• Rejection of free legal service wrong decision • Alarming news about solar project • Wahines, please be careful out there • Disingenuous science and heartless hubris Rejection of free legal service wrong decision I am totally upset by what
• Rejection of free legal service wrong decision • Alarming news about solar project • Wahines, please be careful out there • Disingenuous science and heartless hubris
Rejection of free legal service wrong decision
I am totally upset by what happened this past week on county Ordinance 960 (the pesticide disclosure bill). The offer of pro-bono legal support by a team of two obviously skilled and experienced lawyers was rejected by the county as being nonresponsive and they as being unqualified. How can this be? How can a former head of the Kauai Bar Association who has been practicing for over 35 years be unqualified? How can a man who has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and taught at both the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles be unqualified? How can the pro-bono solicitation include requirements that violate the Code of Professional Conduct? How is the county going to fight agribusinesses that have spent many millions in recent lawsuits with a war chest of just $75,000?
My only hope is that Gary Hooser and Tim Bynum, who have led this defense of Kauai, also have a strategy to overcome this ineptness by the county government.
Gail C. Rosen
Lihue
Alarming news about solar project
The strategically designed informational meeting on the proposed Anahola solar project (Feb. 6) on Kauai regarding Kauai Island Utilities Cooperative to lease 60 acres for 55 years on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in Anahola was alarming.
Thousands of Native Hawaiians wait for their homestead award lease from DHHL.
The PowerPoint presentation stated, “The location adjacent to Kuhio Highway simplifies access by customers and employees, and the spot is well placed in relationship to the identified need for additional service infrastructure on the east and north shores of the island and to existing and planned KIUC infrastructure. The site is also adjacent to the existing Anahola water system, making an extension of that system to serve the potable water needs of the service center a relatively simple proposition. The selection of this site also further supports the relationship between KIUC and DHHL as described above.”
A service center for the general public for an electrical company “cooperative” in name only at the expense of Native Hawaiian Beneficiaries is wrong. It would behoove DHHL to “service” the Act of Congress via the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act rather than KIUC.
Native Hawaiians deserve to be “serviced,” not KIUC and the general public. Solar can be put on roofs.
Prince Kuhio’s birthday is next month. Let’s honor him by “Hawaiian Lands in Hawaiian Hands.”
Bonnie P. Bator
Anahola
Wahines, please be careful out there
In light of what is going on with missing wahines on Maui, I would suggest all wahines in Hawaii get the “Aspire News” app on their phones. It will call the police and then your GPS will be activated. It will record and it will take pictures of your abuser.
Also look up “When Georgia Smiled” and it will teach you how to use the app. It saved my life from a dangerous stalker. Also “Panic” app, which will dial two close friends and send a message that you are in trouble.
Also sign up with your HCJDC sexual offender registry for your state so you will know the sexual offenders in your location and they will send pictures of what they look like, where they live and what crime they had committed. It also helped me to recognize them so to avoid them. Please spread this news to help our wahines of Hawaii keep safe. Please pass this on to your new stations. Hawaii’s wahines depend on this information to help empower them and give them hope for their own safety. Knowledge is power.
Kaimiana Kahiau
Kapaa
Disingenuous science and heartless hubris
Mark Phillipson’s recent letter (TGI, Feb. 16) was specious at best. He attempts to narrow the debate by shunning any scientific data that doesn’t fit the corporatist bottom line he is shilling for. He does this in two ways. First, he claims all research that has shown GMOs can indeed cause health problems has been debunked. This is flat out untrue. Secondly, he implies that those whose perspectives may be influenced by emotion in any way have “no basis in reality.”
As I’m sure Mr. Phillips knows, the science he refers to is very narrowly framed. Existing science on the subject of GMOs is deeply impacted by corporate finance and influence. Truly independent researchers have great difficulty even gaining access to GMO seed for study because the patent holders simply don’t allow outside access. Because of this, the science Mr. Phillipson is leaning on is incredibly lopsided and therefore unbalanced.
Nonetheless, this fact doesn’t stop him or his backers from disregarding the existing independent research that has invariably shown GMO crops can cause serious health problems. If Mr. Phillipson is so incredibly confident in his employer’s product, perhaps Syngenta and other seed companies are ready to provide full access to their seeds for independent research?
It is incredibly disingenuous for Mr. Phillipson to talk about the merits of science as he does. All we have to do is look toward history and recall how long it took for independent science to catch up and debunk the “science” of the cigarette industry, proving that cigarettes actually cause health problems.
Lastly, it is incredibly heartless when anyone implies that emotional claims have no basis in reality. Regardless of one’s beliefs, this is also a political issue and politics are powered by how people feel. Condescending toward those who actually have feelings is as heartless as one can be. Are we people or computers? It seems Mr. Phillipson would prefer all of us to behave more like computers — but only if we run the code provided for us by the corporate science controlled by the industry for which he works.
Although we may have gotten used to this corporatist approach that has been the hallmark of the industrial age, it denies a critical and very essential element of our humanity.
Owen Wormser
A frequent visitor from Shelburne Falls, Ma.
