Black Friday is dangerous • Man’s role is minimal in global warming • Thankful for freedom of speech • Lifeguards revisited • Saddened by Kaua‘i’s neglected canines • Students appreciate the truth Black Friday is dangerous Black Friday should be
Black Friday is dangerous • Man’s role is minimal in global warming • Thankful for freedom of speech • Lifeguards revisited • Saddened by Kaua‘i’s neglected canines • Students appreciate the truth
Black Friday is dangerous
Black Friday should be banned. It is such a dangerous time to shop.
People lose sleep camping at the stores, waiting hours (some areas days), for the doors to open. Then the danger begins. They’re moody. They trample over each other (some get seriously hurt or die), like the Running of the Bulls, to get to an item they want.
Tempers flare and the fighting and stealing starts.
Some may be happy when they finish shopping and leave the store because they got what they went there for.
Most are unhappy because they didn’t get what they wanted. Because of shortage on the sale items and/or most people hoard and buy more than they need on any one item.
Instead of Black Friday, the stores should just put items randomly on sale weekly at Black Friday prices. With this type of weekly sale, people won’t have to lose any sleep and they can plan and think whether it’s an item(s) they really need. There will be no fighting, stealing and trampling.
Howard Tolbe, ‘Ele‘ele
Man’s role is minimal in global warming
It was refreshing to see the letter from a Canadian academic debunking man-caused global warming. Big media never mentions the skeptics. Witness the 31,000 scientists who signed a petition attesting to the lack of convincing evidence of human released greenhouse gases to be the cause of climate change. It’s only the group-think, global-warming zealots that get face-time and media ink. In fact they’re starting to resemble the rabble that burned at the stake Italian cosmologist Giordano Bruno 400 years ago, for suggesting the Earth is not at the center of the universe.
The supposed culprit, CO2, is the naturally-occurring, life-supporting gas that comprises about 3.5 percent of the atmosphere. What man contributes is a tiny fraction of that total. And, core samples show that increased CO2 levels follow temperature increases.
They don’t precede them, i.e., it suggests that CO2 increases don’t cause temperatures to rise.
John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel, calls (man-caused) global warming “the greatest scam in history.”
John Burns, Princeville
Thankful for freedom of speech
Sometimes, it can get out of hand. Yet, we still need to be thankful for having the privilege of expressing our opinions openly and freely! It may help, however, to remember the “essence of living aloha” while we’re at it!
Being thankful, however, is not enough! It needs to be supported with commitment and dedication to “malama ‘aina” — because, as stewards of the land, it will take more than being “thankful” for living here in the most beautiful spot on Earth! We need to be vigilant in protecting and preserving our finite resources, and it will take a lot more than “giving thanks” to do that.
We need to stay informed, get involved, and be firmly committed in our choices and actions make sure that “the land is perpetuated in righteousness” as it should be!
Jose Bulatao Jr., Kekaha
Lifeguards revisited
Anyone who read my Forum letter about lifeguards on Nov. 21 probably could tell that I was feeling a bit upset when I wrote it. I don’t apologize for feeling upset. Myself and our many Ocean Safety community contributors have worked very hard to support our lifeguard program, and when the program suffers, we suffer, and we feel upset.
I do regret, however, not following my wife’s always sage advice “to sit on it for a couple of days when you’re upset, before you hit the submit key.”
Is it too late, has the moment passed for me to soften my tone? Well, this is the season of Thanksgiving and sharing and caring, and in that spirit I offer this heart-felt statement: Thank you to our Ocean Safety supervisors, and thank you to the lifeguards they supervise — including our long-time Southside stalwart Myles Emura — for all your hard (and under compensated ) work, for all your vigilance and your skill and your courage and your aloha as you watch over our people.
Dr. Monty Downs, president, Kaua‘i Lifeguard Association, Kapa‘a
Saddened by Kaua‘i’s neglected canines
I have just spent six months on the Garden Isle, enjoying the stunning natural beauty and laid back lifestyle that the island is known for.
Only one thing marred my experience which, being an animal lover, left me with a lasting impression of sadness instead of joy — the wretched state of backyard dogs.
Riding around on my bike I saw countless dogs living their lives, or should I say existing, at the end of a five-foot chain.
Never taken for a walk, given any freedom or shown any love, these dogs still craved attention and affection from their owners.
Why have a dog if you are going to keep him like this? Isn’t the very point of having a dog to take pleasure in its companionship, to play and exercise together and to form a bond that humans and canines have enjoyed since the beginning of time?
I cannot understand how on a daily basis people can walk past and ignore a chained dog with sad, empty eyes, left to languish in solitary confinement. Just because you provide the basics of food, water and shelter, no it is not enough.
I left Kaua‘i with the image of many sad souls imprinted on my memory. Some were old dogs reaching the end of their lonely lives, others only a year or two old with nothing but a lifetime of neglect ahead of them.
I hope that one day, Kaua‘i joins the many other counties across the U.S. that have banned tethering.
Greg Page, Los Angeles
Students appreciate the truth
In response to the article “‘Ele‘ele students appreciate Pioneer ‘seeds’”: Mahalo for The Garden Island newspaper for printing this to let the public know this is going on.
I usually am warmed when I hear stories like this but knowing what Pioneer does, I am angered. I am sorry the schools and students are getting duped.
Pioneer is buying out our keiki and schools in exchange for their health and clean land. The students, along with the rest of us living on this island, need to be told the truth of what these crops are really doing.
Then we can decide how much we “appreciate” it.
Desiree Hoover, Kilauea
