Letters for Friday, January 18, 2008

• Give coexistence a chance

• Past wrongs, righted

• Think outside the box

• Oprah’s on

• Failed ferry story

Give coexistence a chance

More than a month ago, December, the (Department of Natural Resources) Land Board was faced with two competing entities for state lands. One party was the Kalepa Koalition (farmers and ranchers) and the other entity was Green Energy. Instead of making a decision where one entity would win and the other lose, the Board asked the two entities to meet and come up with a co-existence plan, where they both would be able to utilize the lands. This concept seemed almost impossible to achieve as hostility flew and the December holiday season was coming upon us. However, after three hard meetings in December, facilitated by DLNR staff, the concept of co-existing started shaping up.

After the last meeting and up to the last day before the Land Board’s hearing on Jan. 11, phone calls, e-mails and one-to-one meetings continuously took place amongst farmers, ranchers and Green Energy executives. At the hearing on Jan. 11, Green Energy and the Kalepa Koalition submitted a proposal for co-existing on the Kalepa lands with conditions that both entities could accept. Obviously, the Land Board was more than happy to approve the proposal.

The DLNR Land Board and staff sincerely thank and commend Les Milnes, Rev. Katir and all the Kalepa Koalition members, Eric Knudsen of Green Energy, Bill Cowern of Hawaii Mahogony, Sam Lee and Gerry Ornelis of East Kauai Water Users Coop for formulating the plan of co-existence.

In conclusion, Kaua‘i as a whole should start looking to co-exist on this precious and small island.

All concerned citizens of Kaua‘i must look deep into themselves, as well as be guided by our government decision makers, to move away from fostering winners and losers. It doesn’t have to and it shouldn’t be that way. We all care about this island and if we put our minds to it, we all can co-exist.

Ron Agor

Lihu‘e

Past wrongs, righted

In response to “Imagine Democrat mayors and governors” from Dennis Chaquette, Letters, Jan.15:

Well I guess we all know that Dennis Chaquette must be a Democrat. I think just about everything he complains about in his letter was taking place long before (approximately 40 years of Democratic control) the three Republicans he continually bashes were overwhelmingly elected.

The Republicans, as he refers to them, were elected to try and bulldoze the piles of stagnant waste of problems that were left behind from the past administration, which has plagued this state for many years. We will never see solutions that effect our lives until the Democrats and Republicans stop bashing the people we elect to run our government. If Chaquette or anyone else thinks that any political party is going to single-handedly solve all of our problems if elected, think again. This type of thinking is exactly why we haven’t solved the problems he states. I have said it before, and the more I watch what goes on with the politics of this state, the more I’m convinced: “If General Motors board of directors were broken up as Democrats and Republicans, they would go bankrupt.”

Steven Martin

Kapa‘a

Think outside the box

I would like to suggest that we could all help the recycling effort by re-using the boxes we receive from Costco and Cost-U-Less.

Why not take them in your trunk when shopping at other stores like Safeway, Foodland, Big Save, and even the Sunshine markets to put your groceries into instead of using the plastic or paper bags?

You could load them into the shopping carts when leaving your car and might even find them more convenient to use to carry your purchases.

I also break down the boxes when they wear out and bury them as a barrier to weeds in our garden.

Richard Heppard

Kapa‘a

Oprah’s on

I saw Oprah’s Going Green 101 show on Dec. 4. It was packed with great information. If you missed it, check it out on Oprah.com to see her list of going green favorites. Here’s what caught my eye:

• Go to Americanforests.org. They will plant one tree for every dollar you donate.

• Go to Greendimes.com. They will stop your junk mail, including catalogs, and plant 10 trees for $20. Junk mail wastes 100 million trees and 20 billion gallons of water yearly. Matt Damon received this as a gift and was so impressed that he now sits on their board.

• Starbucks will give you 10 cents off if you bring your own mug. Awesome.

• The average American uses six napkins a day. That’s 1 billion pounds of paper waste yearly. Try cloth.

• 14 million trees are wasted a year on grocery bags. Bring your own to the store.

Go green, Kaua‘i. You can make a difference.

Linda Silva

Kalaheo

Failed ferry story

Anyone interested in the ongoing Superferry debacle may be amused by the story of Lake Ontario’s now defunct fast ferry “Spirit of Ontario.”

This ferry was intended to operate between Rochester, N.Y., and Toronto, Canada, and was manufactured by Austal — the same company that manufactured our beloved Superferry. According to the Wikipedia article (Google “Spirit of Ontario”) the ferry was plagued by a number of frighteningly familiar sounding problems including: A damaged hull from docking at a public relations event which required emergency repairs by Austal; delayed service start; lack of harbor infrastructure both in Rochester and Toronto; poor ridership; problems with the propulsion system; and troubles with the four main engines.

Originally slated to start in May of 2004, the service didn’t officially start until June 17, 2004. By Sept. 7 of the same year, not even three months later, the service was suspended and the company later declared bankruptcy.

Only after a second failed attempt to operate the service was the ferry finally sold to a German company and sailed off to Spain in 2007.

So, Gov. Linda Lingle, I have to ask you, “Did you do your homework on this one?”

And for all my island friends both for and against the Superferry, I’m reminded of that great bumper sticker: “Relax, God’s in Charge.”

Liam Selwyn

Kaupakulua, Maui