• Shinseki a most honorable man • Keep politics out of courtroom • This farmer sets things straight Shinseki a most honorable man As I read the May 31 Star Advertiser, tears came from my eyes for the second time. Eric Shinseki has
• Shinseki a most honorable man • Keep politics out of courtroom • This farmer sets things straight
Shinseki a most honorable man
As I read the May 31 Star Advertiser, tears came from my eyes for the second time. Eric Shinseki has been dishonored for the transgressions of others.
Eric is a man of integrity and honor. You become a Four Star General of the Army through discipline, following orders to “T” with an inward passion to do what is right for your countrymen and women. He didn’t deserve to be pressured to resign his post as head of the Veterans Affairs DC office. If the Bush administration had listened to him and not opposed his point of view and suggestions how to proceed in the war in Iraq, the U.S. troops serving in the war would have endured less casualties.
I am one of Eric’s Kauai High School classmates, and we all know his character that is beyond reproach. Hopefully, history will reveal Eric’s true selfless, wholesome, honorable character. He took the job at the Washington DC VA office to help improve the problems it was experiencing. This was a massive undertaking. Given the chance, he would have corrected the corruption that recently surfaced.
Eric deserves to be honored and respected. Come home to Kauai where we love you and you will be honored and respected.
James R. Carvalho, Kauai High School Class of 1960
Keep politics out of courtroom
Judge Kathleen Watanabe sentenced a father to probation and a $200 fine for disciplining his son by forcing him to walk a mile to home. Who is Kathleen Watanabe to say that this is old school and no longer appropriate?
The court system has no business telling the people of Kauai how to discipline their children. The people of Kauai would like to know what politician appointed Wantanabe to be a judge.
Judges are elected by the people in many states. This is a better way to select judges because power is taken away from the politicians and it is given to the people. But this will never happen in Hawaii. The politicians will never allow it.
Jerry J. Sokugawa, Kekaha
This farmer sets things straight
Janet Nelsen and Chuck Lasker have both recently written letters regarding the benefits of GMO to farmers (Nelsen) and how farmers are on the side of GMO research (Lasker). Well, as a full-time farmer and scientist (farming is an applied science, after all), I can offer a very different perspective. First of all, there is no univ
ersal support for GMO science by “every major scientific organization on the planet, using peer-reviewed studies and data to defend their conclusions.” There have been at least an equal number of peer-reviewed studies with supporting data that have raised valid concerns about the safety of GMO farming and the stability of GMO crops in the environment. These are independent studies that are not financed by the chemical giants or the universities that these corporations fund.
As to farmers being “saved by GMO science,” you will get a different opinion from those wheat farmers in Idaho, Kansas, Oregon, and Washington who are suing Monsanto due to contamination of their crops causing them to suffer huge financial losses. As to the Rainbow Papayas being sold here as organic, this is fraudulent and should be reported to NOPCompliance@ams.usda.gov. It also speaks to the bigger issue which organic farmers (who are commercial farmers, by the way) face with GMO.
At our farm’s annual renewal for organic certification, our certifier requires affidavits that our papaya seeds, corn seeds, and soybean seeds are derived from non-GMO sources. If we want to save our own seeds, we have to have them tested. Consumers do not have to be “confused.” If and (only iff) your farmer is “Certified Organic”, you can know that they have met rigorous documentation and annual verification of their methods. They are inspected annually, and I do mean inspected Just ask to see their certificate.
No, the National Organic Program isn’t perfect, but the standards it sets are constantly being reviewed and improved. We are prohibited from using nicotine sulfate in organic production along with many other botanical poisons. GMO is an excluded method and is right where it belongs in the same class as radiation and sewage sludge. That is fact and not an “emotional rant.”
I am not sure on which “side” Mr. Lasker can stereo-type me. I am a “full-time farmer” and I am a “surfer.” I would like to be a “babe,” but I am too darned old and ugly. I guess Ms. Nelsen will call me “confused.”
Louisa Wooton, Kilauea
