• I’Unsightly and unsafe
• Love thy neighbor
• Let’s call a bigot a bigot
• Unhappy edits
• Put the Superferry to a vote
I’Unsightly and unsafe
It happened again. A car swerved to miss a garbage can that had blown onto Kuhio Highway. Luckily no one was hurt this time. But someday it will happen. Then what?
A recent court decision on the Big Island found that the state was partially responsible for a traffic death where an intoxicated driver killed another person. The state was partially at fault, supposedly because of poor highway design (and the fact that) authorities knew of it.
Here on Kaua‘i, officials are quite aware that garbage truck attendants routinely throw trash cans on the ground next to the road after emptying them. They seem unaware that this is a safety issue. It also detracts considerably from the beauty of the area. Driving around this part of the North Shore on Fridays reminds me of an inner-city alley with garbage cans rolling around. I’m sure there is a good reason why the cans aren’t replaced in their holders. I just can’t think of any, (except, “We’ve always done it that way”).
Since many of the homes along Kuhio Highway are second homes, or used as vacation rentals, these rolling garbage cans sometimes hang around for days.
It just seems that a rational, cost-effective plan could be developed to limit our county’s liability, as well as improve the area’s beauty. There may be better ways to address this issue, but for starters, how about considering the following: • Require that all homes along the highway have sturdy garbage can holders (most of them do already); • After the cans are emptied, they could be replaced in the holders (the guys are already there right in front of the holders — it’s not like they have to walk very far with empty cans);• Set up a system where any local can call or e-mail about trash in front of a house visible from the road for more than one or two days. Then a county or private employee with a pick-up (truck) would be sent out. He would document the mess with a digital photo, clean it up, and the costs would be billed to the home owner. That would solve the problem of absentee owners not being responsible for the ugly messes in front of their properties.
If other Kauaians have better ideas, let’s hear them. And if anybody has any idea why those garbage cans are not replaced in their holders (creating safety issues and county liability), I’d sincerely like to know.
Love thy neighbor
First of all let me say that I do not hate my fellow man. It is because I love and care about my fellow man that I am willing to take your verbal abuse in the newspaper. Why is it so hard to understand that homosexuality and promiscuity are causing so many people to die at a very young age? Death is a pretty big negative consequence just because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. If I did not care about my fellow man I would say, “Let ‘em go.” Why support a lifestyle that you know hurts the family and loved ones of those who are stricken by this awful disease? The truth may hurt, but it saves lives. So which is more caring and loving? To say nothing or to warn these people of the permanent consequences?
Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more.” So the Jesus you describe is not the Jesus of the Bible. And if you read the book of Genesis you will see what God thinks about homosexuality. Yes, Jesus still loves us even when we are in sin, but as he told the adulterous women, “Go and sin no more”. This means repentance and a change in lifestyles. It is because I care about your eternal destiny that I speak out in the newspaper. For if you think that your sin is fine with God, you will never repent.
And from my point of view, saving lives is more important than not hurting someone’s feelings or risking the liberal left’s ire.
Let’s call a bigot a bigot
Mr. Saker’s letter to The Garden Island on Saturday, June 17 clarified one thing for me: I never want to read his words again. It’s clear why the editors of The Garden Island have left his words unprinted. Between his religious intolerance and racial slurs, I w
as appalled. The God I dream of is not the one you wield, Mr. Saker.
Unhappy edits
How apropos: On the day my letter expressing my reasons for canceling my subscription is published (Forum, June 18), a letter by the island’s head delusional duck also appears, and it is a classic example of the points I make in my letter.
I can supply numerous Internet sources that convincingly refute, using facts, not emotionalism, every single point the poor duck makes, from the ending of Saddam’s WMD program, to Iraq not having anything to do with 9/11, to Saddam’s being nothing more than a “miserable little dictator,” to what Saddam was actually doing with the Oil for Food Program, to Iraq being a secular state living in relative peace, to the claim that there is a civil war “tearing the country apart,” to equating the war on terror being currently fought in Iraq to the Vietnam War, to equating American troops to the “bad guys,” to Iraq being in more trouble today than under Saddam, and on and on and on with the whole litany of radical, Bush-hating, left-wing talking points, but I’m sure they would be “edited” from my letter, as they have in the past, leaving the impression that it’s a “she said/he said” situation, and that I’m just of the ilk of “far-right columnists and think-tank types,” and not someone who knows what the actual facts are.
I have asked in past (unpublished) letters why letters to the editor aren’t checked for accuracy. I’m of the opinion that there are those at TGI who aren’t interested in facts that go against the rambling, emotional and false claims of writers from the far left. Why else would my Web sources be “edited” out of my letters?
Put the Superferry to a vote
It seems that most of the letters from TGI’s Forum regarding the Superferry are against having Kaua‘i become a port of call. I would like to suggest that before spending a large amount of taxpayer’s money on modifying Nawiliwili Harbor to accommodate the big boat, we should strive to have it put on the ballot for this November’s election.
It the people of Moloka‘i were able to stop the cruise ships from dropping anchor in its waters, perhaps it could be done here with the Superferry. I say let the citizenry of Kaua‘i determine what is best for them rather than politicians in Honolulu.
