• I owe you my life • On the new Koloa Bypass • Protect our doggies • Another letter about the Superferry • Lights at bus stops I owe you my life Thursday, Nov. 6, I was snorkling with a
• I owe you my life
• On the new Koloa Bypass
• Protect our doggies
• Another letter about the Superferry
• Lights at bus stops
I owe you my life
Thursday, Nov. 6, I was snorkling with a friend at Tunnels Beach near Hanalei Bay. While being mesmerized by the beautiful fish, a riptide quickly carried me far offshore. My struggle to reach shore was fruitless and I was about to drown when two boarders came to my rescue. To those boarders who arrived minutes before my drowning, thank you. Although I do not know your names or even what you looked like, you seemed like angels to me. To Roger Christensen, my friend, thank you for calling 911, and to the lifeguards and medics who came to my rescue. You astounded me with your professionalism. I owe all of you my life, and eternal gratitude.
• Ken Hubbart, Lake Tahoe, Nev.
On the new Koloa Bypass
Great job guys.
I’ve taken the new Westside Koloa Bypass that opened this week twice now. It does a great job of relieving the traffic in Koloa town and in front of the grade school where my granddaughter goes. The road seems to be well planned and well engineered. The road works the way it is supposed to which, in the way things are going in the world today, is getting to be a rarity. My hat’s off to the developers who designed it and built the road. You definitely get a check mark in the plus column for this one.
Again nice job guys.
• Bill Murphy, Koloa
Protect our doggies
With all respect to the the friendly residents in my Kalaheo neighborhood, I hope you read this.
Yesterday I had four different unleashed but collared dogs in my backyard at separate times. I don’t have a problem with that, I have a problem with how dangerous it is to have your dog wandering the street.
Kai Ikena is a street that people tend to speed in and out of because of the steep hill.
This is not the kind of neighborhood that is safe for free ranging dogs. I understand that dogs get out of fences and off leashes, this has happened with me and my dog also. But occurrences like yesterday’s are not infrequent and I seem to always be looking out my window, seeing a dog in the street, and taking it home. I don’t mind the little adventure I have doing this, I just worry for these dogs’ safety, after all it’s only a few bounds to the highway.
It would be such a tragedy if their families were to lose them. My dog is my best friend, as your dog is yours, and I want to encourage the people of my street to keep your dog in your protection, and if you see a wandering dog, do what you would want to be done if it was your pup.
• Rene Young, Kalaheo
Another letter about the Superferry
As 2009 approaches, the Hawaii Superferry is preparing to add a route to the Big Island.
I can almost hear some people muttering as they read this: “Oh, no. Not another letter about the Superferry. How many times do we have to listen to these rantings?”
According to educators, new concepts need to be heard at least seven times to even penetrate our consciousness, let alone understand the theory behind them.
This letter is for those who still don’t “get” why we are “protesting this new cheaper, alternative of travel.”
Let me say it in a word, “design.”
Not so much the design of the boat, as egregious as it is in terms of it’s “too fast to avoid whales and monk seals” speed, nor its two “slicing through the water and everything else in its way” hulls (compared to one, water deflecting hull on a cruiseship), nor the fuel consumption which far surpasses that of an airliner (and it’s not even bio-diesel) nor the size, which is roughly the same as a football field, and which even the manufacturer admitted was too large for an inter-island passenger conveyance.
No, my friends, the real design of the Hawaii Superferry serves a much different function, which is supported by the federal and state governments to the extent that they have broken their own laws, in skirting the EIS, as requested by each of the neighbor island’s County Councils. The HSF’s neo-con board members attempt to masquerade this military conveyance as a pleasure boat when their stated intent, according to their own documents, is to transport the Stryker Brigade, and thus the possilbility of depleted uranium (and who knows what else) to our islands. When their ill-fated project goes bankrupt, they will merely turn it over to the military or their corporate cronies (for pennies on the dollar?) and the taxpayers will pick up the tab … again.
But what is the real cost? Who is to blame then? The government? The environmentalists? Or the sleeping public?
Do your homework. Superferryimpact.com and Islandbreath.org are good places to start. Ignorance is not bliss for long.
• Sandra Herndon, Kapa‘a
Lights at bus stops
Now that the winter months are upon us, it is very dark at the school bus stops. The sun comes out at 7 in the morning. Work traffic is very heavy at most of the bus stop areas. Many of these student are waiting for the bus in the dark with dark clothing on.
With modern technologies such as solar lights (most good solar lights stay lit for 12 hours, enough time to keep the bus stop areas lit during these dark months), why is it still dark at the bus stops?
The state or county should purchase and install these solar lights at the bus stops ASAP. Don’t wait for a bad injury or death on our youths to happen.
• Howard Tolbe, ‘Ele‘ele
