• When in doubt, don’t go out
• Viva la cyclopista
• The path to the future
• Protesting Roe v. Wade
• A few choice words
When in doubt, don’t go out
It may be callous to blame the victim of Monday’s accident for his own demise, but it is accurate. And I for one am getting a little fed up with dodging irresponsible visitors making illegal traffic maneuvers and putting us all in danger. This is ludicrous, stop the madness indeed.
Before we begin the long and costly process of installing stoplights at every “driveway for a little store” (“Stop the madness,” Letters, Jan. 24) we should consider the real source of our traffic fatalities: irresponsible driving. I think it is time to specifically address the impact of visitors on our roadways.
I feel that a short video, similar to the water hazard videos aired on KVIC, introducing visitors to some of the quirkier aspects of Kaua‘i’s roadways could vastly improve road conditions. Simply explaining features such as the Hanama‘ulu stoplight, contra-flow and the Wailua River cane bridge would prevent many of the “near misses” I see on a daily basis. This video should also include information on traffic patterns and encourage visitors to plan their sightseeing to avoid major congestion times or, better, choose mass transit or pedestrian/bike transit options. I would also suggest encouraging seat belts, obedience to posted speed limits and stressing the importance of not reading the map while driving. However, the day we have to explain the illegality and danger involved in making a U-turn on a three-lane (albeit rural) highway to a U.S. citizen with a valid driver’s license, we should close the roads altogether.
Yes, Kaua‘i has traffic problems. No, there will not be an increase in bussing options, bypass roads or any other sensible option any time soon. And no, you will not make it through Kapa‘a Town at 3:30 p.m. in less than 30 minutes. If we share this information we could encourage a little sanity in the choices our visitors make. The only immediate solution we have is honesty; our county officials may not utilize it, but Ho‘ike sure could.
Louise Aldrich
Kapa‘a
Viva la cyclopista
During my brief stay on beautiful Kaua‘i, I made it a point to bike for fun from Lihu‘e to Kapa‘a, which was not the safest thing, but who could deny the island’s gorgeous weather and awesome scenes? In the Third World surroundings of my current region, “the cyclopista” is my bike route and is also alive with runners, dog-walkers and bicyclists of varying backgrounds, from the average working Joe to the brightly outfitted Tour de France hopeful. I totally agree on the bike path’s viability for invigorating exercise and for entertainment possibilities. It also makes a bold statement about the community it resides in, like “I am a well-worn path of wellness and well-being, serving a strong community of fit and dedicated lovers of nature, hear me whoosh.” That is what my “cyclopista” tells me every day as I get on it to run, bike or walk my way in safety and sunlight. I am very grateful to have the cyclopista within walking distance and I am sure that I am not the only one. Just out of curiosity, what would the Hawaiians call their bike path if they ever got the ball rolling over there?
Loretta Chargualaf Rollins
Jalisco, Mexico
The path to the future
Those who oppose the pathways really need to do some research. First of all, the cost to date for this project is not $50 million — where that came from we’ll never know. Second, taxpayers have not spent one dime on this project — to date, the project has been paid for by volunteer labor, land gifts and grant money. Lastly, the pathway system, when it is completed, will not just be for recreational use, nor just for our visitors. I, myself, know at least 10 people who would bike or walk to work if they could. The roads on this island were created without any forethought that people might actually want to walk or bike to work, to school, to the gym, to the store. If you really like being “stuck” in your car, I suggest you move to O‘ahu. And furthermore, if some people could see past their golf clubs, they would realize that we have a real opportunity here to stand out from the rest with the proposed multi-use pathway system. We would have something to offer that none of the other islands has, and until someone can come up with some other way to financially support our island, we must take into consideration that visitors want this pathway system as much as, if not more, than we do.
Betsy Rivers
Lihu‘e
Protesting Roe v. Wade
It was a beautiful day on the island of Kaua‘i today. However, not all was that beautiful to members of some of the island’s Catholic churches who gathered together to protest the continuing abortions in our state and country. The protest took place near the stoplight across from the Wilcox Hospital in Lihu‘e.
The protest was to remember the beginning, in January some 34 years ago of the killing of defenseless children in the womb as a result of our Supreme Court ruling in favor of Roe v. Wade. The killings have now reached over 34 million. Yes, 34 million young American lives terminated. That number is more than all of the U.S. soldiers lost in all of the wars that Americans have fought since our beginnings as a nation in 1776.
Norman J. Sadler
Princeville
A few choice words
I would like to respond to the letter that ran on Jan. 23, “Killing two birds…”:
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
• Thomas Jefferson
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
• Galileo
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
• Harry S. Truman
“Dictatorships start wars because they need external enemies to exert internal control over their own people.”
• Richard Perle (the prince of darkness)
“What good fortune for governments that the people do not think.”
• Adolph Hitler
“If you tell a big enough lie, and keep on repeating it, in the end people will come to believe it.”
• Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda chief
“See, in my line of work, you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”
• George W. Bush, May 26, 2005
“When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.”
• Jean-Paul Sartre
Dennis Chaquette
Kapa‘a
