• Coco Palms park a pipe dream • More to life than ‘kill or be killed’ • GMO companies seeking control • Kick Butts Day —say no to tobacco Coco Palms park a pipe dream The dreamy Coco Palms park
• Coco Palms park a pipe dream
• More to life than ‘kill or be killed’
• GMO companies seeking control
• Kick Butts Day —say no to tobacco
Coco Palms park a pipe dream
The dreamy Coco Palms park idea was dead on arrival in the legislature because it was pretty close to idiotic then and definitely idiotic now in these economic times. (“Coco Palms should become a park,” Letters, Feb. 18)
It’s not just the cost of the property; it’s the huge cost of demolition of which these pipe dreamers have no knowledge. If you truck away the debris, the cost will increase exponentially. The resort’s plan was to use the debris to elevate the new buildings. What landfill is all that debris going to now?
This is about pretending to have a viable alternative so pretentious activists can fall back on: “We’re not against Coco Palms, we’re for a park.” It’s an old trick known to most of our activists. It can also be seen in: “We’re not against well planned development/Superferry/new roads/anything and everything, we’re just for Kaua‘i people/the poor whales/the poor field mice/anything and everything else.”
After formerly taking away the spa and, with it, any chance for the owner to make the money needed to make improvements, the activists are pointing their fingers and saying, “Bad, bad owner, you’re not making improvements.”
In Wednesday’s letter, the suggestion was made to take a price advantage on the owner’s current and potential predicament. Now there’s some real high road morality for you, not to mention “Aloha.”
• Pete Antonson, Wailua
More to life than ‘kill or be killed’
Mr. Boranian’s letter (“Hold the SEC accountable,” Letters, Feb. 18) explaining the need for regulators in reference to the Securities and Exchange Commission points out some harsh realities that need to be remembered: A “free market” will work only if all participants are fair and honest in the process.
Otherwise, the scammers and cheaters will pick and choose their victims. We here on Kaua‘i found that out after each hurricane when the carpetbaggers marched in and marched out with loot in hand for minimal or no services performed as promised.
Sweet dealers lurk in the marketplace with deals “too good to be true,” and out of desperation or naivete, there are those who will respond to their irresistable offers. Could a system of regulation save these victims? Perhaps.
Deregulation wrought havoc in airfare wars that plummeted and soared, and in most cases, have stayed on the high end. Why? No regulations are in place.
Let’s face it. Unless there is “someone in charge,” we are left with an autocratic society which allows each individual to do as one pleases without regard as to how that behavior may impact someone else. Like it or not, we need the laws, rules, regulations, ordinances and what-have-you in place in any societal arrangement we form as human beings.
Otherwise, we will be left with the concept that “the fittest will survive,” which amounts to no more than to kill or be killed. Isn’t there more to life than that?
• Jose Bulatao Jr., Kekaha
GMO companies seeking control
It was great to see an article on genetically modified organisms. (“Debate continues over GMOs,” The Garden Island, Feb. 16)
I think these products are harmful, the pesticide use with these products is greater, and we should know our children are part of the field test on the Westside. GMO companies want to control your food and take away diversity, and the scary part is they have the “terminator gene.”
I know that sounds crazy, and it is, this genetic modification would make our food supply sterile. Your mom’s crops will not produce seeds. You will have to buy them from Mr. GMO every season. No longer will we be able to save the seeds of our ancestors. Think about the danger for a second.
The plants we live off of no longer producing seeds we can grow. This is what the GMO companies’ goals are. Once other countries figured this out, they either stop buying products that contain GMO or they ban them.
We are being fooled, people.
• Todd Anderson, Lihu‘e
Kick Butts Day —say no to tobacco
Almost every where I go, convenience stores and gas stations, I see tobacco advertising and promotions in the form of branded posters, window stickers, special displays, and even the cigarette packages themselves.
Though tobacco control organizations and the legislature have made considerable progress in passing smoke-free laws, the tobacco industry seems to be one step ahead, by creating new products to get around the laws.
One example is Other Tobacco Products (OTPs), which often come in a variety of sweet flavors (such as grape, cherry, berry, mocha) and are smokeless and spitless. Theses OTPs are also affordable enough that youths can buy them.
On Kick Butts Day, Feb. 27, Hawai‘i youth will say “no more” to the tobacco industry. We are encouraging the state to increase the taxes on OTPs to help keep them out of the hands of Hawai‘i’s youth. Our generation is taking a stand against tobacco and we are asking our legislators to join us in making this a reality.
• Chloe Marchant, Kapa‘a
