• Boost employee efficiency first • Coastal path a great place to rejuvenate • The reality of Hawai‘i Boost employee efficiency first In response to “Bus, golf rates to increase,” (May 24, The Garden Island), I cannot understand, with the
• Boost employee efficiency first
• Coastal path a great place to rejuvenate
• The reality of Hawai‘i
Boost employee efficiency first
In response to “Bus, golf rates to increase,” (May 24, The Garden Island), I cannot understand, with the economy being so bad, how any one would raise the most reasonably affordable means of transportation for the young, old, working class and disabled on Kaua‘i.
And the golf course, a lot of people go there to relax and forget for a few hours the stresses we’re all facing now days. The county and state should start laying off all the excess employees on the payroll and save a lot of money.
For instance, a couple of months ago I was visiting a friend near Kalaheo School. There was a county employee sleeping on a grass clipper; he was sleeping from 8:30 a.m. till 11:30 a.m. when someone came to pick him up for lunch.
I called the complaints office and the woman laughed when I told her that’s why everybody wants to work for the county and state. She asked if I got the license number of the truck that dropped him off. Not my job!
And twice in two weeks I counted seven workers, that I could see, by the Missionary Church in Kalaheo cleaning the side of the road. Only three were working; the rest were sitting on the guardrail laughing and talking.
Also, did you know it takes five workers to replace a stop sign?
I saw that too on the corner of Papalina and Puu roads in front of Kukuiolono Golf Course. These are only a handful of times. It happens every day.
Darlene Soares, Kalaheo
Coastal path a great place to rejuvenate
Last week we took my elderly parents and other relatives visiting Kaua‘i to the multi-use path.
Since my father is in a wheelchair, we parked at the Kealia look-out and used the handicap accessible stall and walkway that leads to the multi-use path. My sister, her husband, and my two children biked the path, while we took our time enjoying world-class views of the coastline and surf.
Young and old, healthy and frail, residents and visitors, walkers and bikers were enjoying the path as we were. Every single pavilion along Kealia Beach was being used, but two young guys let us share a covered picnic bench so that my mother could rest in the shade.
For me, the multi-use path is a coastal park, a safe place to exercise without fearing for one’s safety, and a place to rejuvenate and take in Kaua‘i’s scenic beauty.
Nadine Nakamura, Kapa‘a
The reality of Hawai‘i
I would like to respond to the June 1 letter, ‘I still love you, Kaua‘i” by Charles Tapio in The Garden Island.
Mr. Tapio talks about the time he lived here on Kaua‘i, and he talked about how badly people treated him saying, “Land of aloha?! I would say: Not.”
Pretty much every country in the world has words that describe, peace, love, friendship, etc. Hawai‘i is not the only place on Earth that has words to describe these things. Most other countries have many different words for these feelings instead of just one word to describe many different feelings.
Hawai‘i is just like every other place in the world in that some people feel these things, and some do not. Some just act like they do.
Having aloha spirit towards only your own family and friends is not aloha spirit. That is just love or friendship for people you know or are related to.
People either have a good heart, or they do not. What race you are has no bearing.
For some reason, many of the people in Hawai‘i seem to want to forget their own personal histories, where they actually came from. It was not that long ago.
If you are 50 percent Hawaiian and 50 percent Chinese, you are just as much Chinese as you are Hawaiian, as far as your ancestry goes.
China had art, culture and great writers dating back to when the Egyptians were building pyramids. There is a lot to be proud of in all countries in the world.
Around 1,500 years ago, Marquesans arrived on the Big Island. Some 800 years ago Tahitians came and took over Hawai‘i from the Hawaiians. About 232 years ago Europeans came to Hawai‘i and this time, it was the Americans who took over Hawai‘i some 115 years later.
Americans then brought over the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, etc., and now most of the people born here in Hawai‘i are descendants of people who were just brought over to Hawai‘i during the last 100 to 200 years.
Kaua‘i is some 5 million years old.
And that is the reality of Hawai‘i and Kaua‘i.
Dennis Chaquette, Kapa‘a
