• Less bombs, more books? • Proposed mauka route is no better • All school workers are essential Less bombs, more books? I totally agree with the author of “Guided missiles, misguided men.” (Letters, Jan. 15) Not enough money is
• Less bombs, more books? • Proposed mauka route is no better • All school workers are essential
Less bombs, more books?
I totally agree with the author of “Guided missiles, misguided men.” (Letters, Jan. 15)
Not enough money is being spent on Hawai‘i’s children and furlough is not the answer. The state is broke because of poor bookkeeping. Isn’t odd that 1.3 million was discovered all of a sudden by our governor?
Taking money from programs like education, health department, road repairs and child services is very wrong. The rich get richer and poor just get poorer.
Sad part is, Hawai‘i is the only state in the union that doesn’t have strict guidelines on the number of school days children should attend, and our government fed upon that by cutting back their education.
Look at the American Recovery Act Web site and see for yourself how much money has been dedicated to Hawai‘i, hundreds of millions of dollars. To correct you, military bases are run by private contractors for the most part.
Five hundred civilians on Kaua‘i have jobs because the U.S. Navy has a base here and everyone should keep their fingers crossed they don’t pull funding on PMRF.
You can see for yourself just how much recovery money and Federal money goes to private contractors who are getting very rich from being awarded federal military contracts. Contracts to run and manage our country’s military and they are providing the security not the military!
So please don’t direct the anger to the average military guy in uniform, there less than 50 actual military men and women at PMRF.
Marylou Calibri, Kekaha
Proposed mauka route is no better
Several groups with a special interest in preserving Wailua Beach have lobbied hard to have the multi-use path re-routed mauka of the wreck of the Coco Palms resort along an existing cane roadbed. (“New path route to straddle shoulder, sand,” The Garden Island, Feb. 11)
The problem with that route is that it has never been assessed for environmental or cultural impact, and it runs right through an area of known ancient Hawaiian burial sites.
The makai route received both a thorough environmental and cultural assessment and was OK’d by OHA until it was lobbied by the interest groups to instead endorse a mauka route, even though this route has not been examined in any environmental or archaeological study.
What happens when it is found that there are multiple burials directly under the old cane road? We don’t know. We do know that a major burial site was found on the Coco Palms grounds.
Of all the modern man made structures in Wailua, only the multi-use path was planned, designed, and engineered with input from the community and experts on both environmental and cultural protection.
Mayor Carvalho has been inclusive, open and accessible through out this process. The response from some has been disrespectful and dismissive, with threats of political retribution. I support Mayor Carvalho on this issue and will accept his decision on the best route across Wailua for the multi-use path.
Kurt Rutter, Kapa‘a
All school workers are essential
The governor is quite proud of her little furlough plan and thinks the only thing wrong is having to get the public to pressure those pesky school and union people to accept it.
I have yet to read any suggestions about what would happen during and after incidents that have potential each and every day you have hundreds of students in one place.
I’m talking about fire, bomb threats, predators, serious illnesses, violent students, and violent outsiders. Under the governor’s plan, you will simply be crossing your fingers after announcing to all that there is no security present. Who will she blame when something terrible happens?
Who will manage the situation, follow up, or clean up afterwards when only teachers are present and already responsible for every minute of 30-plus students in their class?
If you attempt an answer to this question, try not to demonstrate the governor’s extraordinary ignorance about teaching when she said on the radio recently that “They (teachers) get to go home at 2 o’clock.”
It’s even more ignorant to believe that security officers, administrators, nurses, therapists, and custodians are “nonessential” given today’s concern for the safety of children.
Pete Antonson, Kalaheo
