• Protect us now • Locals, take more pride • Yukimura, take a stand • Hear our voices • Mahaloiaoe, e Luna Hooponopono! • Appreciate articles on mental illness Protect us now Open letter to Kauai County Council members: Don’t
• Protect us now • Locals, take more pride • Yukimura, take a stand • Hear our voices • Mahaloiaoe, e Luna Hooponopono! • Appreciate articles on mental illness
Protect us now
Open letter to Kauai County Council members:
Don’t wait for our state and federal governments to protect us from poisonous pesticides being sprayed on Kauai.
It took the state of Hawaii six years and multiple incidents of Waimea Canyon Middle School children becoming ill from suspected nearby pesticide spraying before it conducted a nominal study in which the Department of Health declined to even participate.
According to a June 13, 2013 report by the U.S. General Accountability Office, Environmental Protection Agency rule-making takes so long it will be at least 10 years before the EPA completes risk assessments for 83 toxic chemicals used in pesticides, many of which are being sprayed on our lands.
Four of the world’s largest chemical corporations currently use some of Kauai’s best agricultural lands to test their Restricted Use Pesticide and GMO technologies.
We have the right to know what they are spraying on our island for the health of our aina and ohana and our future.
Now is the time to keep Kauai healthy.
Pass Bill 2491!
Mary Lu Kelley
Lawai
Locals, take more pride
I have no respect for locals when I saw what happened just past Brennecke’s Beach in Poipu around 11 a.m. on Saturday.
My friend and I were walking past the popular fishing spot when we witnessed a local woman on the back of a pickup sweeping a very large pile of blue-green glass from her pickup onto the sandy shoulder and in the eastbound side of the pavement.
She didn’t seem to care that they were parked in a no-parking zone, but she obviously never gave any thought to this act of selfishness, either. This is an area where many, many tourists and locals walk barefoot to Poipu beaches. The glass on the street could become lodged in slippers and tires and cause damage. The pile of glass stands as a testament to her thoughtlessness.
If you want respect, you earn it by doing estimable acts; so go back to the spot and bring your broom and dustpan and clean up your mess, before some how it gets in the water to endanger the wildlife there.
Kay Lanstyak
Koloa
Yukimura, take a stand
When council member JoAnn Yukimura spoke to the crowd from of the Mana March Sunday in front of the county building, she clearly told us that she was “not going to vote against Bill 2491.”
Does this mean that you are going to vote for Bill 2491? Please be clear with us, JoAnn and stop skirting around the issue with your crowd-pleasing political rhetoric.
Laurie Bolton
Kapaa
Hear our voices
We may be a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but our voices rang big and strong, passionate and touching, factual and compelling.
Pass The Bill 2491 swelled in the hearts of more than 1,000 people from the Garden Isle all the way to Iowa! It was a message of democracy stamped in stone declaring that whether Bill 2491 is passed or not, the fight for land, water, air and human integrity will never ever stop, that any injustices done must and will be remedied.
My family and I were proud to be a part of that great spirit of Aloha that the people of Kauai don’t ever seem to lack. Keep fighting for the truth!
Alison Chuang
Hanalei
Mahaloiaoe, e Luna Hooponopono!
Thank you very much to the Garden Island Newspaper for including a full article in your Sunday edition in the Hawaiian language. It has been spoken of many times in the community, in schools and in clubs and now finally to see current affairs discussed in the true and original language of Hawaii Nei is very, very exciting.
I realize that right now only a small percentage of the population have an understanding of Hawaiian, but interest is growing quickly at all levels, so thank you for being brave, mister editor, and sticking your neck out. On behalf of students old and new, mahaloiaoe, e Luna Hooponopono.
O wau iho no
Jodi Ka‘ehulani Ascuena
Lawai
Appreciate articles on mental illness
I want to thank staff writer, Tom LaVenture and the Garden Island Newspaper editor for recently publishing two excellent articles about individuals living with mental illness.
The first article was titled “Island Crime Beat: When things click they click,” the second was a front page cover story “Family believes missing man still alive.”
In both of these cases I was contacted by their family members, as the Kauai program co-ordinator for NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) to aid in the advocacy for these young men. Richard’s family wanted help in legal outreach, as well as the other young man.
I am establishing an affiliate of NAMI on Kauai. I am currently teaching a signature class from NAMI national, called Family to Family. It helps educate the families of people living with a serious mental illness cope, and thrive, given the situation.
Four people from Kauai will be trained as co-facilitators for support groups for these families in early November. Support groups will follow shortly after the training. For more information on the training call 635-3239.
Kathy Sheffield
NAMI program co-ordinator
Poipu
