• Editor’s note: This is the eighth of profiles on those running for Kauai County Council. Fourteen candidates are running for seven two-year seats.
Making Kauai a better place to live and work is why Anahola resident Shaylene Iseri is once again running for Kauai County Council.
A member of the county council in 2004 and reelected in 2006, Iseri is one of Kauai’s former prosecuting attorneys and is currently a defense and family law attorney.
For many, she said, making a living on Kauai can be difficult and that affects aspects of daily life.
Crime is escalating and the increased number of women and individuals with mental health issues surfacing in the court system is alarming, she said.
“I think a lot of these issues that I see on a day-to-day basis since my two terms on the county council have never really been addressed to an extent I feel it needs to be, to make this community aware and to not only have prevention and awareness, but also solutions to these problems,” she said.
Iseri, who lost a family member to suicide during her campaign, said helping future generations is something everyone wants to do, but said it’s more important to help today’s ohana.
“It was a heartbreaking, traumatic experience,” she said.
Iseri processed the suicide with her campaign chairperson, working on a campaign at the same time.
“(It’s part of a) lot of the issues facing many of the residents here,” Iseri said. “Trying to deal with the struggles and how that came to be.”
Raising awareness for domestic violence victims and suicide victims is a priority for Iseri because she’s noticed victims are getting younger. Even if she’s not elected to the county council, Iseri said she’ll continue fighting for a healthy community.
Iseri said domestic violence is a piece to the picture of suicide rates on Kauai, especially among children, but that’s not the only factor.
Children are unhappy, she said, and the reason for that needs to be studied.
“When you’re seeing kids at 11 committing suicide, there’s definitely some problems here and I think it goes far beyond the bullying aspect or the homeless,” she said. “Drugs are a huge problem here.”
These issues must be talked about in order to save lives, Iseri said.
“It feels like there’s so much more that we can do and we’ve got to raise a lot more awareness and changing priorities. Everyone says kids are our number one asset, then let’s put that at the forefront and talk about the issues that are facing the kids,” she said.
Iseri said her background of working with crime victims as a prosecutor and her current work within the court system will be a benefit to the community.
With family roots to Kauai from the 1700s, Iseri said she wants to preserve cultural traditions that are passed down so new generations maintain those values.
“It definitely will add value to make sure Kauai is a special, unique place. It’s not only that it’s beautiful on the outside and we have scenic spots that you can see nowhere else,” she said.
One way to preserve the culture is to have a cultural practitioner on staff, she said.
“That should be a position that should be consulted with on any type of bill or anything that impacts the values of the community. That would be something unique that hasn’t been provided before,” she said.
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Bethany Freudenthal, crime, courts and county reporter, 652-7891, bfreudenthal@thegardenisland.com
Aloha Kakou, Aloha Shay,
Mahalo for wanting to be on our County Council again. In this article, you are putting forth extremely important needs of our community.
You tie together drugs and domestic violence, crime, mental illness, and loss of young lives. You’re right about Cause and Effect.
Drugs made from plants have been around for centuries and have been a scourge ever since on life, health, and crime rates.
But over several decades the drugs have gotten a 1,000 times worse as they are made from chemicals. Most of these chemicals are made from oil or petroleum and are called Petrochemicals. They are all carcinogenic, cancer causing. These chemicals rob us all of some of the potential 10 decades of life we are born with.
Because these chemicals accumulate their toxic effects over time, few people recognize them for how bad they are, and how they stay hidden in ones body in their accumuation of accelerated degeneration they cause to people’s bodies, organs, and minds.
Shay these are some of the silent unseen things you want to go against and protect the people from, these are some of causes of the problems you have brought to the front of this year’s election.
Society primarily relies on the medical profession for the current “illusion” of health. The medical profession and industry has over many decades downgraded to the reliance on these petro chemicals only in the PILL FOR EVERY ILL approach to HELLth.
But wait, it don’t stop there…Council Member Shay, and you being our former Prosecutor, please open your thoughts to an additional and even greater by volume threat to youth and our society as to domestic violence, crime, drugs, mental illlness, etc., and just as important overall health.
The same petrochemicals that make the drugs for the streets, also make the drugs/chemicals put into ALL OF THE FOODS…!
Shay read the ingredients on every food item you buy, the majority are chemicals and chemical additives. Even the thiamine, or Vit B6, found in almost all breads and pastries is in fact a chemical and is listed as Thiamine Mononitrate, made from petrochemicals and is carcinogenic. What little nutrition it may even provide is overshadowed by its detriment to our Health.
And on the one hand you are a fighter for us against drugs, on the other hand you are filling your “face”, really your body with food drugs. Shay just go ahead and read those labels, read those words, and the fake and real sugars used as fillers to save $$$ by not having to put in real food…you are in a way being frauded of the nutrients you deserve by virtue you are paying for nutrients you are not getting. These food drugs are part of the cause of what you are fighting against.
And the foods today are grown with, sprayed on, and added to, with insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, (all deadly poisonous “cides”made from petrochemicals) and you wonder why these similar food content and agricultural chemicals, these Fake additives, Fake colors, Fake flavors, And Fake but real preservatives, are getting more worse and more prevalent in use in our foods and as food additives, and are a subtle part of the escalation of crimes, domestic problems, suicides (“cides”), and rampant mental illness we are all saddened over and burdened with.
We hope you get a seat on the Council, and if you want to reduce our problems, think outside the box you are thinking inside of.
Drugs, chemicals, and toxins are not good for us, no matter where you find them. They have over time proven to be bad for us all.
Mahalo,
Charles