Letters for Wednesday, December 5, 2007

• Poor Mr. Superferry

• For Sale: island to highest bidder

• Litigation happy

• A visual for the invisible

Poor Mr. Superferry

I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. Connect the islands. Spread aloha. But even communism once seemed like a good idea, too.

Now you’ve pitted island against island. Corruption and conflict was your gift to our legislative, executive and judicial.

Even the gods seem to be against you. You were to sail today, but 30-foot seas damaged your docks and 50-knot winds rock your boat.

On your only successful voyage, Maui rocks almost sailed to O‘ahu. Pele is not happy with you.

I welcome all visitors to our island. Aloha is alive here. But you threaten the whales, symbol of 21st century environmental awareness in our society.

And you forced yourself on us. No respect.

But it won’t be environmentalists and surfers who undo you. Has anyone looked at your business model? Where are the many thousands of interisland travellers you need? If even one-third of us chose to sail rather than fly, that’s not very many.

Is anyone comparing prices? Commercial flights and Young Bros. are far cheaper, and we have done just fine with them for years.

The daily losses you represented while idle were staggering. We don’t spend nearly that much getting around on go! and Aloha and Hawaiian or shipping our poi and opihi on Young Bros.

Does anybody remember the last time this was attempted 30 years ago? Nearly every one of the passengers deboarded seasick and ran straight for the aiport. We live in some of the roughest waters in the world. Maybe I rather fly.

You had a chance to cut-and-run when the judge demanded an EIS. That was your chance to leave the islands and your harbor debt behind you. You should have taken that opportunity.

It took 70 years for the Soviets to abandon their bad idea, and only then because they went broke. A white knight named Gorby was brave enough to say “We were wrong.”

Will it take you as long? Who will be your white knight? Even Marx eventually admitted he was wrong.

Jim Thompson

Kalaheo

For Sale: island to highest bidder

I’m suprised with all the changes presently taking place in our corner of the world, that no one has petitioned the courts to officially change the name of Kauai, to “O‘ahu Lite.”

I hope we can all agree on one thing. And that is the growing pains Kaua‘i has faced over the last few years has not come without a price. Take Po‘ipu for instance. Unrestricted development has disenfranchised long established neighborhoods, with developers’ near total disregard for long-time residents and properties alike. Black cloth dust-barrier fencing and water trucks? Come on now. Sure, they work to some degree. Maybe when you’re building a single family home, and you’re wanting as minimal of an impact to your new neighbors as possible. But these larger developments (plural, as in more than one) have now raised the stakes. Instead of affecting their bordering neighbors, they’re infecting entire neighborhoods. Take this past weeks’ rain, for instance. Have you seen the conditions of the roadways and ocean, for that matter, affected by the runoff these “strip-mining” developers have created?

As if that’s not bad enough, let’s throw a Supperferry into the equation, and allow it to operate without an environmental impact statement. I mean, what’s one more pardon, when it comes to, in my opinion, what appears to be “inmates running the asylum.”

You can disagree with me all you want. For you’re entitled to your opinion as well. But please, there’s no way you can put a “spin” on the urban sprawl presently taking hold here on the Garden Isle. You can try and turn it into some kind of a “positive” all you want. And to those of you who try, I would like to offer up the following mantra, and that is: “Ignorance is bliss … ohhhmmmmm.”

Joe Callen

Princeville

Litigation happy

I agree totally with Roger Olsen’s perspective regarding suing (“What about personal responsibility,” Letters, Dec. 4).

I have lived in many countries (in Europe and South America) before moving here and I had no concept of “suing” until I realized how this society functions.

Only in extreme cases of negligence should there be a possibility of legal action.

Imagine how much cheaper and happier life would be if we were not haunted about legal suits for nothing … just be responsible, that’s all.

Lilian de Mello

Kapa‘a

A visual for the invisible

While reading The Garden Island article, “A day of downpours” on Nov. 29, I found vague assertions of why red dirt runoff creates a “huge environmental impact.”

Ah, yes.

The red dirt.

Must be bad. If you don’t believe me, just take inventory of the few pairs of socks you do have. Still, I was left gleaning the story for more factual information. Show me the details; show me, so I am not so easily shrugged off as some hippie environmentalist.

However, thanks to the aerial photo contributed by Kukui‘ula Development Co., my imagination was kick-started. A large volume of muddy runoff whether unnatural or not is sure to cause an impact on the immediate area coastline, but what of the long-term forecast when the projects have been completed?

Might the photo be seen as an illustration showing there is indeed runoff feeding a specific part of the coastline and ocean, even when there is vegetation present?

The dramatic runoff created by heavy rains is like a food-coloring experiment showing where and how potentially environmentally harmful chemicals applied to golf courses and development sites would go after a storm.

For those not so moved by the plight of the environment, try asking local fishermen about possible effects on humans eating fish caught near the developments in question once they’ve been built and business is back to the picture postcard we’re accustomed to.

The flowing, rusty red river is more than just an eyesore, it’s a visual for the invisible chemical highway that will potentially be created by these developments and come to our oceans harming marine life and people.

Bonnie Stack

Kapa‘a