• Women, take charge of your health • Potholes in paradise • Adviser or authoritarian? Women, take charge of your health The month of September is being designated as Women’s Health Month. It is an important time in which we
• Women, take charge of your health • Potholes in paradise • Adviser or authoritarian?
Women, take charge of your health
The month of September is being designated as Women’s Health Month. It is an important time in which we remind women that taking care of their health is essential to living longer and happier lives.
Women are often the caregivers, and in doing such, they frequently forget to take care of themselves. Furthermore, research has shown that when women take care of themselves, the health of the family improves as well.
During this month, it is imperative that we educate wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and girlfriends about the steps that they can take to prevent disease and improve their health. If women don’t take care of themselves, they won’t be able to care effectively for those they love.
On Sept. 26, the Committee on the Status of Women will host a community event from 1-6 p.m. at the Waimea Theatre in observance of Women’s health. It will be a day dedicated to improving the health and well-being of all women here on Kaua‘i, bringing attention to and creating understanding of women’s health issues, as well as celebrating the extraordinary progress in women’s health.
We will focus on educating women about the significance of leading healthy lifestyles, and taking appropriate action to improve their physical and mental health. When women take simple steps to improve their health, the results can be momentous and beneficial to everyone.
Taking charge of your health means taking charge of your life. Empower and educate yourself now to strengthen and lengthen your days. Let us all come together in unity and center on understanding the importance of caring for those women who give so much to others and often have little time for themselves. We encourage everyone in the community to join us.
Lisa Ellen Smith, Chairperson
Regina Carvalho, Vice-Chair
County Committee on the Status of Women
Potholes in paradise
It’s a beautiful drive to Hanalei — so green, cool and inspiring to see so many giant trees and tropical splendor.
Gliding along in paradise, until, thump! Shock! Crunch! What was that? Oh, it’s just another pothole like the aliens have chosen our highway to Hanalei as a landing pad and produced multiple holes to re-align the front ends of our vehicles.
Seriously, we hit five deep potholes on the highway from Kilauea to Princeville shockingly hard enough to give my 2009 truck a permanent tendency to veer off to the right and into a realignment shop. Whoever is responsible for the deplorable state of our sub-standard roads will be getting the bill.
We give the government our hard earned kala. Please give us safe and decent roads so we can get around our beautiful Kaua‘i without damaging our vehicles. We pay for decent roads, not potholes. I’d be embarrassed if I were responsible for the sad condition of our highways. No shame, obviously not! Just patch ‘em!
Kaua‘i has the junkiest roads of all the counties. We spend a lot of money to bring tourists from Japan, Canada and all around the world to Kaua‘i. Please send some money to fix the pukas in the roads. Please fix the roads and give us all a decent ride! Mahalo.
Junk roads equal junk government. Stop spending so much money on travel junkets at our expense for over-inflated joy rides and fix the roads at home instead. Please patch the potholes on Kaua‘i because I don’t own an alignment shop.
Kawika Moke, Kekaha
Adviser or authoritarian?
Michael Levine correctly reported my mixture of disbelief and outrage at seeing the county attorney “posing as a dictator” at the Thursday meeting of the Board of Ethics (“Ethics Board butts heads with attorney,” The Garden Island, Aug. 14).
To fill out the picture a bit, the county attorney offered sitting comments and pronouncements on several agenda items. His presentation, which made little room for questions, discussion or debate from board members, came across to me as laying down the law more than explaining the law — as autocratic, not democratic.
He told the board they must comply with opinions and advice from the county attorney or else expose themselves to the risk of personal liability — a veiled threat that, without full discussion, works effectively to muzzle many volunteers.
He threw down the gauntlet to the board in the strongest terms yet when he again endorsed the “fatally flawed” opinion issued by the previous attorney in March 2008 and made clear that he has no intention of acceding to the board’s long-standing request for a new written opinion addressing Charter 20.02D, County Code 3-1.7, and the March 2008 opinion, thereby disavowing the need for his office to provide a statutory basis for its conclusions.
To say that someone is oblivious means that he has forgotten or is unmindful of something. To me, the county attorney seemed largely oblivious to the fact that the charter authorizes a legal adviser, not an oracle or an office with combined judge-jury powers, oblivious to the fact that in a democracy county attorney opinions can be challenged short of resorting to lawsuits, oblivious to the limited but real countervailing powers of boards and commissions, and oblivious to the ultimate authority of the electorate in our democratic structures.
I respect the lawful powers of all the officers to whom the people have delegated those powers. I have no patience with the arbitrary exercise of power or with attempts to replace the principle, “I said it because the charter and the law say it,” with an edict declaring that “It’s true and binding because I said it.”
Horace Stoessel, Kapa’a
