Letters to the Editor for Thursday, June 18, 2009

• Good Taste

• Walter is right

• My voice is silenced without you

Good Taste

Patricia Huff in her letter to editor (“Bad Taste, Letters, June 11) says, “the food and entertainment were wonderful at the 21st annual taste of Hawai‘i — at least the food that I tasted was.”

She goes on to say, “The problem was that by 2 p.m. half the vendors were packing up because they were out of food. When I pay $75 for a ticket to ‘Taste Hawai‘i’ I expect to do just that.”

Taste of Hawai‘i is made up of hundreds of volunteers from the community, vendors pay good money to get exposure and give their food away, many people paid $75 to get in the door, in past years it has actually cost more, the entry fee was discounted this year because of the economy.

Taste of Hawai‘i is not only about “self,” it is a community event, all profits go towards scholarships for our local youth and fund international projects such as providing safe drinking water and sanitation in schools for people in poverty stricken areas.

“Taste” is not only a taste of food but a taste of community, a taste of charity, a taste of something besides self, “Taste” is about aloha. So be it if a few vendors run out of food, if that’s all you can think about, you’re in the wrong consciousness for this annual charitable event.

My favorite thing at the “Taste” was the great big band music inside the pavilion where there was a Lappert’s ice cream stand with coffee and ice cream, and yes they served and played until the very end!

Mahalo nui loa to the Rotarians for the 21st consecutive year giving back to the community.

James “Kimo” Rosen, Kapa‘a

Walter is right

Once again I want to thank and compliment Walter Lewis for his in-depth columns in The Garden Island every other week. His one of June 13, “A better system of government,” was particularly striking.

Yes, I am just a transplant of 20 years from California, as is Walter. But please, locals and transplants alike, read the wise, researched words of Mr. Lewis and you will understand that he has only one motive behind his writings — the betterment of Kaua‘i.

Are there elements of people that come to this jewel in the Pacific for their own personal gain with no thoughts of bettering Kaua‘i? Sure there are.

But there are many others like Walter who want to keep Kaua‘i Kaua‘i and are fighting to make this happen. Don’t ever forget what Mr. Lewis did to cut taxes with the ‘Ohana Kaua‘i Charter amendment.

So many of those who have moved here to make this their home did so because they loved its beauty and do not want to see it destroyed any more than those born here.

Our political system that is supposed to be the cornerstone of maintaining all of what we love about Kaua‘i is broken. A system that was meant to have had long range planning and to enforce the people’s General Plan Update has miserably failed.

The system that was to have solved our solid waste problem, planned for population expansion, put infrastructure in place before work began, built alternate roads for emergency and traffic relief, addressed the proper maintenance of our parks and recreational areas (our beaches and hiking trails in particular), built facilities for our many homeless people, and built the low income houses that thousands of people have been waiting for.

Locals and transplants alike, these are all of our problems and only a mass, concerted effort by all of us can solve them.

The solution that Mr. Lewis and many others are offering to change the broken system that is now in place is a county manager model that 60 percent of the municipalities across the U.S. are successfully using.

Will it be the “silver bullet” that cures all these ills? Probably not. But, as the old saying goes, only an idiot continues down the same broken path and expects a different result.

Please, people of Kaua‘i, embrace the words of Mr. Lewis and get behind implementing this county manager system. The monetary savings alone with more efficiency and less waste put into the system will be well worth the effort.

Glenn Mickens, Kapa‘a

My voice is silenced without you

Thank you, Tim Bynum and Lani Kawahara, for confronting the Kaua‘i County Council power structure, which appears to be a coordinated effort between Clerk Nakamura and Chair Asing (and the other silent members of the council).

From the beginning, when Chair Asing circulated the committee assignments without discussion, I have been watching.

Thank you for your challenge to make County Council minutes available electronically and for fighting to receive council correspondence when other council members do, for without this, you are unable to prepare for and speak effectively at council meetings.

I used all of my votes to vote for both of you, and without your voices on the council, my voice is silenced as well.  

Mary Alexander, Wailua Homesteads