• Stop outsourcing security • No Easter egg hunt, martial arts competition • Enforce the law • Legalize it
Stop outsourcing security
Recent Congressional hearings have painted a dismal picture of military contractor Blackwater’s operations. Employees stole hundreds of weapons meant for the Afghan national police. They billed the U.S. government for a prostitute.
And then they created a shell company called “Paravant” so they could keep getting government contracts after they trashed the Blackwater name.
We must stop giving contracts to businesses like Blackwater — and the only way to do it is to pass the Stop Outsourcing Security Act. Please join me in asking our elected officials to make this Act a priority.
Lise Langlois, Kekaha
No Easter egg hunt, martial arts competition
Our program has been putting the u back into community for close to 15 years.
Hundreds of keiki and adults have been apart of this program from the start. Our simple beginning started in Wailua Houselots. Everybody that comes through this school and program has been propelled to go on to be more successful in life.
I see many stars in sports on Kaua‘i that started off at Garden Angels School. Even if they could not handle the training they still jumped in line to get coordinated and grow confidence to help them go on and be the best they can at what they choose to do.
One Kaua‘i politician told Sifu Pete one day that to bring people together through martial arts is impossible. So I accepted the challenge when I started my class. There were not a lot of classes offering MMA but Kajukenbo was the first mixed martial art. It was introduced in 1949 in the Palama settlement on O‘ahu by the late grandmaster A.D. Emperado who was a good friend of Sifu Pete.
He was a graduate of Waimea High School in 1944. The first Easter egg hunt we did was at Wally World then it just took off. We relocated to the Houselots park and later to Lydgate. Now the event is held annually at Kapa‘a Beach Park where hundreds of volunteers would stuff 10,000 eggs to make this event a success.
Thank you to each person who has joined us for this event.
But I want to inform you that this year there will be no event do to circumstances beyond our control. We also regret to let you know there will be no Kaua‘i open martial arts championships, the premier martial arts event on island.
All of our success was do to sponsors that we no longer have. My dream is to have a Westside event like Auntie Aloha Easter Egg Hunt and Family Fun Day. Thanks again for past support. It means a lot to us.
Pete Gallardo, Garden Angels director
Enforce the law
I find it appalling that taxpayer money is being wasted on time in Honolulu for criminals to expound upon the “cultural” value of cockfighting.
Cockfighting is a vestige of a bloody barbaric past in societies best left behind with the picnic baskets that used to be taken to public hangings.
When Kaua‘i children and their substandard educations are further challenged with three and one half day weeks due to budget cuts, where do the powers that be find the bucks to listen to cockfighters try to legitimize their illegal, cruel pastime, which is fueled with gambling and drugs that are also illegal?
And why is it so tolerated in our community? Do all of the cockfighters have an “uncle” who works at the police department or what the heck is going on?
I have to explain to my kids why there are dozens of roosters with their combs cut off, tied up to their little A frames within a stone’s throw of their school and then come their obvious questions about “why aren’t those people who raise the roosters to fight arrested?” Makes sense to me. Duh.
Make this law a felony, kick in some hefty fines that will be a deterrent to this being a profitable racket, and a deterrent so these people teach their next generation to find entertainment in a way that does not inflict death to another creature.
In doing so, earmark those fines collected to fund our schools in each county, and raise the bar for Hawai‘i culturally. By enforcing the law of the land, the fines can enable our kids to have a better chance to have school five days a week like the other 49 states, the children of which they will be competing with if they try to get into college.
Shari Pilaria, Koloa
Legalize it
Now that we are past the days of reefer madness, most people, if asked, would consider alcohol a much more dangerous and injurious substance than marijuana. Cannabis and alcohol should be treated equally under the law. It should not be illegal to use either.
Abuse of either substance, such driving under the influence, should be dealt with quickly and severely.
Although I have no proof of it, I suspect that the liquor industry considers marijuana a strong competitor and is partially responsible for efforts to ban it.
I don’t smoke pot. I join my son-in-law, who lives next door, for a shot of Scotch and a good cigar, a couple of evenings a week. We settle some important issues during these priceless moments.
It’s unfair to discriminate against those who prefer marijuana to alcohol or enjoy both. Don’t ban the use, treat the abuse.
Harry Boranian, Lihu‘e
