• Kalaheo roads busy in the a.m.
• What is the origin of a conspiracy theory?
• No thank you
• Danke shoen
Kalaheo roads busy in the a.m.
Every morning as I reach the bottom of Papalina Road around 6:30 a.m., I am greeted by 50 to 100 kids and people waiting for their buses as well as a line of cars waiting to get onto the highway. At this time of year, it is still pretty dark.
I have seen many times when a pedestrian has almost been hit because they just run across the street without warning, not even on a crosswalk, to get to Kujo’s Mini Mart or to talk to people on the other side.
They need to be more careful. I, as a driver, have learned to be more cautious in that area, but you never know what is going to happen.
Annastasia Cooper
Kalaheo
What is the origin of a conspiracy theory?
We all remember the terrible tragedy of the Ka Loko Dam.
Now it turns out that Belt Collins — the same firm hired by Gov. Linda Lingle, Lt. Gov. James Aiona and the director of the DOT — may be named in a lawsuit because it worked for Pflueger, the transplanted land baron.
What work did Belt Collins do for Pflueger? Did Belt Collins give the green light for Ka Loko Dam?
This is a serious question given the horrible consequences of what happened.
Why is the Department of Transportation overseeing the EIS through Belt Collins?
The DOT, Lingle and Aiona are the ones who wrongfully exempted the Superferry in the first place, and now they are overseeing the EIS?
History should teach all of us, and not just some of us, what can happen when you do not take the time to make sure things are done intelligently and professionally.
History keeps trying to teach all of us.
Dennis Chaquette
Kapa‘a
No thank you
A comment from our recent trip to Kaua‘i: Someone broke into our rental van and ripped us off.
It was a huge, stupid mistake on our part to leave $500 in our backpack in the van. We made a brief stop at Maha‘ulepu Beach and left the window cracked open.
It is such an incredible spot, we got lured into a false sense of aloha, I guess … even after being warned.
We have visited the Hawaiian Islands (five of them) at least 10 times. My mother-in-law was born on O‘ahu and my father-in-law retired on the Big Island in 1984.
The far greater majority of people in Hawai‘i seem to be accepting and appreciative of “tourist” trade.
However, on our two trips to Kaua‘i, it seems like the young people (15-25) emanate a negative attitude to haoles. We tried to be “cool” to the locals. I’m 51 years old and I’ve grown up in beach communities my whole life. Our family surfs. I was a youth pastor, coach and chaplain for the youth authority and prison for over 12 years. We try to go with the local flow.
Yet, the overall feeling from the young people seemed to be resentment or disdain. I got mocked and snubbed a couple times, for even being friendly. I don’t want to give them all a bad rep, cause I am sure you have some gems.
Life is very expensive there and I am sure that a level of frustration rises for young people. The roads are crowded and maybe they sense a threat to their paradise. But I pray you can come up with some creative, helpful solutions to their challenges.
I saw broken glass around the parking areas of several tourist spots: Kipu Falls, Spouting Horn and some beach parking. The $500 stolen from us would have been spent in local restaurants, kayak rentals, a luau, etc. Instead we had to cut back. It was a bummer.
The thieves are stealing not just from the tourists, but from their brothers and sisters who work hard to keep it together.
Kaua‘i is beautiful but I think it’s back to Maui for us next time.
Mike Sparrow
Pismo Beach, Calif.
Danke shoen
It’s more than four weeks now that we have been on our last vacation to Kaua‘i. Beside the fact that we enjoyed our time on the Garden Island as much as ever (this was our fourth stay there), we encountered what we call a “small miracle.”
We had written a bunch of postcards (20 or so) to friends and relatives at home. Before we could prepay the cards and drop them at a post office, we lost them (in Hanalei, while we had lunch near Ching Young Village).
Guess what happened? When we arrived at home, all recipients told us they received our mail anyway. Obviously, some friendly finder had stamped the postcards (and paid for it by using his own money) and dropped them for us.
While being impressed and happy when we found out what happened, we still felt a bit uncomfortable by not being able to thank the person who did us a favor without even knowing us.
So this letter is the only way for us to say “Mahalo” — to an unknown fellow human being and to Kaua‘i.
Imar Adami
Duesseldorf, Germany
