• Lewis needs a history lesson • Stop talking, do something • The cannabis message must change • Visitors, beware • Lottery to help finances Lewis needs a history lesson Walter Lewis needs to learn more of our history if
• Lewis needs a history lesson
• Stop talking, do something
• The cannabis message must change
• Visitors, beware
• Lottery to help finances
Lewis needs a history lesson
Walter Lewis needs to learn more of our history if his true aims are to illuminate the state appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in the so-called “ceded lands” case, better known as the Hawaiian Kingdom Crown and Government Lands case.
In his opinion piece (“History helps to illuminate Hawaiian ceded lands case,” Forum, Jan. 24), Lewis attempts to delineate the legal history behind the recent actions of the Lingle administration’s decision to file a certiorari petition in the United States Supreme Court seeking to overturn a January 2008 Hawai‘i Supreme Court decision requiring the state to desist in any efforts to sell part of the ceded lands until claims of Native Hawaiian interests have been resolved.
But there are many problems with his duplicitous historical chronology. For one, he neglects to mention that the U.S. appropriated stolen lands from the Republic of Hawai‘i in 1898 when it unilaterally annexed the Hawaiian Islands in violation of existing international law.
He also conveniently leaves out most essential part the U.S. Apology Resolution from 1993 (U.S. Public Law 103-150), which states: “the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or over their national lands to the United States, either through their monarchy or through a plebiscite or referendum.”
Applying the language of “civil rights” to the question of the Supreme Court appeal is not only an insult to the Hawaiian people and other descendants of the Kingdom, it is a farcical attempt to elide the history of Hawai‘i as a stolen nation for which we have an un-extinguished claim to restore under international law.
• J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Ph.D., Middletown, Conn.
Stop talking, do something
Mr. Mickens, I would like to commend you on your dedication and commitment to serve Kaua‘i’s youth through baseball. I have heard great stories from current AJA ball players on your ability to coach and play baseball.
I have also read of your writings to The Garden Island. You seem to criticize the County Council and the mayor, you complain about problems that we all face on Kaua‘i, and now you criticize the AJA league.
I’m sure you are aware of the roots of AJA and how/why it got started. Did you, or any of your family members that came before you say something when the Japanese Americans were forced to stay in internment camps? If not, why are you trying to ruin what we have now?
The board members of our league work very hard to keep our league going. The coaches and players have a deep respect for the sport that you love, so please, Mr. Mickens, leave AJA alone.
The bottom line is you were a great player and a great coach. You understand the game and because you participated in so many different leagues, you should know what is needed to start and carry on a successful league. So since you have been saying something for over 10 years, why don’t you stop talking and do something? Start your own league and, again, leave AJA alone.
• Bradley Chiba, Lihu‘e
The cannabis message must change
Eliminating Drug Abuse Resistance Education-type government anti-drug programs (“How to reduce drug use,” Letters, Jan. 27) will lower hard drug addiction rates when replaced by more honest drug awareness programs.
Even government studies indicate DARE is a failure and one reason is due to teaching lies, half-truths and propaganda concerning the relatively safe, God-given plant cannabis (marijuana).
How many citizens try cannabis and realize it’s not nearly as harmful as taught in DARE programs? Then they think other substances must not be so bad either, only to become addicted to deadly drugs. The old lessons make cannabis out to be among the worst substances in the world, even though it’s never killed a single person.
The federal government even classifies cannabis as a Schedule I substance along with heroin, while methamphetamine and cocaine are only Schedule II substances. For the health and welfare of America’s children and adults, the message pertaining to cannabis absolutely must change.
• Stan White, Dillon, Colo.
Visitors, beware
This is to advise visitors to paradise that some of the car rental companies are gouging you at the rental counters.
Just because this is paradise doesn’t mean you have to pay triple the rate from last year. Seven hundred and fifty dollars a week for a car is outrageous.
Please shop around. I returned my car after one day and went to Thrifty in paradise for a company that was one-half the price.
• Mark Radford, Albuquerque, NM
Lottery to help finances
As much as we all complain about our roads, and the traffic only gets worse — without any viable feedback from those in a position to do something about it. I have a potential solution: a lottery.
Many other states have them with wonderful results. Arizona, for one, has great highways and an educational system supplemented to a great extent by a state-run lottery.
Participants buy tickets at various prices, from $1 and up, whenever they want to. It’s not “gambling” per se. Most people spend only pocket change on it, but with payoffs in multiple thousands, even millions, of dollars, people buy these inexpensive tickets hoping against the odds they’ll win. In fact, they may even win nominal payoffs, which sustain their interest.
The state receives millions for such things as highway construction, which would otherwise be unaffordable.
Now, why can’t Hawai‘i do the same? Let’s finally solve the problem. Can we protest the County Council with enough noise that they can’t continue to have deaf ears?
Am I dreaming to think we might even be able to afford our property taxes and not force our children to move to the Mainland to buy homes?
• Cece Fern, Lihu‘e
