• Picking and choosing
• ‘Get over yourselves’
• Don’t label us
• You’re my hero
Picking and choosing
Regarding the letter “Dear county officials” (Letters, Aug. 4) by David Kundysek of Dallas, Texas:
David, you misunderstand the situation. The Planning Commission is not really “worried” about vacation rentals.
Also, as you statedly assume with oil price expectations of the next five to 10 years that people in significant numbers will continue to be able to afford the airfare to here and that they might somehow be the ones who traditionally stay in vacation rentals as opposed to hotels. Visitor industry trends would indicate otherwise.
Kaua‘i is the enviable destination that it is because there is a local concern for the environment here year in and year out regardless of the cyclical state of the economy.
Fear-based arguments invoking the cyclical state of the economy should not be acceptable here in the same way that they are elsewhere in an unquestioning culture of growth at any cost.
Kaua‘i has the advantage of picking and choosing how it should carry itself in the world, and it is not growth at any cost.
Brad Parsons, Hanalei
‘Get over yourselves’
Mr. Burns had to work very hard to misinterpret every one of the points in my letter (“Moderate adjectives,” Letters, Aug. 3), but he rose to the occasion (“Not all liberals are communists,” Letters, Aug. 4).
In the process he offers up more of the insufferable partisan overkill many of us have wearied of for what seems like forever. Partisan overkill, whether from the left or the right, goes something like this:
1. Our side has never been wrong about a single issue.
2. All of recorded history is proof for our side.
3. The other side is not just wrong; they are evil.
4. If we give as much as an inch away; civilization will end.
Partisan overkill exists at the intellectual level of a second grade playground. Corruption remains the exception; not the rule. If corruption seems widespread, it’s because it’s constantly invented by opponents for everything from a neighborhood dispute to a national issue.
Please join me in giving this advice to partisans: “Get over yourselves.”
Pete Antonson, Kalaheo
Don’t label us
We now live in such a fast-paced world, with information coming at us from all angles, all the time.
Some of it is even true, but a lot more is carefully “spun” for effect or is only a small part of the full story.
I believe this information overload is what has caused us to feel the need to place things in a box and put a label on it so we can identify and remember it.
Recent letters have labeled people as “liberals,” “conservatives,” “communists,” not to mention the all too frequent “those people” or “they” — does anybody really know who “they” are?
I propose we all make an effort to recognize that everybody is different, and therefore not all Democrats or Republicans or (you fill in the blank) will have the same opinion on every issue.
The more generalized the label, the more this is true; know that not all residents of a red or blue state voted red or blue.
If by habit you absolutely must call someone a name/put a label on them, take a tip from Kahlil Gibran in his book “The Prophet.” Paraphrased: If you must call someone a name, write it, don’t say it; write it in the sand, near the water’s edge.
We’re all different; you can just call me Russ.
Russ Denz, Tarboro, N.C. (formerly Wailua)
You’re my hero
A very kind gentleman saved my two dogs this morning. At around 7:30 a.m., I was walking my dogs on the grassy area that runs perpendicular to Kuhio Highway.
We were running, and the dogs’ leashes got tangled up, and in the process, Gidgett’s collar came off and she ran into the road. I was running after her with Kozmo in tow, and I fell and then Kozmo escaped from me as well.
So now both of my dogs are in the middle of the road and the traffic is very busy, some cars are stopping and some are not, I just knew that my dogs were going to get killed, I was running and running and calling them but they were freaked out at all the commotion people yelling and honking their horns.
I have COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and could not keep running. Literally I was gasping for air and could not believe what was going on in front of my eyes.
This continued for a good half-mile, then finally someone got out of their car and helped me. A gentleman in a red car. I just want to thank him from the bottom of my heart, he saved me and my dogs, because I was not going to stop trying to run and with my COPD I could have easily collapsed, and trust me I was right on the verge of passing out when he stopped and helped me.
He knows who he is, and it means the world to me. Mahalo and aloha.
Susan Ohnstad (and Kozmo and Gidgett), Kapa‘a
