• Here’s to hoping for a great 2014 • Stop the whining on our paradise • KIUC’s board is above rhetoric • Saying no to KIUC Here’s to hoping for a great 2014 A few 2014 headlines I would like
• Here’s to hoping for a great 2014 • Stop the whining on our paradise • KIUC’s board is above rhetoric • Saying no to KIUC
Here’s to hoping for a great 2014
A few 2014 headlines I would like to see:
• County gives back ownership of Coco Palms to Hawaiian natives. “It was the right thing to do,” states a county spokesperson. “Except for the life-sized statue of Elvis, it is all cleaned up and back in the right hands.”
• Kekaha landfill eliminated. Spokesperson for Zero Waste states, “Yes, a huge volunteer force worked for several weeks to remove all wastes from this site. It will be replaced by a state of the art recycling center and waste to energy plant.”
• In a stunning announcement, an all-electric car costing less than $2,000 has taken Kauai by storm. “Now we can drive all over and recharge at our house from our photovoltaic panels!” said one enthusiastic buyer. Car dealers are selling thousands of cars and working hard to keep up inventory. Meanwhile, KIUC spokesperson stated that “imported oil will still be needed, but only a small fraction of what has been imported in the past.”
• Landlords islandwide agree to lower rents. Landlord association spokesperson stated in a press release, “No one should have to work two and three jobs just to pay the rent.”
• Huge shindig at the War Memorial Convention Center attended by Princeville residents and Westsiders. Free music was provided by Willie K, Taj Mahal, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
You can say I’m a dreamer.
Molly Jones
Kealia
Stop the whining on our paradise
In response to Chuck Lasker’s article “Conspiracy folks have gone too far,” I want to say congratulations. You hit the nail on the head. I truly believe that you said what so many of us have wanted to say for a long time.
The majority says: “Take your conspiracy theories and leave!” It would be nice to get back to our once whining-free paradise. Oh, while I am thinking about it, you should pay for the opportunity to keep your old meters. That’s life!
DuAnne Torres
Kapaa
KIUC’s board is above rhetoric
A careful reading of the full-page paid advertisement which appeared in TGI on Jan. 13, entitled “Vote No Against KIUC Corruption” left me, the reader, with what may be the only salvageable opinion of value provided by Mr. Ray Songtree is to be found in the last sentence of his diatribe, in bold print which reads “Vote No More BS.”
The entire ad reveals the thought process he followed to fulfill his intended purpose, namely, to persuade KIUC members to vote no on a very simple issue of who should pay the cost of installing, maintaining and reading the old meters which, by choice, were not replaced by the new smart meters.
“No More BS,” he says, but he proceeds to fill a full-page advertisement with the very thing he advises against.
Without supporting substantiation, with half-truths, questionable innuendoes, and downright personally biased opinion, we find these remarks directly from the subject advertisement: “manipulative deceiver,” “Filipino Block of votes,” “denial and backroom plotting,” “dishonest … cover-up,” “institutionalized dishonest corporate culture,’” “KIUC corruption,” “we cannot trust anything they say”… all of which allegedly describes our board of directors.
If I were able to present a picture of all our current directors and CEO for you to look at, can you honestly point out anyone of them engaging in any of the BS’s listed above?
During my tenure as a member of the KIUC board, I chaired the Committee on International Affairs which oversaw the activities between KIUC and our sister-electrical cooperatives in the Philippines. We were there to help with gifts of used equipment, library books and manpower when feasible. We were there to help them establish an electrical cooperative in much the same manner as other U.S. cooperatives were helping other countries.
In any event, I never got a free trip to the Philippines, even though the cooperatives were located in the province where my parents came from.
Alfred Laureta
Kapaa
Saying no to KIUC
In recent a guest editorial, Mr. Walt Barnes said that those of us who are choosing to opt out of smart meters because of health and privacy concerns lack critical thinking skills. What an unfortunate mischaracterization Mr. Barnes has made of 3,000-plus intelligent fellow co-op members. And, does that statement also suggest a lack of critical thinking skills by the judge who ruled (over a year ago already!) against KIUC and in favor of member Adam Asquith’s case regarding smart meters as a violation of his constitutional right to privacy?
There was the doomed FERC fiasco where member money was spent to lose a one-sided info campaign. Now, just a few years later there is the smart meter mess.
KIUC’s desperate need to silence dissenting member voices should be troubling to all members regardless of where you stand on smart meters. Furthermore, the arrogant ease with which KIUC is willing to use member money for campaigning (but not meter reading?) should be embarrassing to the leadership.
The KIUC ballot is simply asking me to vote on a smart meter fee issue to which I easily vote no, but I know that my ballot no vote is also a message to KIUC that no, I won’t be financially punished for my right to health and privacy. No, I don’t accept KIUC’s lack of due diligence in fully critiquing smart meters as appropriate technology for Kauai. No to the unethical use of membership money for KIUC misinformation campaigning and no to a pseudo co-op structure.
Kathleen Viernes
Kapaa
