Lest ye be …
It’s usually best to avoid topics such as judging other’s religion or beliefs, however, “There is only our God,” Letters, Dec.18, is so blatantly ridiculous and misguided it can not go unchallenged.
Calling Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons “cult” members is disgusting and insulting to millions of wonderful people. It’s obvious the writer has never read the teachings of other religions and studied their tenets with an open mind. All religions have a great deal to share with the world. Most have very common beliefs and try to focus on achieving a nicer life. Have you read the Koran cover to cover? Have you read every word of the Bible, the Teachings of Shinto, Book of Mormon, the Atheists Bible, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, or the Definitive Teachings of Buddha? Of course you haven’t or you wouldn’t be sitting on such a high throne and pompously judging others’ beliefs only to label their members as something lower than yourself.
When I judge something in our capitalistic world I always ask the question: “Who’s making money here and what is their motivation?” When religious leaders, including many “born-again” mainstream Christian pastors and TV evangelists, receive money and wealth by professing they somehow have a higher knowledge of God, one should definitely attempt to read between the lines for an understanding of their intent and motivation. When I look at the Mormons I see a religion whose bishops and leaders are paid not one cent for their positions. Their Bishops are doctors, architects, nurses, and construction workers serving their God and leading their church for the right reasons. When I see that, I see credibility, and I pay much more attention than I would to those who say follow me and pay your tithes so I may have power, a nice new house, and the Hummer I’ve always wanted in the driveway. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are law-abiding truth seekers who are living a strict set of religious laws to try and grow closer to the infinite. They are not a “cult” and we should all applaud their individual efforts for self improvement. Isn’t name calling and judging others in such a condescending manner exactly what Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin did as they sat in their degraded temples and called Jesus and his apostles “cult” members just before they crucified him.
Widen your focus, David Rich, and you may just realize you have a very nice ladder but it’s firmly planted against the wrong wall. I’m sure all your Jehovah’s Witness and Mormon friends would join me in wishing you a very Merry Christmas, and may 2008 be your personal year of enlightenment.
Gordon Oswald, Kapa‘a
