• Regarding TGI’s July 3 editorial • Gathering the strength • Affordable ag taxes attract career farmers • Consider the public in Larsen’s decision • Get real Regarding TGI’s July 3 editorial How should Hawai‘i respond to crystal methamphetamine use?
• Regarding TGI’s July 3 editorial • Gathering the strength • Affordable ag taxes attract career farmers • Consider the public in Larsen’s decision • Get real
Regarding TGI’s July 3 editorial
How should Hawai‘i respond to crystal methamphetamine use?
During the crack cocaine epidemic of the eighties, New York City chose the zero tolerance approach, opting to arrest and prosecute as many offenders as possible.
Meanwhile, Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was smoking crack and America’s capital had the highest per capita murder rate in the country. Yet crack use declined in both cities simultaneously.
Simply put, the younger generation saw firsthand what crack was doing to their older brothers and sisters and decided for themselves that crack was bad news.
This is not to say nothing can be done about meth. Access to drug treatment is critical for the current generation of meth users. Diverting resources away from prisons and into cost-effective treatment would save both tax dollars and lives.
Robert Sharpe, Arlington, Va.
Gathering the strength
I lay awake at night listening to my new neighbors verbally and physically abuse their young daughter.
I initially called KPD, in which an officer came to my house and told me to call CPS on Monday and they left. You couldn’t even save her for one night? Let the abusers know someone is listening at least?
I call CPS, and the snotty girl on the line says they can’t do anything without names.
So I lay there… listening… trying to get the strength to go over there myself.
Jana Cooper, Lihu‘e
Affordable ag taxes attract career farmers
Anytime non-agricultural use (and/or non-farmers) occurs near farm property, the farmer will suffer.
I know this from my tax assessments levied on my farm some years back. An adjacent “gentleman” farmer bought the land adjacent from mine and built a “gentleman” estate home.
The house site which I had dreamed to live acquired a “fair market” value after my neighbor moved in. Since I could not afford these taxes, I had to sell my farm (the rich neighbors were not too happy about other farm activity also).
The Dechkas “farm dwelling” is only one of many which use a farm-use loophole. Because it happens, and a law exists, it does not make it right.
One of the primary ways to attract new career farmers is to allow them to live on their property, and not have them pay the taxes a “gentleman farmer” can afford. Kilauea and many areas with a similar plantation history have lands which are very productive (not marginal). And if you can keep your swimming pool full (even with a 5/8 water meter), there is no problem irrigating 10 to 15 acres of crops.
Sherwood Conant, Kilauea
Consider the public in Larsen’s decision
As aging property owners of Kaua‘i we have been enjoying the beautiful public beach commonly referred to as Larsen’s for many years.
Each time, we hike down to it along a gradual slope that is accessible for us old-timers. We plead with the county council to defer any action on the proposal for a different easement at Lepeuli.
The request for quick approval does not allow for the public to voice their concerns and wishes; it benefits only one person on the island, not the entire community.
We ask you, instead of granting the wishes of just one man, please schedule a public hearing so all of us can listen to a variety of opinions. There is much to hear and evaluate regarding this proposal.
We urge the Kaua‘i County Council to respect and adhere to the principles of democracy, rather than bestow an enormous favor to a single person for the benefit of that single person.
Janet and Chuck Nelsen, Kapa‘a
Get real
On Friday, I read yet another letter to TGI bemoaning what our horrible Navy is doing to dolphins. As with all the other letters, there wasn’t one shred of evidence offered.
In the meantime, the nonprofit World Wildlife Fund’s species-conservation program reported that 1,000 whales, dolphins, and porpoises die every day in nets and fishing gear.
The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy goes way beyond that by estimating that more than 300,000 whales, dolphins, and porpoises are killed by fishing gear every year.
If nothing else, this means that our local anti-military wackos need to gain a little perspective as to where the real problem lies. The few hundred “suspected” sonar-related cases do not even deserve mention when one considers how and why the real carnage is taking place out there in the deep blue sea.
Those of you in leadership positions in ocean conservation-related organizations really have no excuse for indulging in these little anti-military sideshows. It’s time for you to grow up and get real.
Pete Antonson, Kalaheo
