• Be pono and obey the law • This isn’t paradise • The true story on ethanol Be pono and obey the law There is a reason that we have laws and rules. The simple reason is, so that we all as a
• Be pono and obey the law • This isn’t paradise • The true story on ethanol
Be pono and obey the law
There is a reason that we have laws and rules. The simple reason is, so that we all as a society agree upon the boundaries for our public and private behavior so as to be what we have termed “civilized.”
When someone is conducting business in the public they have to abide by a more strict set of rules than private persons on private property. What you do in your own home has more protections relative to what you do in the marketplace. We believe in transparency in our democratic society and so as to preserve that we have a free press and many states have Sunshine Laws so that the public can request and look at governmental information and evaluate for themselves the actions of local, state and federal governments.
Information that is sensitive can be redacted in part, but the totality of the public record cannot be hidden away from the citizenry. If one undertakes a public venture they should expect public scrutiny. Public persons have fewer rights to privacy than the average individual as well and this is a matter of law.
What is slander for a private citizen can be marketing for a public person, especially when notoriety and visibility can equal a greater profit margin. Know the rules and abide by them, respect the boundaries of other persons and you will gain respect. But violate rules and disrespect the boundaries of the citizenry and you will purchase yourself criticism and perhaps a lawsuit.
Louanne Varholick
Kapaa
This isn’t paradise
Beautiful Kauai, famous for its frequent visitor drownings and frequent hours spent “stuck in traffic” following road accidents.
While I cannot offer a solution to the first tragic circumstance, I can propose remedy to the latter.
Way back in World War II, the Army Corp of Engineers mastered design and rapid deployment of portable bridges, elevated ramps and portage equipment insuring transport despite challenges. Now, some 70 years later, surely the brilliant techs of the Corp can design rapidly deployable elevated ramps, cloverleafs, roundabouts, buttresses and folding bridge works that could reach any roadway in Hawaii within 20 minutes via transport helicopter from the airbase at Barbers Point. Mechanical and hydraulic adjustment to the equipment based upon the terrain (aided by computer analysis) and implemented in a matter of minutes, restoring traffic flow and preserving conditions at the scene are feasible.
I would imagine that adaptable design models exist, somewhere in the bowels of the Department of Defense or Civil Defense protocols within the Department of Transportation. Dredge them out, dust them off, and put them into action! The loss to our Island’s productivity, the disruption in schedules and lives of our businesses and residents, the sheer waste of so many people stranded in place for hours, appointments and plans gone array, is unacceptable when the technology exists to alleviate the problem. Repeated traffic stoppages, for periods of hours, unnecessarily plague our residents and economy while adversely affecting many a visitor experience. Let’s alleviate extended traffic blockages! Let’s let our legislators know what we need. Now!
Zacheriah “Branch” Harmony
Koloa
The true story on ethanol
I’m writing you about the other side of the story on ethanol and how “bad” it is.
This is all not true, I have been running it in all of my cars and trucks for the last five years with very good results and no damage to the engines or rubber hoses. I would love to see how these people on Kauai test the gas for ethanol and see if they know what the gas octane really is. The octane there, as I tested, is 82 on the high and the low of 79 on the premium, now this is too low even for a weed cutter.
Ethanol was added to the gas in Hawaii back in 2006 when the EPA said that the anti-knock additive MTBE had to come out of the gas because it was cancerous and ethanol added for anti-knock because ethanol is clean. Ethanol is “moonshine,” so how can it damage fiberglass gas tanks? I have a sample from the boat gas tank in a plastic bottle and it didn’t eat the fiberglass part from the boat gas tank.
My question to the article is where is their proof that it is the ethanol from the gas that cause all of this damage. You can’t just say that was the last thing that was added that cause the damage. I have people using 30-40 percent ethanol in their airplanes and boats with great results and performance. The percent of ethanol there on Kauai is 2-6 percent of ethanol and never, ever been at 10 percent, ever. DEBET allowed the oil company to lower the octane to where it’s at today. My guy was in that meeting when the oil company asked if they could lower the octane, this is how I know about this. I would not say anything if I didn’t know as fact.
George Nitta
Honolulu
