• Bill 2573 would be hard on homeless, unfair to Hawaiians • Coconut Plantation Resort land should be preserved for people • A thank you and an apology • City manager system not perfect
Bill 2573 would be hard on homeless, unfair to Hawaiians
Aloha, my name is Kandra Akau. I am 27 years old and was born and raised here on the island of Kauai. I am gonna be honest and not ashamed to say, that I am homeless. Yes, unfortunately, I do have children with me during this difficult time but regardless, this bill (2573) is ridiculous! Unlike some people, I do not have a home to cook in and most of how I feed my children and myself are to palehu (cook out/grill) on the beach or any public place with a little grill.
If I have no charcoal, I make an extra effort to gather sticks and burn it in my little hibachi in order to provide food for my family. So, letting this bill pass would be crazy, especially for homeless people, ‘cause that’s the way we eat majority of the time, is to palehu! Yes we may have our little burner stoves, which, of course, need cans of butane to work, but those butanes go for $3 a can! So therefore we gather sticks to make a fire to cook.
Please, this is not right, it’s been this way for many many years. It’s our culture that needs to be passed down to our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren like our ohanas before us. It’s tradition, it’s our way of living. Who says they have the right to take that away from the Hawaiians that we only have so much left of? Lands and homes being taken away ‘cause no can afford. Hotels being built on Hawaiian sacred lands. And now majority is resorting to living on beaches, parks and homeless shelters. And now like take away of how we eat, how we make kalua pig or palehu for birthday parties, family gatherings. It’s been this way for years. Why change it now? And punish us with fines and incarceration because we can no longer do what our families and culture has been doing forever? Makes no sense, no sense at all.
If this bill is passed, how can we teach our children now, our children’s children and so, on about our heritage and culture? So by all means, explain to these children all over the state of Hawaii. Why? Let’s see who can let down and disappoint these children of Hawaii and if someone can do that by letting the children know what their parents, grandparents and so on, is no longer acceptable, it is vicious monster! Good luck with that!
Kandra K. Akau
Kauai
Coconut Plantation Resort land should be preserved for people
Regarding the pending auction of the Coconut Plantation Resort property on March 19. This is now a lovely piece of ground after what was no doubt a very expensive cleanup and brush clearing during the past year. We have seen families enjoying the beach stretch and have now heard that it is an important cultural and burial site. It appears that one recent owner entity lost $8 million before it was sold in foreclosure to the present owner for $3 million.
Hopefully, Ms. Rogers and Mr. Dinner (quoted in the article) will be able to put together a consortium to buy the property at auction and preserve it for the people of Kauai.
Suzan Kelsey Brooks
Lihue
A thank you and an apology
A huge mahalo to the unknown local man who helped Penny Cistaro catch a terrified horse that was loose in Waimea Town last Tuesday night. Thanks also to Lori from the stables for trying to identify the horse and to Tommy Duarte for coming to the restaurant to reclaim him for his owner.
And to Penny, your friends offer this apology: We’re sorry we didn’t jump up from the table, fly off of the porch, go at a dead run after it, through the dark and across the highway in hot pursuit, the way you did. Guess we had all left our superhero capes at home.
Gayla McCarthy
Waimea
City manager system not perfect
Regarding Mr. Lewis’ and Mr. Mickens’ frequent proposals of a city manager system of local government, I find it hard to believe that such a system would be the panacea they believe.
One needs only to Google “Bell, California,” to see that corruption can occur under that system as well.
With homage to the “Bard,” the fault lies not in our system, but in ourselves.
I would not be adverse to being able to vote on such a possibility, however. I would love to see what scandal lurks behind the outrageous auditor situation.
Richard Machell
Kapaa
