• Glyphosate is safe • Spirit of true competition • The vote Glyphosate is safe I’m writing in response to the Garden Island’s recent article about herbicides (“Herbicide spraying concerns residents,” Dec. 27), which contains a misleading statement about glyphosate.
• Glyphosate is safe • Spirit of true
competition • The vote
Glyphosate is safe
I’m writing in response to the Garden Island’s recent article about herbicides (“Herbicide spraying concerns residents,” Dec. 27), which contains a misleading statement about glyphosate.
The reporter wrote that research showed glyphosate caused health effects in laboratory animals, yet failed to mention that those studies have been heavily criticized because they used highly concentrated doses to produce their results. As such, they have limited to no applicability to the real world and have been discredited by regulatory authorities around the world.
Also not mentioned are the dozens of credible studies and over 30 years that support glyphosate’s history of safe use.
Like many over-the-counter and prescription medicines, if you take the proper dose, they can be beneficial. If you down the entire bottle, the consequences can be terrible.
In the interest of making informed decisions based on accurate information, I encourage anyone with a genuine interest to learn more by visiting Monsanto’s website or contacting us directly.
Dawn Bicoy, Community Affairs Manager, Kaua‘i, Monsanto Hawai‘i
Spirit of true competition
Anyone who has ever decided to take up swimming as a competitive sport knows most only excel by way of commitment and hard work. For most new-born swimmers, the early days of competition can be, to say the least, challenging.
As a swimmer having started young, and continuing through some college, I recall early days of struggling with some events while many eyes watched patiently for my finish.
My daughter now swims for Kapa‘a High School. There is a robust spirit about these swim team coaches, Kara Kitamura and Jeremy Haupt — from spaghetti dinners at “Ms’” home (Coach Kara’s), to Jeremy taking these teens on scavenger hunts made to be time capsule material. There is also a robust attitude toward team competition, and support of all swimmers, no matter the level of skill.
At a recent swim meet for all Kauai High Schools, there would be a new swimmer taking up the tail, swimming with all the heart one can have to make it to the end of the event.
What seemed all at once and around the pool, several hundred people — swim team members and coaches from four different schools, parents, grandparents and anyone else, began cheering this young swimmer on — clapping and encouraging the swimmer to the end.
When this young struggling swimmer met the side of the pool with his hand, the applause was nothing short of an ovation, while Kapa‘a High School Swim Team’s adopted mascot — The Dancing Banana with Marrocos — jumped up and down in high spirit as if this swimmer were our own. Our Dancing Banana with Marrocos is right, this swimmer is our own as is in the spirit of true competition.
Deborah Morel, Kapa‘a
The vote
The one thing that we have been convinced is sacred in our Democracy is the capability to control our destiny by the political ballot — voting. To question this premise is blasphemy and out of bounds.
Everyone knows that we would be enslaved and suffer tyrannical consequences if we lost the vote. Remember the cliché: “Be a good citizen, exercise your franchise, and vote — it’s your moral duty.”
I got news for you; the vote is not moral and this concept will guarantee the eventual destruction of our country and of our way of life. We most likely will revert to a so-called third-world country over time.
Follow my reasoning and see the big picture. The vote the normal citizen casts is almost totally unimportant. We mainly elect into office (Senate and House of Representatives) those who cast the really important votes (bills for the various irresponsible programs, pork and entitlements) that are guaranteed to cause eventual bankruptcy as we are seeing today. The use of the term “majority” is a joke.
Those who make the decisions have no proprietary interest in the outcome of legislation and/or the unintended long range consequences of ill conceived plans. And, bureaucrats, like everyone else, pursue their own agenda and happiness giving little regard for their constituents (First Postulate of Volitional Science). Even if they wanted to do what is right, they would fail because they don’t understand human-nature, and even if they did, they wouldn’t have the time to carefully analyze each bill for subsequent problems. I heard they work on, a number like, 14,000 bills a year.
As James Bovard said, “The only things government can do are regulate and redistribute, prohibit and penalize, confiscate and command.” They create nothing other than chaos.
Ralph Tamm, Lihu‘e
