• Underground poles • Muslim culture • Thomas Jefferson and politics Underground poles It is always pleasant to receive a check in the mail, so thank you for the one I received today. At least since Hurricane ‘Iwa in 1982,
• Underground poles
• Muslim culture
• Thomas Jefferson and politics
Underground poles
It is always pleasant to receive a check in the mail, so thank you for the one I received today.
At least since Hurricane ‘Iwa in 1982, people have been suggesting that it would be prudent to place as much of our utility infrastructure as possible underground. In 1983, we heard the it would be prohibitively expensive to do this. Yet how much did it cost our community when ‘Iniki stomped through the reconstructed wires and poles ten years later? Aside from the obvious expenses of replacing hardware, we had to import and support crows from off -island to help with the recovery. When you factor in the costs of data, food, medicine, work time and so on that were lost when our electric grid went down, would construction of a subterranean network really be so expensive? Yet, again in 1993 we heard the litany, “it would cost too much to put our powerlines underground.”
A tired but true proverb says that those who refuse to learn lessons history teaches will repeat the mistakes that created that history. History should teach us that hurricanes occasionally visit Kaua‘i, and that they show very little respect for things that people build. Can anyone who remembers seeing that line of toppled poles at Kealia on September 12, 1992 not wonder what will happen to their bigger and better replacements when the next ‘Iwa or ‘Iniki comes to call?
With this in mind, I am returning the check you kindly sent, and hope that you will use it to open a fund for establishment of an underground or other safer network than the precarious and unsightly wires and poles we now have. I am also sending a copy of this letter to The Garden Island newspaper in the hope that readers of that publication will consider donating their rebates to this endeavor.
Heu‘ionalani Wyeth
Anahola
Muslim culture
Paula Zina (May 26 letter) offers a one-sided view of history involving the Muslim culture.
For 500 years the Christian Crusades invaded and slaughtered Muslims in the Middle-East as the foreign policy of the Popes. They promised the crusaders plenary absolution, great wealth if they survived and a direct path to heaven if they perished.
In my lifetime Catholics and Protestants in Germany elected the Nazi party to power, participating in the extermination of Jews, gypsies and homosexuals. The Pope never spoke out. But today the Catholic church threatens to withhold the sacrament from American politicians who do not vote according to the Pope’s demands.
President Bush, claiming to be called by a Christian god, has illegally and immorally invaded Iraq, a Muslim nation. He further opposes allowing Iraq to rule itself using Islamic laws.
Meanwhile he wants to add to the American Constitution a law which he claims represents “traditional” marriage. Marriage did not become an institution in the Christian church until the ninth century. The kings of Israel and Mohammed maintained harems. When do traditions begin and end?
It is no wonder that Muslims feel threatened by “Christian” America. It is sad that the study of history is no longer important in education – even for President Bush.
Fred Wells
Kapa‘a
Thomas Jefferson and politics
Thomas Jefferson did not design a system of government dependent on one side prevailing absolutely during its period of majority rule. Instead, the system’s design was one of balance. Jefferson defined patriotism differently than what is often heard today: “To preserve the peace of our fellow citizens, promote their prosperity and happiness, reunite opinion, cultivate a spirit of candor, moderation, charity and forbearance toward one another, are objects calling for the efforts and sacrifices of every good man and patriot.
“Success in our political system, like success in a personal relationship, depends on the ability to negotiate and compromise. Yet I think it is fair to say that not since the Vietnam Era has there been so much partisan rancor or such insistence that politicians be completely faithful to one extreme or the other. A side effect of this “loyalty” is the common practice of politicians delivering conflicting messages to different audiences as if no one is paying attention to anything but their own narrow views and the propaganda associated with those views.
A recent local example of what is terribly wrong today came in the form of Fred Sarmento’s letter (TGI 5/16/04). He declared that the Democratic Party supported debauchery, sponsored filth, embraced morally deficient ideals, and had an animus towards God and tradition.
On the Kauai Republican Party’s weekly radio show (5/19/04), the same Fred Sarmento was pleading for bipartisan cooperation during the upcoming election campaigns. Mr. Sarmento’s letter represents an extreme point of view finding acceptance today because of the trend for placing a higher value on party “loyalty” than on the critical thinking skills required for negotiation and compromise.
An underrated president; but, one of the great men of the 20th century, Dwight Eisenhower, put it best: “People talk about the middle of the road as though it were unacceptable…Things are not all black and white. There have to be compromises. The middle of the road is all the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters. I can’t allow Mr Sarmento to have it both ways. He must choose.
I hope he decides to leave the gutter.
Peter Antonson
Lawa‘i
