Letters for July 12, 2015

Letters for July 12, 2015

Lifeguards deserve thanks

My wife Judy and I are daily on the beach in front of the lifeguards at the pavilion at Hanalei. On Tuesday, July 7, in the afternoon we were surprised to see lifeguard Chris Pico on a lifeguard surfboard heading out to the open ocean at a alarmed pace. Judy spotted two youngsters drifting toward the waves crashing on the rocks on the left side of the bay and frantically waving their paddle. Chris secured the situation and towed the tourists in to safety, then returned them to their oblivious parents on the shore. It appeared that Chris received little or no thanks for his efforts.

Mahalo nui loa to Chris and all the lifeguards on Kauai and across our Hawaiian islands for the great job they do daily!

John and Judy Armour

Princeville

Treat Kauai well, keep mayor

There has been so much focus lately on a manager vs. mayor system for our beautiful island of Kauai. Our good friend Glenn Mickens, who I appreciate and have the utmost respect for, has given well-written and thought-out opinions; and Monroe Richman, who is a Kauai icon, has asked some poignant questions for clarification. But isn’t the most important question to ask, “Which one of the systems will protect Kauai’s fragile ecosystem/beauty to which all of us are so attracted, and for which many believe God created as a special gift to the world”?

It seems to me, the best system would be a local, benevolent mayor with good leadership skills and no ulterior motives, who would certainly have a more seasoned understanding and higher appreciation for the necessity of protecting such a unique and fragile Kauai. The worst scenarios would be a corrupt mayor or a business-focused manager system.

That being said, do we trust the quality of the Kauai candidate pool and intelligence of the Kauai voter, or, do we trust an outside manager who will by definition run Kauai like a “business” whose main goal will be to make money and balance budgets to save his/her job? Isn’t that a clear contradiction to foregoing tax and development revenues in favor of preservation and protecting Kauai?

Conclusion: Keep the mayor, but vote wisely for proven leaders with a “preserve and protect Kauai” philosophy. Treat Kauai like a national park! If you don’t, Kauai is doomed.

Gordon Oswald

Kapaa

Time to wake up, take action

I totally agree with the observations contained within Marj Denti’s column (TGI, July 2) titled “Kauai’s refrigerator must be protected.”

She begins with the line: “At the marine sanctuary hearings recently held on Kauai, local folks said, ‘If it ain’t broke, why fix it?’” Kauai needs to “wake up” if it is to save itself from obvious perils rising. Residents of Kauai can’t afford to sleep through Kauai’s nightmare of self-destruction. It is so strange as to what “local folks” consider “broke.”

Experts say: “Seeing is believing” — so it’s even stranger how such a large population of Kauai residents refuse to see, though they may look. Since the islands depend mostly on visitors for their livelihood, it appears the residents of Kauai need to look, see and take action if Kauai is to remain a travel destination for visitors from around the world.

But guess what? Our island visitors expect to find a green paradise beyond the golf course. They expect to see it everywhere they look. They expect to swim in healthy waters, to breathe healthy air, to eat healthy food.

Hawaii is a hopeful means of escape from the dire gloom and doom of our visitor’s home environment. If we don’t tend our Garden Isle well, and meet their expectations, they will find another paradise, and we, the residents of Kauai, will have destroyed our health, beauty and sustenance for jobs and income.

Let us not end up paying to work with family health. Hey, it’s broke. Let’s fix it.

Gabrielle Olivier

Kapaa