• Ticked off in Princeville • Ulu Ko park • Is $12 million a bribe? Ticked off in Princeville I’m incredibly sad for the Crawfords. As I read the article about their dog being ripped apart in front of their
• Ticked off in Princeville
• Ulu Ko park
• Is $12 million a bribe?
Ticked off in Princeville
I’m incredibly sad for the Crawfords. As I read the article about their dog being ripped apart in front of their eyes, I couldn’t help but think about what barbaric and uncivilized laws we’ve accepted when it comes to owners’ responsibility for their animals.
As an owner of four dogs and a cat, I don’t sympathize with the hunting dogs’ owners. Responsibility is responsibility. Forget cultural tradition. People can’t pick and choose which laws to adhere to, and which laws they’re going to ignore. In some cultures, sacrificing virgins is still acceptable. In some, taking their elderly into the middle of the desert when they’re too old and feeble to contribute and letting vultures peck them to death is an accepted practice. But not in the United States.
I consider my animals to be like my children. We’ve all heard animal lovers say that. Now, if parents are responsible for the actions or misactions of their children, how can they be absolved from crimes committed by the animals they’re responsible for? Whether it’s tearing up a couple dozen albatross, a 5-year-old child in their own yard, or other dogs, owners’ should be held criminally responsible.
While I know and believe that the Smiths are sorry and I applaud them for their acknowledgement of what happened, it does not remove, diminish or absolve their responsibility for the incident.
Maybe things will change when it’s the mayor or governor’s child or family pet that gets shredded in front of their eyes.
Wake up, Kaua’i. If you continuously put up with this kind of crap, you’re just as ignorant as the government. Instead of warnings, tickets and admonishments, throw the owners of these animals in a cage, rub them with meat and let some hunting dogs loose on THEM while their families watch in terror as they’re torn apart. Give ’em a dose of what it feels like. Would that be right? Hell, no. But, throwing them in jail, fining them heavily and forcing them to make restitution to the families they’re responsible for destroying would be a start.
I realize this response is extreme, but how can a person, a county or a state justify its abandonment of doing what is right?
Don’t fall back on the cultural B.S. either. You can’t reap the benefits of the present and still hold onto the barbaric practices of the past without penalty or repercussion.
I can tell you unequivocally, if it’d been my child, my animal or my property that’d been harmed, there’d be hell to pay.
Perhaps if the county or state doesn’t intervene and change things, we oughta just take matters into our own hands…after all, that theory belongs to certain cultures as well, doesn’t it?
Hmmmmmm……
Ulu Ko park
I am writing in reference to your article in Sunday’s paper regarding Ulu Ko Park. As I am only one of a number of participants in the Nuhou Road/Stop Lights group, it’s important that this organization be properly credited.
Nuhou Road/Stop Lights group is a grassroots association of people who initially gathered together last August, once becoming aware that Nuhou Street was slated to bisect the park, ending with a four-way stop light at Aheahe and Nawiliwili. Those opposing the diversion of Nuhou Street through Ulu Ko Park are not just limited to residents of Ulu Ko subdivision, but also include residents from Ulu Mahi, Ulukukui, Pua Loke and elsewhere.
More importantly, we were distressed to see that The Garden Island misspelled the name of Nuhou Street twice, printing, “See Nohou, A8” and repeating the same error at the top of page 8. Your misidentification of the street is cruelly ironic, since the same misidentification of the road appeared in the Notice of Public Hearing distributed in November 2001. The Notice did not indicate where this road was specifically located nor did it indicate that the road would cut through the park. Had we been more accurately notified at that time, we would have voiced our concerns then.
Is $12 million a bribe?
Developers of two more proposed eyesores in Waipouli have on the table $12 million, for what I thought was only roads — but get this, their whopping $6 million each is supposed to ‘address’ water and sewage. If they’ve spent any money for ‘studies’ they’ll expect that back through project approval. Where’s the EIS? More massive generic monstrosities. Mostly, where’s our representation?
As a bonus they’ll throw in ‘lackey’ courses at Kapaa High School “to encourage more y’ouths to pursue careers in hotel and resort.” What about the Technology Center, Mayor, that promised to get more youths pursuing real careers?
After stating, “We want to be a real positive force in the community,” Laurence Smith of Coconut Beach Development and his Honolulu rep proceeded to put down one of Kaua’i’s distinguished kupuna, Puanani Rogers, and her testimony. “It is not about the money, it is about care and protection of our ‘aina and our resources.” The slap and dismissive reply from Coconut Beach Development, “But she has her agenda, and that is the sovereignty movement,” was a grave mistake.
The sovereignty “movement” is not a current fad or developer’s barroom joke. The Sovereignty exists. “Clear title” does not exist. Developers know it. Their clientele does not. Sovereignty is momentous now due to the unparalleled abuse of the islands. Ms. Rogers speaks for all of us, regardless of Sovereignty.
Being a positive force in the community; the “force” part is right when two developers gang up and raise a $2 million bribe to $12 million.
Three things about this (offer) of money: 1) Again it constitutes bribery of county officials. 2) By offering this bribe (Kukui’ula tried a couple of months ago) the developers have entered a statement of acknowledgement that “there will be impact.” 3) The simultaneous development and road work is another “trust me” and not binding on their side.
People of Kaua’i are on to that “trust me.” EIS studies are sound planning, or just saying “no” until we know.
The residents of Kaua’i are not asking for more roads. You (developers) are the ones that need more roads to put something on the table to “con” the county into permits. Kaua’i is not the place for beltways, freeways, overpasses nor cloverleafs regardless of what you think or need.
The island needs a shutdown on developments. Moratorium. It is truly time to vote out bums. The island is not an ATM machine for shifty small time politicians and developers. It is a vulnerable treasure, especially its people.
