• Quit raising taxes • Compassionate to a degree • A pat on Pat’s back • Make Coco Palms a park Quit raising taxes Lowell L. Kalapa got it right again (“The Tax Man: There’s a move afoot to raise
• Quit raising taxes • Compassionate to
a degree • A pat on Pat’s back •
Make Coco Palms a park
Quit raising taxes
Lowell L. Kalapa got it right again (“The Tax Man: There’s a move afoot to raise taxes,” The Garden Island, March 6).
Quit raising our taxes via the back door with special funds and selective taxation. Hawaiian legislators and the new governor must vote to collapse special funds into the general fund where they belong.
More than half a billion special fund dollars will provide the general fund with the dollars needed to support general fund programs, rather than raising taxes to do so.
In addition, our new Hawaiian governor and legislators must rein in pie-in-the-sky proposed spending increases. Let’s get realistic!
Roberta Griffith, Princeville
Compassionate to a degree
Aloha Mr. Becker, I very much appreciated your recent letter on compassion and objectivity, but I felt I needed to clarify what seems to be a misunderstanding (“Compassion, objectivity not mutually exclusive,” Letters, March 4).
In general, I don’t disagree with showing people compassion. Also, I don’t think compassion and objectivity are necessarily mutually exclusive. I do, however, believe that they can be at odds with each other if compassion is taken too far.
Furthermore, I believe that was actually happening in this situation. In the comments forum, way too many people were trying to make the argument that nobody should have been critical of this father’s actions in the death of his child, simply because his child died. A common refrain in such arguments, and even repeated by you in your letter, was “this man will have to live with the consequences for the rest of his life.”
This view only has relevance if the person in question has the capacity to learn from their mistakes, and I don’t think one can assume this to be the case.
One could argue that a person capable of such would not have put their child in that position after the first time of being cited for it. What happens if a year, two years, five years from now, this man is cited again by the police for doing the exact same thing? What if someone else dies (either another child or a pedestrian or another driver)?
Would you feel that the appropriate response is to extend more compassion, or should there be outrage? Would we be guilty of having not taken a more appropriate stance on the incorrect behavior earlier, such as to protect public safety? Would we even remember that this previous event happened?
It seems very troubling to me that it takes an innocent person’s death for a lesson to finally be learned, and we don’t even know that has happened here. People are simply supposing that it has because they want to believe it has.
The issue really came to a head for me when one person stated in the comments forum that nobody other than people who actually knew or cared about the child should be upset about what happened. Really? I can’t be upset over someone’s death simply because I didn’t know them? Why on earth should that be the case?
This seemed rather crass and callous to me, and it demonstrated to me how objectivity can most certainly be lost when compassion is taken too far. Seems to me that person’s compassion for the father outstrips their compassion for the victim.
Michael Mann, Lihu‘e
A pat on Pat’s back
I am happy to hear Pat Gegen is running for KIUC Board of Directors. We are lucky to have someone with 13 years experience in the energy field and someone so committed to renewable energy.
Pat doesn’t just talk, he takes action. He has attended all of the KIUC and many of the Kaua‘i County Council meetings for the past few years.
He is working with the Blue Planet Foundation and has passed out over 3,500 free CFL energy saving light bulbs.
He is also the Kalaheo School PTSA president, managing the HI-5 recycling fundraiser and he volunteers at several schools teaching 5th graders about energy conservation.
Please join me in voting for Pat Gegen. Mahalo.
Linda Silva, Kalaheo
Make Coco Palms a park
I suggest that since the state owns part of that parcel, the dilapidated eyesore be torn down and turned in to a park for all to enjoy (“Save Coco Palms resort,” Letters, March 6).
It’s been sitting in its current state for 18 years and owner after owner has been given break after break to do something with this eyesore that we the residents of Kaua‘i must look at day after day.
I believe the current owners were given a three-year deferral by the Planning Commission to make improvements to the current dilapidated Coco Palms. Well, I think their three years is getting closer and how much progress has there been to making any type of improvements?
So I say sorry, time is up and the state should take possession of the property and turn it in to a park for all to enjoy. Then that would be the end of an eyesore for all to see. Sorry people, but Elvis has left the building — a long time ago.
Francine Grace, Lihu‘e
