• Vet remembers Pearl Harbor • Lights on Rice a success • Christian Self-Defense Academy Guidebooks should give back • Impose an ‘Energy Price Tax’ on oil for green benefits Vet remembers Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor was bombed on Dec.
• Vet remembers Pearl Harbor
• Lights on Rice a success
• Christian Self-Defense Academy Guidebooks should give back
• Impose an ‘Energy Price Tax’ on oil for green benefits
Vet remembers Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor was bombed on Dec. 7, 1941. In March of 1942, at the age of 19, I was working at Pearl harbor as a civilian machinist helper.
It was still a very bad scene. The smell of bunker oil and death permeated the atmosphere. The battleships California and West Virginia were sunk with Japanese aerial torpedoes. The Oklahoma was capsized and lying on her side. The Arizona was sitting flat on the bottom, sunk by a 500-pound bomb dropped dead center.
When the bombing occurred I was sitting at home in Saint Paul, Minn. We were just coming out of the depression and my father’s small meat market and grocery store couldn’t afford college for me, so I had been going to a National Youth Administration machine shop school, eight hours a day for the past nine months.
When the U.S. Navy advertised in all the newspapers that it was hiring mechanics and mechanic helpers. I applied and my machine shop education qualified me for the job of machinist helper, first class.
I had never seen a big ship except for the ore freighters on the Great Lakes, but the Navy was looking for mechanical skills.
In addition to mechanics from the Mainland, the Navy also brought in transfers from other Navy yards such as Brooklyn, Norfolk, Bremerton and others. It goes without saying that security was tight, but none took this more seriously than the civilian workers.
As we worked on the various warships, we also became aquatinted with the sailors who manned them.
We were tight-lipped and stayed that way all through the war.
After 18 months at Pear Harbor I obtained an honorable release, with a certificate of appreciation from President Roosevelt, to go commercial fishing. In October 1944, my draft number came up and I joined the United States Army from which I was honorably discharged with rank of sergeant in 1946, with full GI bill benefits.
I hope that the Congress sees fit to take the same good care of our brave veterans today that it took care of us from WWII.
• Harry Boranian, Lihu‘e
Lights on Rice a success
I have to say that the turnout for the Lights on Rice Parade was again a success.
Many people lined along the street to watch the beautifully decorated floats, listen to children singing, etc.
Our Kajukenbo school participated again this year. I would like to thank those advanced students who performed the stick demonstration, the parents and students who handed out candy canes and to Sifu Conrad Ramos who dedicates his time to teach the art of Kajukenbo.
We would like to thank Michael Bonilla III and family (Noe, Brylen, Rayden and Cyan) for allowing our school to utilize his truck.
We would also like to thank KIMO for transporting the truck to and from each event. We appreciate the time that you take to do this for us.
We hope that everyone has a beautiful holiday season.
• Debbie Carney
Christian Self-Defense Academy Guidebooks should give back
As a long-time resident of Kaua‘i I have been following the saga of Queen’s Bath for some time now.
I have a lot of respect for Lenore Horowitz for intentionally leaving out Queen’s Bath from her guidebook. It is not a “hidden gem” as the ultimate guide describes it but a danger zone especially for tourists who are not familiar with its hidden dangers.
We people of Kaua‘i need to promote safety. We also should promote a guidebook that gives its profit back to the island.
I did not see the Underground Guide at Costco but I did see the Ultimate Kaua‘i Guidebook there. The same goes for some other stores.
Why would merchants promote a book that sends people into harms way and not promote a book that does not do this but rather is giving back to the Island ?
Thank you Lenore for having the best interest at heart for the tourist’s that come to our island. And also for giving back to the island instead of making a profit on your book.
• Sonja King, Kapa‘a
Impose an ‘Energy Price Tax’ on oil for green benefits
The U.S. should impose a substantial “Energy Price Tax” on every barrel of oil consumed annually to supply our energy, transportation and industrial infrastructures, and apply the proceeds to support new “green” technologies like the innovative electric car software and charging network envisioned by the company, Better Place, and recently embraced by Gov. Linda Lingle.
According to the International Energy Agency, the U.S. consumes 7.7 billion barrels of oil annually to power our energy, transportation and industrial sectors. An Energy Price Tax at $50 per barrel would generate approximately $385 billion of revenue annually to revolutionize America’s energy base and create millions of new jobs while avoiding more budget deficits.
Importantly, the tax would help create a floor price for oil essential to halting the volatile cycle of price swings that alternately incent and then discourage investment in critical, alternative energy paths.
The tax could also help move the price of consuming oil closer to its lifecycle cost — more closely approximating its external impacts on the environment, public health and national security, and reflective of the fact that excessive consumption by the current generation imposes higher costs for future generations.
Such a tax would likely avoid significant negative impacts on consumers inasmuch as its application to the current per-barrel price would still mean sub-$100 per barrel oil. Even if oil settles at $80 per barrel as analysts predict, assessment of the tax would still result in a price well below the peak of $145 per barrel set in July 2008.
Empirical evidence from the 2008 run-up in oil demonstrates that consumer demand decreases only slightly in response to higher prices. This is principally because consumers have no reasonably available alternatives.
An Energy Price Tax would produce more efficient and equitable pricing, speed up the diffusion of new energy-saving technologies, and deliver real benefits to the people for a change.
• Joe Hommel, Waikapu, Maui
