Letters for Sunday, February 1, 2009

• Time for truth

• Big mahalos

• Alleviate government waste first

• Granddaughters seek justice

Time for truth

Kudos to the group of citizens responsible for the publication of the Jan. 26 commentary “Clarifying Misconceptions About the Superferry.”

The four writers represent a cross-section of the community — a kupuna, a North Shore activist, a Westside fisherman and a college instructor. They were certainly not mean-sprited haoles, as the media has relentlessly portrayed anyone critical of Superferry. Rather, these people were thoughtful and clearly care about their island and its residents.

I myself have been especially concerned about how O‘ahu businesses with much lower overhead will be able to easily move in to Kaua‘i and wipe out our local counterparts.

Also, we are an agricultural economy. Once the fire ants are here, ag will be pau. In fact, there is no place on Earth where the fire ants have invaded that agriculture has survived. Fire ants kill an agricultural economy permanently.

And then there is the issue of resource plunder. Over 400 pounds of reef fish were taken from Maui by Superferry passengers in one month alone. That was August. Death to the land and sea which feeds us is death to us. (There is an informative YouTube video on this called “Superferry Plunder.”)

But all this is just the tip of the iceberg, in terms of the truths that have been hidden from us, and the astounding lengths that Lingle and Hawaii Superferry went and continue to go to construct and perpetuate the charade. For more clarification on all these misconceptions, a must-read book is “The Superferry Chronicles.”

It’s high time the truth came to light.

• Archie Mead, Kilauea

Big mahalos

I took a horrible fall on the new pavement at Brennecke’s beach last Sunday. The aloha spirit was at work immediately.

I broke my wrist and got a severe cut on my knee that exposed my knee cap. My angels, perfect strangers, included: a very nice visiting young man, who held my leg up for about 20 minutes to keep the wound compressed; a nurse named Stephanie who stopped to offer her aid; a woman who offered a pillow to prop my head; and my number one angel, Jamie Bourke, who held my hand, transported me to Wilcox Memorial Hospital, and stayed by my side for six hours while the staff worked on me.

Jamie is extraordinary. She is 22 years old, but absolutely took charge and comforted me in such a reassuring way. There are no words to thank Jamie adequately. You are my hero!

The staff at Wilcox was exceptional in their professionalism, caring and thoroughness. Dr. Egan Lee and Janelle Timmons took excellent care of my wounds. Thanks for the 23 stitches, doc!

Thanks also to Dr. Floyd Pohlman and Jennifer Brown who treated me the following day. My special thanks to Dr. Linda Paul, who always returns my calls.

When I moved to Hawai‘i 13 months ago, one of my concerns was medical care. From this experience, I can tell you that we have a wonderful facility in Wilcox Hospital.

I don’t think the good in this world gets acknowledged enough, so thanks one and all, especially to all the friends I didn’t know I had.

• Kathy Sheffield, Koloa

Alleviate government waste first

So our governor and state transportation officials want to pile more taxes on the already overburdened shoulders of every Kaua‘i resident to the tune of $170 per year (“State unveils $4.2 billion plan to modernize transportation,” The Garden Island, Jan. 23).

With our citizens scrambling to keep their jobs or find new ones, with the economy in a free fall, with people working two and three jobs just to survive, is this the time to be thinking about adding more taxes to their lives?

Yes, we desperately need our 300 miles of county roads and all of our state highways repaved. And yes, we urgently need more alternate roads on Kaua‘i (like the Kapa‘a bypass) to alleviate our horrendous traffic problems.

And, as the article points out, it would be nice to spend the extra time at work or at home and not sitting behind the wheel of a car because of the traffic conditions.

But before we break the backs of our citizens with new taxes let’s pursue the course of action that state Sen. Gary Hooser introduced as a council member years ago and that Mel Rapozo wisely picked up on. They pushed to have a performance audit done of our Public Works Department, the largest budgeted department on Kaua‘i, to see where the waste is and fix it.

Four years ago the council by a 4-to-3 vote appropriated $500,000 for a performance audit but to this date it has never been done. Why?

Our county roads are not being paved by HAPI (Hawaiian Asphalt Paving Industry) standards and a huge amount of tax money is being wasted.

In other words, instead of a road being in good condition for 15 to 20 years if paved properly, it will have cracks and pot holes in it in two to three years and must be resurfaced.

So, before adding one more cent of taxes to our gas or any other source of revenue, let’s perform this audit, get rid of the waste and save more overburdening of our hard working citizens.

• Glenn Mickens, Kapa‘a

Granddaughters seek justice

It has been almost three years since our grandparents’ headstones were damaged and their urns stolen from the Keapana cemetery.

Whoever committed this senseless and heartless crime has not yet been caught and we wanted to take this time to remind the public that this criminal is still roaming the community and that our grandparents’ urns are still missing.

Our grandparents were exceptionally hard workers who ran a successful mom-and-pop store in Waipouli for 40-plus years. Our grandfather lived to be 100 years old and our grandmother lived until she was 94 years old.

They lived a simple life, but lived life to its fullest. They were generous, kind and caring souls. That is why it is even more difficult to accept that this has happened when they should now be resting in peace.

When our family goes to their grave, there is an emptiness knowing our loved ones remains are no longer there. Although people may say that we do not need to physically have their ashes to remember our beloved grandparents, it is just the thought that someone would vilify something so sacred.

We hope whoever did this unthinkable crime realizes how much their selfishness has affected our entire family. We can’t possibly imagine what you want or gain from someone’s urn, but obviously you were only thinking of yourself.

This case remains unsolved and we are asking for anyone with information about this crime to call the Kaua‘i Police Department.

• Mindy Nakashima-Inouye, Marcia Montayre and Toni Tasaka-Alapai, Granddaughters of Asaichi and Isano Yasuda