I would like to use and exercise my First Amendment rights to respond to and express my opinions on an article written by Mr. John Steinhorst, and printed in big, bold letters in TGI (Aug. 26) “They turned the tide.”
I would like to use and exercise my First Amendment rights to respond to and express my opinions on an article written by Mr. John Steinhorst, and printed in big, bold letters in TGI (Aug. 26) “They turned the tide.”
As much as I would like to concur with what was said in the combined three-fourths page of the newspaper, I simply couldn’t do it. I really don’t believe that the majority of the people, who bragged that they were able to stop the Superferry ever coming here, as another means of transportation, were really out there protesting. I could only surmise, but with convictions, that there were just a handful of people who were capable and able to muster enough people to protest and were schooled enough to seek legal advisers to sue the concerns.
You are organized groups, one in particular, the Kauai Chapter of Surfrider Foundation, and of course, the Kahului Harbor Coalition, the Sierra Club with Maui Tomorrow, who have given reasons to TGI why you all didn’t care for, but instead, protested the Superferry.
Your reasons, as stated in TGI, were that the ship was too big and was going 15 knots and would endanger our whales.
Well, if that was one of the reasons, then why don’t you take the initiatives now to stop all those big cruise ships changing and diverting their routes, coming from the colder northern countries to our warmer winter climates in Hawaii from September to July? They are huge ships, and are they are plentiful.
Secondly, the amount of people and cars that the Superferry would have brought in would certainly have impeded and added to our unseemingly so-called congested highways and roads. Did it ever occur to you, the protesters, that the many airlines flying into Kauai are now bringing thousands of people, and the car rental agencies have doubled or tripled their fleets? Think about it.
Thirdly, it was mentioned that there were no plans to protect the islands from hitchhikers and invasive plants and animals. Well, guess what? I don’t believe in borders, but really, should we stop the hitchhikers from coming to Kauai? And why? Are they bad people, or are they a different kind of people?
You know what? I love the fact that people who would want to come here to see and enjoy something as beautiful as Kauai. This is a wonderful thing. And what you said here to TGI, and I’ll quote, “We should stop people from the Mainland coming here.” Again, why? And why are we trying to be like Donald Trump? Should we also put up a wall, or something?
And why were you aiming, attacking and stopping people only from Oahu from fishing, surfing, etc. (whatever etc. means) without camping permits, or other accommodations, perhaps, sleeping in their automobile, as stated in The Garden Island? Would they be overfishing and oversurfing?
And to say that we should stop the tourists because we already reached our limits with our tourists is absurd. What? Are you kidding? Why are you all here, and what possessed you to come here in the first place? Weren’t you a tourist at one time or another? Be serious.
I have stated and said this many times before that I am not a racist, and I meant it. Obviously and truthfully, you organized groups are not from these islands. You don’t talk, think, and/or believe like Hawaiians. But you’ve come here making me say the things that I am sure some of the locals may not agree with me, and that is that you have disrupted our ways of living, and tried to control what we locals have done long time ago and lived the normal and easy kinds of lives, only because of your selfish needs and your arrogance.
You have done for me, or for those like me, no favors when you protested, believe me.
If you, the groups, find the need to protest, try to do them to benefit everyone and do it for the betterment for all the people who have lived and enjoyed the ways we did before all of those interruptions and disruptions came about.
I found the information given to Mr. Steinhorst by the groups was, to me, very demeaning and offensive.
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Ray Domingo is a resident of Hanamaulu.
