• Great read • Deep as it gets • Wilson column needs research • Missing our beloved cat Great read I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know what a great newspaper you have. On our
• Great read
• Deep as it gets
• Wilson column needs research
• Missing our beloved cat
Great read
I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know what a great newspaper you have.
On our fourth trip to Kaua‘i last week we read it every morning and had a real sense of community with the residents of your beautiful island.
That sense of community is alive and well and we never feel like tourists and were never treated as such. In fact, on a brunch visit to Gaylords on Sunday, they actually thought we were locals.
It can’t get any better than that.
Thanks for the hospitality, the weather, the food, the scenery and tranqulity, and of course a great read of The Garden Island newpaper.
Tom Baker
Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Deep as it gets
The “myopic attitude” cited by Krisztina Samu (“Deeper Superferry sense,” Letters, April 28) is best exhibited by her and those others in opposition to the Superferry.
It goes something like this: “I care about the environment, therefore I am right.”
No need to look any deeper at the issue.
“What those others, who also care about the environment, say or write is also correct.”
No need to look any deeper at the issue.
“Those who contradict anyone, who cares about the environment, need to be educated.”
No need to look any deeper at the issue.
“Purchases that are below my lofty value system are unworthy examples of our shallow consumerist culture.”
No need to look any deeper at the issue because “my values are the only correct ones and I inherently know what is right.”
An education, that includes a graduate school level knowledge about research and critical thinking skills with objective criticism, enables the “deeper look” referenced. That look reveals, in regard to Superferry opposition, garbage science and misinformation applied to a conclusion already formed. These opinions are then stated as facts by a crowd who believed them at face value in the first place.
No deeper look even attempted. The only area that could stand up to peer review is invasive species. This is an issue bigger than any single boat. What is needed here is an approach that is balanced and in between the idiotic rigid approach to rabies and the idiotic, wide-open-door approach to Young Brothers, et al. This is a fight worth fighting; a fight that can unify rather than divide.
Speaking of division, this other myopic attitude in the letter: “I am not rich, therefore I am right and better” is reverse snobbery. It is just as ugly as the usual snobbery. On Kaua‘i now, the “rich Mainlander” dismissal is being added to “all building harms the environment” dismissal that leads to the misinformation applied once again to a conclusion already formed and inherently known to be the truth. Yes, I do agree with this writer that deeper looks are needed.
Pete Antonson
Wailua
Wilson column needs research
While Juan Wilson has impressive insight on many subjects and has eloquently represented his viewpoints on many occasions, his view of Hawai‘i’s history is somewhat tainted by a personal agenda (“Hawaiian Nation: Exploring the history of land and sovereignty,” A7, April 27).
If one has to begin a column with “I’ve done limited research” and “the article does not claim any authority” then why waste the public’s time reading it? Why not just limit the column to “Hey, go google ‘Hawaiian history’ and come to your own conclusions about what happened.”
At least one would get a well-rounded view of different perspectives. It would be good journalism for any column writer of history, medicine, or any other highly complicated subject to have even limited credentials to qualify them as an educator. Believe it or not, people actually believe most of what they read in the newspaper. How much studying has the author done on the subject of their column and for how many years? How many published columns have they authored and presented to the historical archives which have subsequently been accepted by the greater community of historical experts?
The real danger is sometimes uneducated writers on serious and complicated subjects conveniently reconstruct history to meet their own personal agenda.
Unfortunately, in this column it appears that may be the case. Wild speculations relating to what the white man was “thinking” and what the King was “thinking” just may reveal an obvious attempt to interject personal perspective to a very complicated endeavor. Painting all the Kamehamehas after the first as idiots who had no thoughts of their own but made the most important decisions of their lives by blindly following the suggestions of white missionaries and evil business leaders makes it seem like the Hawaiian people and their Kings were stupid and cowardly sheep.
I would submit their real history reveals just the opposite. Were these the writer’s opinions, or were they just copied verbatim from the Internet and reflect someone else’s personal agenda?
It may be meaningful for what is otherwise a wonderful newspaper to limit your educational column writers to subjects they know something about.
Gordon Oswald
Kapa‘a
Missing our beloved cat
Recently we lost our beloved cat of 16 years to an illness we didn’t know he had.
It brings to mind the capability of animals to be not only our companions, but soulmates as they travel with us through life. The grief me and my daughter feel is so deep and complete, yet it helps us know what others must also feel with that kind of loss.
We want to thank Dr. David at the Lihue Veterinary Hospital — for leaving his breakfast (much too early) with the Kiwanis Club to attend to our cat.
He and his kind assistant Brian spent the better part of Sunday helping us through the process of not putting our kitty to sleep, but trying to save him. It left us with both sadness of missing him and gratitude for the kindness here in Kaua‘i.
Ingrid Middleton
Kapa‘a
