A Christmas poem
Caring for our community
Helping each other
Reaching out with compassion
Imua, moving forward together
Sharing our resources
Tolerating our differences
Malama our island and each other
Aloha in our hearts
Seeing each other as ohana.
Merry Christmas,
Kathy Dahill, Kauai
Mahalo, JoAnn Yukimura, for all you did for Kauai
Mahalo for your editorial (Dec. 7) acknowledging the three departing elected officials, Mayor Bernard Carvalho, Council Chair Mel Rapozo and Councilmember and former mayor JoAnn Yukimura.
While Councilmember Yukimura just ended a stint of four consecutive two-year terms, she actually served 11 terms on the County Council. She has significant accomplishments not well-known that deserve to be recognized.
With Chair Jay Furfaro she co-introduced a money bill approved by the council that enabled the state’s Invasive Species Committee to eradicate a 15-acre coqui frog infestation in Lawai.
Among her many accomplishments as mayor, she started the Kauai Bus and established the basic emergency communication system that exists today. That system replaced the antiquated system in which police officers were relaying emergency communication from police car to police car.
She also renovated the Lihue Shopping Center into the county offices that are there today. And she took on the challenge of sewering Kapaa and Hanapepe towns so businesses could thrive.
These achievements continue to make life better every day for those of us who call Kauai home.
Sabra Kauka, Lihue
‘Right to know’ is under attack in Australia
At present the “right to know” is under attack in Australia but I don’t know why. Perhaps it is a case of the similar “right to be forgotten” — effectively a right to not know.
The “right to be forgotten” now legislated in the EU and Argentina is designed to protect people’s present and future from their past. Once, if you did something wrong, probably due to alcohol, people either laughed or condemned, but there was little evidence the next day. Now everyone has a high-resolution camera in their pocket to get the “evidence,” and a venue to show it with Facebook, YouTube and a number of other outlets that there is little control of.
At present it is difficult to remove this material and that is the intent of this “right to be forgotten,” a chance for the past to be wiped away so that employment opportunities are not dashed. Although this sounds like a good law for all countries, defining the limits of this right is difficult. A photo of the sleeping drunk at a work event can be best forgotten but a video clip leading to a charge of bullying or unwanted sexual advances at the same event should not be forgotten or forgiven, and there should be consequences.
A better reality would be the right to know supported by people behaving appropriately so there was nothing to hide, although this isn’t likely to be realistic.
Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia
Pipe Dream?