• Name that surf break • Israel just defending itself • Laugh out loud • Protect your family today • Stick to the subject, not the writer Name that surf break This is reference to Mr. Metzger’s Jan. 10 letter
• Name that surf break
• Israel just defending itself
• Laugh out loud
• Protect your family today
• Stick to the subject, not the writer
Name that surf break
This is reference to Mr. Metzger’s Jan. 10 letter in The Garden Island. He refers to two swimming areas in front of the Lawai Beach Resort.
I’m new. Are there really such places as Heroin’s surf break and Acid Drop? Did the first load of Superferry junkies name those places? Is that closer to Roach Clip pond or Bud Light Beach?
• Bob Seaver, Kapa‘a
Israel just defending itself
Why would the world be upset about a state retaliating when it has been bombed on a daily bases for months at a time?
This has occurred especially during times when children walk to school, play in the school grounds and walk home in the afternoons.
Wouldn’t any nation take up arms to protect itself and its children?
Israel does not use its PR to take pictures of its maimed and dead children for newspapers and news stations to use as a tool to show this horror to the world. They don’t show mothers, fathers sisters and brothers keening over their loved ones.
It’s not their way. They are aware in times of war that on both sides people are hurt and die.
In the name and wish for peace, Jewish settlers and the Israeli army were removed from Gaza so that the Palestinians could return with the idea of living in peaceful co-existence with the state of Israel.
The Palestinians’ response was a barrage of missiles. What more would the world want us to do?
• Gail Rosen, Lihu‘e
Laugh out loud
Kudos to Pam Woolway for her “Being There” columns, but especially “Give it Up” (Jan. 9, Lifestyle).
With so much depressing news we rarely get the chance to laugh out loud. Thanks, Pam!
• Debra Ryll, Lihu‘e
Protect your family today
A UK environmental campaign recently celebrated a victory against the government in a long-running legal battle over the use of pesticides.
The high court ruled that Georgina Downs, who runs the UK Pesticides Campaign, had produced “solid evidence” that people exposed to chemicals used to spray crops had suffered harm.
Downs said the government had failed to address the concerns of people living in the countryside “who are repeatedly exposed to mixtures of pesticides and other chemicals throughout every year, and in many cases, like mine, for decades,” she said. People were not given prior notification about when and what was sprayed near their homes and gardens.
Sound familiar?
Downs’ campaign collected evidence from other residents who report health problems including cancer, Parkinson’s disease, ME and asthma, which they claim could be linked to crop-spraying.
Someday our children’s children can live chemical-free lives and have clean food, water and air if we stand up to Kaua‘i’s chemical companies. The need to address the concerns of people living in neighborhoods that are repeatedly exposed to mixtures of pesticides and other chemicals throughout every year.
You can protect your family today.
• Look for products that voluntarily label themselves as GMO Free or GE-free.
• Buy products certified organic.
• Avoid non-organic products that contain the most common genetically engineered ingredients: corn (corn syrup, corn meal, corn oil, etc.), fructose, dextrose, glucose, modified food starch, ingredients including the word “soy” (soy flour, soy lecithin, etc.), vegetable oil, vegetable protein, canola oil (also called rapeseed oil), cottonseed oil, and sugar from sugar beets.
• Educate yourself and others about the health risks when using herbicides and pesticides.
• Speak with your state and local representatives about your concerns.
• Diana LaBedz, Waimea
Stick to the subject, not the writer
In “Not so fast, Mr. Samu,” (Letters, Jan. 10), the writer elaborates on my background that I never hid.
He states, “Mr. Samu has no evident academic or work experience in foreign affairs, national security policy, diplomacy, academia, government or any other field that would give him expertise to provide credible opinions on U.S. national security affairs.”
The statement does not bother me, because I never claimed that I have any expertise in these areas (although I may have in some, but it’s not part of this letter). I am expressing my opinion as the member of the working class living on Kaua‘i, just like any other citizen has the right to. And some of my non-expert opinions have been printed in newspapers in 17 countries around the world in 15 languages during the past 20-odd years.
It would be the ultimate bias from The Garden Island to publish opinions only from experts or to ask for credentials of letter writers on the subject. I wonder if Mr. Fladager is familiar with U.S. history and knows that among the U.S. presidents there were two soldiers (Zachary Taylor and William Harrison), a tailor (Andrew Johnson), a newspaper editor (Warren Harding), and even an actor and broadcaster (Ronald Reagan), not to mention peanut farmers, men’s clothing retailers, school teachers, etc.
If these people were entrusted with all the affairs of this big country and the life of millions of its people without relevant expertise, should I be allowed to express my opinion as a translator and a member of this community?
I praise The Garden Island for printing not only my letters, but those that I disagree with, because other readers and I learn about opposing views and different reasoning too.
And that’s what non-biased media is about. I continue to express my opinion and let people of Kaua‘i decide if they want to read it. I am not asking the writer as to what qualifications he has to establish that another letter writer’s opinion is not credible, just suggest to him and others: When you reply to a letter, stick to the subject not to the writer — it will make your writing more interesting.
• Janos Samu, Kalaheo
