• Traditions • Numbers and reality • Pesticides • Opting out • Solar vs. meters • Peyton Manning Traditions My wife and I are visitors to your wonderful island, as are many others. This is the fourth visit that we
• Traditions • Numbers and reality • Pesticides • Opting out • Solar vs. meters • Peyton Manning
Traditions
My wife and I are visitors to your wonderful island, as are many others. This is the fourth visit that we have made to Kaua‘i, and we hope to be able to return. We stay on the South Shore, adjacent to Prince Kuhio Park
We have been fortunate to have stayed here during March, which has included Prince Kuhio celebrations.
Each time we have been fortunate to have heard in the evenings a group of men in the park meet for what we have referred to as a chanting gathering.
We are unfamiliar with the tradition and at the same time intrigued.
Our intent is to learn more about what we are hearing, but in the meantime we would like to express our appreciation for what we understand is a tradition being carried on.
As we all understand, this country is a melting pot of cultures.
Yet it is so refreshing to see people discover traditions of their ancestors and strive to carry them forward to the next generation.
So, to you gentlemen in Prince Kuhio Park in the still of the moonlight, we salute you.
Richard Sorensen & Rita Hollingsworth, Chimacum, Wash.
Numbers and reality
The numbers in your Monday Business Week section don’t lie. But the headline misleads.
This is an example of how the national unemployment numbers are used to make people believe that the economy and employment are improving.
Here is the reality using your numbers.
The number of employed increased by 100 from Feb. 2011 to Feb. 2012. At the same time, the number of unemployed has decreased by 1,500.
Those numbers say that 1,400 people who are no longer counted as unemployed gave up looking for work as jobs were eliminated.
Kaua‘i lost 650 civilian jobs and gained 200 public sector (read government) per your numbers. And that happened with 1,400 fewer tax paying workers paying?
The labor force was reduced by 1,400 taxpayers in the past year in Hawai‘i.
That doesn’t sound like an improving economy or employment picture to me. How about you?
Dennis Bosio, Princeville
Pesticides
In response to Pioneer Hi-Bred International’s considering starting a commercial growing operation on Kaua‘i — no, no, no.
The jobs they provide are hazardous and do not pay a living wage. More workers are being brought here from the Mainland.
Please show your support for GMO Free Kaua‘i and raise your voice about the toxic nature of the chemical research happening on our ag land.
Especially toxic are atrazine (a herbicide) and chlorpyrifos (lorsban, an insecticide). Both are sprayed by Pioneer, Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow and BASF. These companies spray near our schools and communities over 200 days a year. This has been going on for over 10 years now. We must work towards pesticide reform for the health of our children, land and food.
L. Farr, Kapa‘a
Opting out
Let me add an addendum to Saturday’s letter concerning the new policy of being able to opt out of your smart meter installation.
If you have a photovoltaic system at your residence, there is no opting out of having the smart meter. And, like all smart meters in the field on Kaua‘i, they are transmitting from the moment they were plugged in. KIUC confirmed this to us on Thursday.
Kola Seaver, Kapa‘a
Solar vs. meters
With all the solar going up here on Kaua‘i, no one is talking about the fact that KIUC requires a smart meter to be installed.
I want to know if this is true. With all the great solar possibilities here, do people know that if they do solar they will need a smart meter?
Doug Gates, Kapa‘a
Peyton Manning
I’m struggling with the morality and ethics of The Garden Island paper, and also the author featured in an editorial submission. You printed a letter to the editor about the NFL and Peyton Manning’s new contract with the Broncos.
The letter stated that the contract was for five years at $96 million.
That is a load of propaganda, and you know it. The contract calls for $18 million guaranteed, and $40 million if he can play into the second season.
Not until his fifth season will he recover the remaining $38 million.
You can put a spin on anything you want to, but it doesn’t make it the right thing to do.
Maybe I’m a dreamer and integrity doesn’t mean squat anymore, but I deserve better from this publication.
Joseph Lavery, Kapa‘a
