• Quit costing taxpayers more money • Find another use for $10K administrative fee • Is the theater on fire? • Fix the road • Thank you for the offer • Let Costa do his job Quit costing taxpayers more
• Quit costing taxpayers more money
• Find another use for $10K administrative fee
• Is the theater on fire?
• Fix the road
• Thank you for the offer
• Let Costa do his job
Quit costing taxpayers more money
Am I the only one who wants to know what it costs us to add two days to the 2009 legislative session only to override Gov. Lingle’s vetoes of stupid bills raising taxes?
Since the state Legislature chose not to give back most of their recent raise and leave unions alone and decided to spend two more in session, what was the cost to us the taxpayers?
Robert King, ‘Ele‘ele
Find another use for $10K administrative fee
I read with interest the report regarding the $500,000 stimulus the County Council voted to hand over to the Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau but I am confused about one thing.
What exactly is a “$10,000 Kaua‘i Visitor Bureau Administration Fee?”
Is not the bureau and its employees funded and paid by the state bureau? And during these difficult times could not the bureau’s administration find it as to void such a fee for the hard-working taxpayers of Kaua‘i?
The residents are still supplying a cool $490,000 to accomplish the task. The $10,000 would mean a lot to one of the many shelved and needed programs that have been scrapped this year.
Maybe a program direct towards those on Kaua‘i with no job whatsoever? Just a thought.
Eduardo Valenciana, Lihu‘e
Is the theater on fire?
Here comes George Orwell’s Thought Police.
I noted with irony Nat Hentoff’s concern that the U.S. Constitution is being shredded by federal hate crime legislation (while the ACLU fiddles) and on the same page Gordon Oswald is sure “America is suffering from the very excesses our democracy has provided its citizens,” and then “suggest a one-way ticket for Mr. Samu and his family to the country of his choice.” (“New ‘thought crimes’ law is unconstitutional,” Media Voices, and “Which America is it?” Letters, May 8).
Hentoff has reason to worry. Hate crime legislation does strike at the very heart of democracy. The United States is (was?) one of the world’s few exceptions that did not punish people for what they thought, but rather for what they did.
Oswald is way off base. We do not go after an entire family for the opinion of one member. Elsewhere in the world Jesus, Socrates and Galileo were all imprisoned or executed just for what they thought (their speech being the proof).
In modern times Hitler, Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein executed people for as much as giving the stink-eye (lookism?).
I understand free speech does not give one the right to yell fire in a crowded theater — unless the theater is on fire.
Is it?
Ed Coll, Puhi
Fix the road
This letter is concerning the road to Loop Road. All you locals know how important this area is to us.
We’ve all had great family parties and gatherings up there since we were little kids. Last weekend my family and I took a drive up there to check out the sights, only to find a beautiful area that has been forgotten about by whoever is in charge of keeping it.
I’m not talking about the park itself; my main concern was the road to get there.
There is literally space for only one car at a time to safely drive. The road is overgrown with foliage to the point that only half the road is exposed.
Our government has not been taking care of the road. I am writing as a caring citizen hoping that someone will hear me. Take care of the road before someone gets hurt.
Widen it to the edge of the paved part and then clear out more of it so that we are not driving under a tunnel of buffalo grass. I would hate for someone to get into an accident and then sue either the state or county.
With all the taxes we pay here in Hawai‘i this should not be hard to accomplish.
Raychel Brandenburg, Kapa‘a
Thank you for the offer
It was a generous offer, namely a one-way ticket for me and my family to the country of my choice by the letter writer (“Which America is it?” Letters, May 8) who accused me with “railing against America.”
There was no such railing and not even the hint of disliking the country in my letter he referred to. It was simply a criticism of the foreign policy of the United States, which seems to be in line with the teaching of many great philosophers who said that “without criticism there is no progress.”
The answer to the letter writer’s question “Why I not live in another country?” is very simple: because I like it here and I am Hawaiian in my heart, and I prefer to live in this sovereign state of Hawai‘i, even if it is currently occupied by the United States of America. Therefore only the native people of Ko Hawai‘i Pae ‘Aina may ask me to leave, but so far they only extended their most sincere aloha to me and my family. So, I stay.
János Samu, Kalaheo
Let Costa do his job
Ian Costa does a fine job as planning director and is dedicated to the island.
It appears that many people believe that they have a right to blame Costa for every problem on Kaua‘i. Many others feel Costa should run the Planning Department like some communities do on the Mainland.
He gets bombarded with “that’s not how we do it back home” and he is expected to bow down to every dissatisfied malcontent on Kaua‘i. The fact is, Ian is a professional, he is well liked and he is respected by his peers and fellow Planning Department employees. His ability, disposition and attitude are outstanding.
Let him do his job, he is a good man. Let him be.
Ed MacDowell, Kapa‘a
