• Money attracting attention • Support Native Hawaiian reform • Get the island moving again • A red ink tidal wave Money attracting attention I could not help but respond to Howard Tolbe’s suggestion to have a golf course with
• Money attracting attention
• Support Native Hawaiian reform
• Get the island moving again
• A red ink tidal wave
Money attracting attention
I could not help but respond to Howard Tolbe’s suggestion to have a golf course with a couple of restaurants built with the HCB Fund that has been earmarked for Kekaha (“Infuse the Westside,” Letters, Dec. 17).
It is interesting to note further that nearly 50 people showed up at a meeting recently to discuss what should be done with that money. It was a meeting facilitated by the community organization, E Ola Mau Na Leo O Kekaha.
Usually, a dozen people attend, but when it comes to the almighty dollar, the smell of money can surely attract a lot of enthusiasm.
Suffice it to say, nothing definite has yet been planned, but certainly a wealth of ideas has surfaced. For instance, the consideration of replacing the community’s swimming pool to anchor a wellness center and a variety of shops, amenities and services to provide an economic hub for the community has also been considered. To be sure, there are a lot of other “plans” percolating as well.
For certain, the community will have its say and it will be more than interesting to see who shows up to speak up.
• Jose Bulatao Jr., Kekaha
Support Native Hawaiian reform
I just want to say Dec. 18 is an anniversary.
Today, 115 years ago to the day, U.S. President Grover Cleveland wrote a letter from the executive mansion to the U.S. Congress notifying the Congress that there was no way they could lawfully annex Hawai‘i from the U.S. ambassador to the Hawaiian Kingdom, who had just overthrown the Queen, that is, Queen Lili‘uokalani. Indeed, ‘Iolani Palace in Honolulu was overthown earlier that year, Jan. 17, 1893 by the ambassador acting arbitrarily on his own. Read the letter.
It’s easy to find; only 10 pages. Today would be a great day to do it. Would have been a great day a long time ago, actually.
But it’s like planting a tree. Some 20 years ago is the best time to have had your act together and planted that tree.
The second best time is now. Arbitrary authority is not supposed to be taken so casually and lightly by all us visitors out here on these mid-Pacific islands. It’s like Tibet’s Dalai Lama says of the Tibetan’s plight under the People’s Republic of China’s theft of the Tibetan sovereignty; it’s absolutely cultural genocide. Colonialism: the foreign culture has colonized and is replacing the other.
The only dignified choice around here is to support the Native Hawaiians in restoring their stolen rights.
Arbitrary authority is, by very definition, tyranny. All of us perpetuating this indignity of uncivilized foreign domination are accessories to this crime, too. Just cogs in the wheel. You’re sinking your own ship, too, is what you don’t realize.
There is going to be no sustainability for humanity, even if environmental balance is somehow struck, so long as tyranny is upheld by us versus freedom and rights. It is time to take the 1993 U.S. Congress Apology — United States Public Law 103-150, A Joint Apology to Offer an Apology to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the United States, for the Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai’i — the next logical step and actually end our disease of overrunning the colonized foreign culture. The whole planet suffers, human rights-wise and environmentally too, until we manage to stop behaving so disgracefully and stand for righteousness and the perpetuation, yes, genuinely, of the land.
Everyone here needs to support the Native Hawaiians in their plight to restore stolen rights, their sacred rights.
It is in your interests, too, in truth. Freedom is sustainability, not to be confused with tyranny, not even a little bit.
Please wholeheartedly support the Hawaiians in their sovereignty effort.
Ua mau ke ea o ka ‘aina i ka pono — The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
Support the Native Hawaiians in their efforts at reform without further delay.
• Jay Dougher, Kapa‘a
Get the island moving again
It is time people accept responsibility for their decisions/actions. The Democrats accuse the Republicans of the culture of corruption (Sen. Ted Stephens) and the Republicans accuse the Democrats of the same behavior (Gov. Rod Blagojevich).
Both of them need to clean their own houses.
Sen. Gary Hooser talks stink about Gov. Linda Lingle and then expects her to look favorably on Kaua‘i when it comes to money for island projects.
The County Council blames previous administrations/council members for the lack of action and yet they refuse to take action themselves and spend endless hours on things like should dogs walk on the bike path.
It is time for our elected officials to stop pointing fingers at others and make decisions to get this island moving again.
• JoAnne Georgi, ‘Ele‘ele
A red ink tidal wave
The new national slogan should be “The audacity of nope.”
No, we can’t bail out the huge array lining up in Washington.
This includes incompetent corporations, greedy unions, shaky mortgages and most of the 50 states of the union.
Rewarding stupidity generates more of the same. Without the bailout, the federal government faces a huge expense with legacy costs for the aging baby-boomers (Social Security and Medicaid).
With the bailouts, the red ink will turn into a tidal wave.
We need to face reality and plan accordingly.
• Suzanne Woodruff, Kapa‘a
