• I want onboard Superferry • Media and the Akaka Bill • Reasonable to drill more oil I want onboard Superferry A few weeks ago, I made a shopping trip to O‘ahu. I was looking for new household items that
• I want onboard Superferry
• Media and the Akaka Bill
• Reasonable to drill more oil
I want onboard Superferry
A few weeks ago, I made a shopping trip to O‘ahu. I was looking for new household items that I can’t get here. I had the pleasure of shopping in some of the Big Box stores. In Pier 1, I spent $100 on items. I had to spend $45 to have them shipped and I could not ship any glass items. I elected to have items sent home from another store because I knew I would be over my 100 pound limit for the plane.
It arrived broken. I had another item shipped to me, and that one arrived broken as well. I think I wasted the same money it would have cost for a trip on the Superferry.
How nice it would have been to be able to take all my purchases home in my car on the Superferry.
I also was looking forward to the Superferry to take my artwork to contests and exhibit on O‘ahu. It is too expensive for my art to travel by air because it is made from concrete and stone. No can do, thanks to protesters.
So in these instances, protesters have limited my rights to earn extra money and to save money on products that are offered much cheaper or cannot be found here. Not only this, but it limits many people’s right to travel this way to conduct business cheaper than air travel. Ferry travel is the cheapest way to carry goods across the water. So the spoilers that say this is not a cheap way to travel were wrong. This is the only cheap way for some people to get goods they want on O‘ahu, or take heavy items between the islands to do their jobs.
Kaua‘i residents should have the right to travel this way to save and earn money. We should have the right to buy a car if we want, bring home furniture, shop specialty food and department stores, work and bring equipment without all the cost and hassle of having to ship hundreds of pounds by air. Why should we be content to pay more and have the products we buy limited because our only way to travel is by air? Many island communities see both means of travel as a necessity.
I have never seen the likes of so much hysteria in all my life. Too many people having too much time on their hands supposing “what if?”
I am angry with these people. I will be the first onboard once these crazy people stop harassing those who want to board.
Carrie Lavigne
Kapa‘a
Media and the Akaka Bill
If all the citzens of Hawai‘i were to vote using secret ballots on the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act (Akaka Bill), it would not pass. Just pick 10 people off the streets of Lihu‘e at random for your own poll.
But regardless of where you stand on this issue of tremendous implications for all Americans, Elizabeth Langer’s article (“Famous are the Flowers — Hawaiian Resistance Then and Now”) in the current issue of Nation magazine is a must-read. Columnist Jerry Burris’ blog in the April 24 Honolulu-Advertiser admits the article “reads for the most part the way one could expect for a magazine described as ‘the flagship of the Left.’” More importantly, with figurative open-mouth, he writes that the author “points out correctly that the Akaka Bill is quite silent on what would happen if a Hawaiian entity is recognized … (it) also recognizes the potentially ‘staggering implications’ of the bill on the future of ceded lands in the islands. …”
Wow.
That caught my attention, so I waded through the article’s historical stuff (not totally accurate, but who’s counting?) to get to the bottom line — 1.8 million acres at stake, among other issues, and Akaka’s own foot-in-mouth statement that maybe it will be up to his grandkids to reinstate Hawai‘i sovereignty. (Or my five cousins of Native Hawaiian ancestry?)
Well, Honolulu-based Grassroots Institute’s President Richard Rowland feels that for the media even to concede that the Akaka Bill gives cause for pause is a step toward sanity. Or as one Kauaian said tongue-in-cheek to me in January, “Maybe Danny didn’t bring it down from Mauna Kea on tablets of stone after all.”
Ray Smith
Wheaton, Illi.
Reasonable to drill more oil
The newspapers, TV and radio all have news that a recession is upon us. Having been around a few years, it’s a certainty that George Bush will be blamed, not what Congress did or failed to do, or what effect other countries actions have done to cause our financial problems.
I don’t qualify as an economist, but it seems to me that the oil problem is and will continue to be our downfall. We have known for years that the oil demand was on the rise, with India’s and China’s demand increasing dramatically. Because of our reluctance to increase drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, we have placed our country in the position that we are now being blackmailed by countries that couldn’t care less if our economy goes down the drain.
Environmentalists have been successful in blocking nuclear power and the oil drilling where we have the largest oil reserve known today in the world. Building other refineries also would help, but everyone says not in my backyard. Japan relies heavily on nuclear power and there has never been an accident. Another alarming aspect is that we are paying for oil to countries that would like to see us wiped out. I don’t know anyone that would be thrilled to see oil rigs off our coasts but there must come a time when we take concrete steps to remedy this problem.
I see frequent pictures of Alaska where the caribou gather under the oil pipeline for warmth. Surely there must be some concern for the better good that will allow us to drill in those places where we know the oil is and help relieve this problem. Unfortunately if drilling was started now it would be five to six years before the production would rise to the level to keep us mostly independent of other countries. If the environmentalists insist on maintaining their “No” attitude about everything I would be in favor of issuing special cards to them where they automatically pay a dollar a gallon extra at the pump so they can still say they are against drilling, nuclear or new refineries. The prices of bread, milk and all basic food costs have risen and when gas hits the magic $4 per gallon they will go even higher. Besides the housing crunch the price of gas is what will keep our economy in a down cycle.
I pray that more reasonable people will do the right thing for our country.
I can still hope.
Bob Yount
Kalaheo
