• Good sportsmanship • To be or not to be • Anniversary approaches of illegal overthrow • Weak legislators • Against those lawns Good sportsmanship In an era when bad news dominates our lives, I’d like to send your readers
• Good sportsmanship • To be or not to
be • Anniversary approaches of illegal
overthrow • Weak legislators •
Against those lawns
Good sportsmanship
In an era when bad news dominates our lives, I’d like to send your readers some good news. On Wednesday evening, I was privileged to referee (and get paid at it) one of the more exciting games of soccer I have refereed in a long time between Island and Kapa‘a.
The game was played at a terrific level and intensity, but in an atmosphere of good sportsmanship. We have some great soccer players in the making. The spectators seemed to love it as the game wound down, and Kapa‘a scored with almost the last kick of the game.
Well done to the players. It was a tribute to the beautiful game, no matter who won.
Mike Dexter-Smith, Princeville
To be or not to be
I commend Mr. Thorpe (Letters: Jan 2) and Mr. Rutter (Letters: Jan 3) for their contributions to our understanding of the benefits and limitations of the individual ego.
The ego is magnificent in its contributions, yet limited in its capabilities. It is a protective enclosure within which we have the freedom to develop the potential to become effective participants in things larger than the self, both our own and others. Every thing in the universe, except for the fundamental particles of which all things are made, is composed of whole parts.
Each part is made and “housed” within protective enclosures until they become “whole”, having developed the potential to become effectively functioning parts of something larger than themselves. All things are made, made whole, and then made parts of larger wholes. There is ample evidence to support the assumption that this is the Order we all depend on.
The intuitive response we have to the beautiful symmetry of a nautilus shell, the scales on a pineapple, the petals gracing a flower, or masterful works of art and sculpture, is evidence of our awareness that there is an underlying, often hidden, order we depend on.
That intuitive response often erupts in masterful works of self-transcending lived art.
Individuals who honestly seek to penetrate into the essence of their own lives, and the essence of life itself, and then seek to uncover the potential hidden in this essence, do not settle for a life within the confines of the self, either their own or another’s.
They do not strive to become leaders or dominators of others, and they do not seek to deny themselves in order to serve others.
They are happy to be leaders of their own lives, aware of their capacity to grow in awareness of the majesty and mystery of the Order we all depend on, and to be responsible for living out this ever-expanding awareness in masterful works of lived art.
Robert P. Merkle, Koloa
Anniversary approaches of illegal overthrow
Jan. 17 will mark another anniversary of the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the United States that happened 119 years ago.
No progress has been made on the executive agreement established between Queen Liliuokalani and then-U.S. President Cleveland in December 1893 that called for power to be handed back to the Hawaiian Kingdom. This has never happened.
In the agreement, the Queen promised to not start a rebellion against the U.S. overthrow of the Kingdom and to not imprison or attack any of the overthrow’s traitorous leaders. The Queen kept her promise, and the U.S. government didn’t.
How many more years of lies and abuse are we to suffer from America before most people realize that the U.S. government has virtually no jurisdiction within Hawai‘i’s borders?
James Alalem, Kapa‘a
Ray Catania, Lihu‘e
Weak legislators
Mr. Zwiebel’s letter “Hirono and the NDAA” (Letters: Jan. 9), a response to my criticism of our representative, opens a much needed and welcomed dialog.
Zwiebel defends Hirono and falsely assumes my own politics, but that’s not important. What is important is that when weak and frightened legislators like Hirono sacrifice America’s liberty for safety, as the NDAA does, then it tears apart the very fabric of our Constitution and undermines our foundation of freedom, the very beacon of light in the world.
Liberty and freedom are not negotiable. Hirono and Zwiebel choose to dim this lamp instead of igniting NDAA and its predecessors in a rallying pyre for a new revolution.
Rolf Bieber, Kapa‘a
Against those lawns
I am writing to warn humans that we will overcome your attempts to turn our pig wallows into lawns. We are growing in numbers. Soon there will be more of us than there are of you. You cannot stop us.
Forget about your endangered species. Forget about your gardens. But thank you for the vegetable gardens. We like those. We’re gaining on you, and we will beat you. (Porker Pigg, as oinked to …)
Charlie Herbert, Kilauea
