• War zone and monkeypod horticide • Agrees with Elaine Albertson • True essence of the holidays • A Grinch of a tale War zone and monkeypod horticide Who is that developer? Who is the Knudsen Trust today? Have they
• War zone and monkeypod horticide
• Agrees with Elaine Albertson
• True essence of the holidays
• A Grinch of a tale
War zone and monkeypod horticide
Who is that developer? Who is the Knudsen Trust today? Have they no sense of history or love of the ‘aina left in their so-called “trust”?
This is over-the-top horrendous to think of those beloved trees being executed. I am still mourning the death of those beautiful pine trees across from Kapa‘a Elementary School. Who authorized THAT massacre?
This is going way to fast for me. I can’t keep up with the desecration and destruction of the natural beautiful landmarks that are the very character and personality of this island. So here’s comes Koloa Marketplace LLC, death of monumental natural landmarks, and not to mention the demise of a sweet and pleasant tradition, The Spouting Horn vendors, which all the tourists love, which is scheduled for mass destruction about five years from now.
Anybody with common sense can see that all these things are interrelated. I can imagine businessmen in their $135 – $350 Tommy Bahama and Reyn Spooner aloha shirts sitting around discussing the profits they will glean from the diverted revenue after the death of the Spouting Horn vendor tables, et al (while some local braddah in his favorite 10-year-old puka shirt cruises by the trees enjoying their splendor and familiarity. )
The South Side is a war zone. I had not been there for a long time. When I saw it recently I thought this IS as sick as war. War is being quietly and insidiously waged against Kaua‘i EXACTLY as it was in the time of Queen Liliu‘okalani: a group of elite businessmen huddled together figuring out how rich they are going to be when they take control of, plunder and exploit the natural resources of this incredible land. How sick, sick, sick that the people who have the money, who have the power, have still not learned. If there ever was a time for “civil disobedience” it is now, before it becomes the end of the end. When I finish this letter, I’m going to look at the articles and see if any protests are scheduled right at the time of the horticide. I think it’s time we join hands and lie down in front of those trees in a human chain, quietly, with true Hawaiian dignity, and prevent this irreversible damage. If the people of Kaua’i can’t stop this massacre, the sound of the chainsaws will be the sound of the most morbid death rattle of our beautiful Kaua‘i. Let me know when those protests are scheduled; I’ll be there. (No swearing and throwing stuff, eh…?)
Aloha, Kaua’i and her people, I love you.
Donna Alalem
Kapa‘a
Agrees with Elaine Albertson
Elaine Albertson, Waimea, writes one of the best opinion letters I’ve seen regarding the owners of dogs that become dangerous.
Dogs are what the human makes them to be, period. It is not the breed, it is the human owner. Our thanks to her for some insight into some pitiful people’s mentality.
The same could be said of people. No baby is born with hate in it’s mind, that is taught or learned. However, I do believe that there are humans that are born who are evil, due to some mental problem from the start.
Can’t prove it, just an opinion for one to consider.
Gordon “Doc” Smith
Kapa‘a
True essence of the holidays
The words written for the Sunday, Dec. 16, edition of The Garden Island by Juan Wilson are a much-needed wake up call for many Kaua‘i residents.
To put such high expectations on Christmas is a sad state of our society. The American standard of over-the-top spending is far out of hand.
I believe the true essence of the holiday season is the chance to re-attach bonds with family and friends. Throughout the year it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day rush of survival, that the most important and beautiful ingredients of life often go ignored or forgotten. Time, simple time, the time that there never seems to be enough of, is given solely to carreer ambitions and personal achievment. The relationships that make life ever so joyous are sacrificed.
Holidays often reunite each other, if only for a single day, to once again bask in the comfort of being with close friends and relatives. The ideology of what Christmas is or has become makes no difference in the end. I hope that each person can reflect, laugh, be merry, feel loved, and find satisfaction in the more basic side of what the holidays are for. They say life is short and it is, but it can also be painfully long if you let the good days, friends, family and memories roll past you like a distant white cloud.
To all of you, peace to your hearts.
Kaplan Krow
From the Internet
A Grinch of a tale
I’d like to share a little story first-hand about the interesting course of action by a certain development’s PR surrounding the proposed cutting of Koloa’s historic monkeypod trees…
To inform the community of the plans to eliminate these trees, concerned Kaua‘i citizens and longtime residents erected on public property fronting the trees a memorial, consisting of 17 crosses (one for each tree) and a countdown sign stating the number of days left till their removal. Early one bright morning soon after their placement Koloa shop owners witnessed a vehicle pull up erratically, a woman and her son jump from the vehicle and start stuffing the crosses and signs into their vehicle like the Grinch that stole Christmas.
Knowing that they were placed on public property one of the shop owners yelled across the street, “Hey you can’t do that, that’s public property!”
Fearfully looking over their shoulders, this duo frantically finished their dirty deed and then peeled out catching a cone beneath their vehicle and dragging it a distance in their hasty exit.
The interesting part about this story, is that no one would have identified this woman except for her goodwill gesture a few days previous of dropping off chocolates to the shops in Koloa town (compliments of this certain development…)
Being a longtime citizen of Kaua‘i, her older son was contacted in regards to the retrieval of the “borrowed” items by requesting they “be dropped off at the police department, no questions asked.” Soon after they were given to the police stating they had been “found on the side of the road.” Sure they had.
Is this informational placement so threatening that someone would risk their own reputation by breaking the law for this company?
Esther Heckman from kauaiworld.com
