• Transplants aren’t to blame • Divisive politics have no place in Hawai‘i • No longer supports Alalem • A genuine leader Transplants aren’t to blame When I moved to Kaua‘i, I had empathy for local cultural causes and told
• Transplants aren’t to blame • Divisive politics have no place in Hawai‘i • No longer supports Alalem • A genuine leader
Transplants aren’t to blame
When I moved to Kaua‘i, I had empathy for local cultural causes and told friends I was excited to try to make a positive difference.
Within about six months, my views changed completely.
I can’t see these as anything other than self-inflicted problems, now.
I have no sympathy or empathy. I’m tired of people’s outright lies and warping of the truth.
Letters like “Time to call on divine intervention” of July 19 exemplify the cause of my conversion/revulsion: “Many of my forum writings have tried to inform and otherwise stimulate the otherwise complacent attitudes of too many residents from elsewhere that have had a hand in the rampant destructions.”
Clearly, transplants are to be blamed for “rampant destructions” of Kaua‘i. We’re complacent. We don’t care.
Later, we’re told how the Superferry was “shoved down our throats.”
I was here during that debacle. I attended public meetings, read and wrote letters in the newspaper on the topic.
I vividly recall that many locals were strongly in favor of the Superferry because they erroneously believed it would give them a cheap alternative to visiting family and friends on other islands.
The venom directed towards those fighting the Superferry, like those who paddled out into Nawiliwili Harbor to block the Superferry’s entrance, was ugly.
Many of the Superferry’s detractors, like me, were mainland transplants — the very people blamed for the island’s ills.
I know a transplant who paddled out into the bay that day. I participated in the caravan from Kekaha to Lihu‘e in protest of the project.
Mainland transplants were well represented, with various reasons for dissent. I didn’t appreciate the state not following its own rules, forcing it “down our throats,” and felt they needed to be held accountable.
Blaming transplants for things like this is wholly fallacious and incendiary.
A moderate amount of research, and a desire to be even halfway truthful, would stop a person who had a modicum of conscience.
With “activists” like this, I conclude that the cause is morally and ethically bankrupt, with no grounding in truth. I no longer care.
Congratulations on your self-fulfilling popcockery.
Michael Mann
Lihu‘e
Divisive politics have no place in Hawai‘i
The letter from Bob Marx’s supporter Fred Wells of Kapa‘a is an outright smear out of desperation.
He’s resorting to religious bigotry and lies about Tulsi’s support because he knows he can’t win on the issues.
Tulsi has secured wide support from people like Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Dr. Nancie Caraway, Dr. Amy Agbayani and countless others around the state and country who are backing her.
We’re supporting Tulsi because we trust that she has true aloha for the people of Hawai‘i and will always, without fail, place our interests before her own.
She is committed to progressive values and has been very clear that in Congress she will work to repeal DOMA and co-sponsor the Respect for Marriage Act, unlike her main opponent Mufi Hannemann who has stated the opposite.
Tulsi’s opponents are treading on thin ice by resorting to the same divisive tactics of religious and racial bigotry that lost Mufi Hannemann the gubernatorial race against Abercrombie.
Our democratic party is a party of equality and non-discrimination. Politics of divisiveness has no place in our Aloha State.
Melanie Bailey
Lihu‘e
No longer supports Alalem
I appologize to anyone offended by this letter. That is not my intent.
Rather I feel very strongly about certain facts surrounding James Alalem and his trial and conviction. I fully supported his actions at the leach field site in Wailua.
What came after turned my support away. During the actual field work. I was there as a lineal decendent to observe the work first.
Alalem and others were there protesting as is their right. I approached Alalem to share information with him as we have almost always done.
At that time, Alalem told me that he had taken some iwi from the site when no one was looking. He questioned if this was how they protect burials.
I asked what he had done with them and he said he put them somewhere safe. A few months later, as we prepared to reinter the iwi kupuna, I asked him to return them to me.
He told me, “For you, I will.” That iwi kupuna has since been reintered by Alaem at Hikinaakala.
Alalem has been called the caretaker of Hikinaakala, self-proclaimed Kahu of Hikinaakala. He has raised fallen Ahu Pohaku at Hikinaakala.
Now, by his own voice and hand, he told me he has buried the iwi kupuna there.
I shared with the state, they said it’s hearsay. Many people supported his effort. I used to, too. No longer. Not since Alalem admitted he has no Hawaiian blood.
Sharon Pomroy
Anahola
A genuine leader
Current day philosophers and political and cultural commentators often talk of the failure of today’s elected officials to sincerely commit themselves to protecting our country’s sacred institutions.
Instead, politicians all too often formulate their positions based on poll results.
Thus, it is not surprising that their decisions are frequently in line with what their contributors want them to be.
Tulsi Gabbard believes that the strength of America is founded upon our constitutional right to freedom, and that in the long run freedom cannot be effectively protected unless all citizens are provided quality education and healthcare, safety at home and equitable laws.
Tulsi’s decision-making process derives from her unfiltered perception of reality and her disciplined commitment to be virtuous in all of her decisions.
Most great leaders of the past had these traits.
William Meheula
Attorney
