• Church-state union has downfalls • Yukimura for mayor • Study other ferry systems Church-state union has downfalls With regards to prophesy the Bible tells us that the final conflict will center around worship, forced worship. Surely world powers will
• Church-state union has downfalls
• Yukimura for mayor
• Study other ferry systems
Church-state union has downfalls
With regards to prophesy the Bible tells us that the final conflict will center around worship, forced worship.
Surely world powers will have a direct effect on final events but in the end the issue is, forced worship. The reinstitution of a church-state power.
Our forefathers left their homes in Europe in order to flee from just such a persecuting system. With this in mind we must be ever watchful to protect the special gift left us.
We should include in our decision-making process the candidates’ stand on the Constitution and their willingness to uphold and protect it in times of economic and social troubles.
God’s great gift to mankind is free will, whose spirit is imprinted on our great document, insuring us many rights, of which the freedom of worship is the crowning jewel. The freedom to worship whoever, wherever and particularly whenever we as individuals or as a group choose.
I’m a Christian, raised in the faith since childhood. I look for moral, religious candidates. We obviously are in need of many fine people but that must be tempered with a respect for religious liberty.
If the final conflict is over forced worship then we would be wise to do everything in our power to protect the one document that guards against this.
Some have said that they would be willing to legislate this country back to God. With regards to the Commandments the last six deal with our relationship with our fellow man and are rightly under the jurisdiction of the civil government (whose laws reflect the moral state of its people) but the first four deal with our personnel relationship with God and should be protected from government interference.
Although well-intentioned, history has taught us a cruel lesson about the downfalls of a church-state union. That journey back to the creator must begin with ourselves at home, at church, in our community where it was at the very beginning of this great nation.
Terence Healy
Kilauea
Yukimura for mayor
My first introduction to JoAnn Yukimura was in 1979 when she gave a speech at the first Kaua‘i Sunshine Market which was held in the parking lot of Wilcox School.
Our family was amongst the handful of farmers at that market. I thought at that time that she certainly was not your mainstream politician.
In the ensuing years, our family has had other opportunities to work with JoAnn and observe her enthusiasm for making Kaua‘i the best it can be.
In 1989 and 1990 while she was mayor, my husband was building superintendent for the Kilauea Self-Help Housing Project, which was the first of its kind on Kaua‘i. JoAnn fought for this project against neighborhood opposition. Through her perseverance and the support of the council and others in government, 16 deserving families achieved their goal of home ownership.
After Hurricane Iniki, when farmers as well as others in the community were hurting, we asked JoAnn if we could start another Sunshine Market in Kilauea. With the help of Bill Spitz at the Office of Economic Development, we opened the Thursday Kilauea Sunshine Market which is still thriving today.
Two years ago, we asked JoAnn if there was anything the county could do to help farmers provide for farm worker housing on their properties. JoAnn assembled a task force of farmers from all over Kaua‘i to work on this important issue. We have met many times over the past six months to work with the Planning Department and agricultural community to hammer out the details to make farm worker housing a possibility.
I have not always agreed with JoAnn on every issue, but I have always admired her poise and her thoughtful discernment in decision-making.
After Hurricane Iniki, she handled a gargantuan responsibility in the face of horrible devastation and suffering with this same poise and thoughtful discernment. Those months after Iniki were a time that we, individually, had to take care of many things that we had taken for granted, things that government would normally do for us.
Our priority lists were all different, based on what was left of our lives after the wind was gone. Whether it was rats in our rubbish or preparing meals for a family of six on a kerosene stove while living in a leaky tent, we all had our own definitions of “emergency.”
I cannot even imagine what it must have been like to have been in JoAnn’s place. But my remembrance and my observation was that she did a magnificent and admirable job.
I believe that if she had remained as mayor for another term then we would not have the solid waste problem that we do now. I believe we would have a real recycling program. I believe the Kaua‘i Bus would be even better than it now is. I believe our Sunshine Markets would be even more robust, with farmers selling their value-added products.
For these and many other reasons and, especially, to keep Kaua‘i Kaua‘i, I believe that JoAnn Yukimura should be our next mayor.
Louisa Wooton
Kilauea
Study other ferry systems
Laura Thielen thinks the unspoken problem with the Superferry for Kaua‘i residents is the number of visitors from O‘ahu?
Instead of practicing her psychic abilities maybe she should just listen to what the concerns are and speak to those.
She acknowledges invasive species are an issue, and then waters her so-called concern down with “periodic checks will be made of the Superferry” and “we need to take a look at all forms of transportation” — spoken like a politician, or maybe a hand puppet for the Lingle Superferry.
If honesty and real concern are present in Ms. Thielen, she should study how other communities have mitigated issues with ferry service. Perhaps looking at superferryimpact.com/concernstosac.pdf would educate her.
The references in this Sierra Club article I have checked out, especially of interest to me as I recently spent many hours on the Alaska ferry system which has a much more intensive presence than the Superferry will have here.
Just to be clear, I am for the Superferry, even after the shenanigans of Lingle pushing it through, and the Dems caving in and writing the loophole law that circumvented the Hawaii Supreme Court.
It can be done in a way that the benefits outweigh the negative impacts, that is what studying other ferry systems and doing a legitimate EIS are for. Why be afraid of doing the right thing?
Joshua Atkinson
Kapa‘a
