Press "Enter" to skip to content

Letters for Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Mahalo for being honest

For three days, I was asking around certain businesses I shop at if anyone turned in a debit card. I couldn’t sleep until I’ve found it. I was getting paranoid that someone will find it and use it to purchase things or food (some businesses you need not enter a PIN Number) and my account would have been overdrawn, or bills wouldn’t be paid if it got into the wrong hands.

To make a long story short, much mahalo to the Hanapepe PS&D Store Personnel (Richard Arakaki, Sam Dias, and the rest of the crew) for the safekeeping of my debit card.”

Also, mahalo nui loa to the person (don’t know who you are) who found the card and turned it into the PS&D personnel for safekeeping!

There are a lot of honest people around Kaua‘i such as those mentioned above!

Howard Tolbe, ‘Ele‘ele

Getting vaccinated is the RIGHT thing to do

I want to clarify that my Letter to the Editor on Mon. Nov. 8 entitled “Getting vaccinated is your duty” was NOT titled that by me. I did say that getting vaccinated was a “civic” duty.

Getting vaccinated is NOT your duty!

I do not like being told what to do, and, I think, most people are the same.

But getting vaccinated for a worldwide pandemic is the RIGHT thing to do.

Not mandatory.

But the right, decent, responsible, caring, humane thing to do.

I care about my family and friends and community and the human race. So, I got vaccinated.

And I hope you do too, With much Aloha!

Kathleen Johnson, Kalaheo

Eviction Again for the Families of Salt Pond

A pregnant mom with two young children and senior citizens with disabilities were among those who were evicted on July 6 from Salt Pond.

Once the public was allowed into the area, I brought down ice water and banana bread.

Finding out that these families had nowhere to go, I told everyone to come to our home.

They accepted our invitation to come to our hale, which has a large lot with plenty of room for camping, outdoor cooking facility with electricity and water, even a swing set perfect for the keiki. The next morning a porta toilet was ordered and everything came together quite nicely.

Our landlord didn’t see it that way and found us in violation of our landlord-tenant agreement. They sent us a 45-day eviction notice.

The families on our property were born and raised here on Kaua‘i. We challenged in court the true ownership of the land, and the judge ruled against us on the same day we went to trial. The judge ruled in favor of our landlords and we and all the families have been evicted.

Where are we going? We don’t know.

Would we do it all over again? Absolutely!

Mahalo God for all our blessings!

Buna and Marcia Leialoha, Waimea

Lets get COVID under control before the holidays

As of today, Nov. 7, 2021, we have 11 patients in the hospital here on Kaua‘i due to COVID.

I watch the daily response on the County of Kaua‘i Facebook posts where residents continue to make sarcastic comments and obviously are not taking this situation seriously at all.

It is my honest opinion that a vaccination card requirement to get into restaurants, gyms, functions, etc. might really change that attitude and encourage more of them to vaccinate because they certainly are not getting it with the soft sell that has been being dealt out for the past two years. I do not think a negative test requirement will have the same effect unless there is an out of pocket cost.

From our current cases is it clear that our residents are NOT quarantining/testing after traveling nor social distancing or masking after travel whether they are vaccinated or not and there is trouble getting residents to comply with the contact tracing so I think it’s beyond time to up it a notch.

It is my understanding from family in Washington that hospitals are full with COVID cases, same in California, and Hawai‘i usually follows suit. With Gov. Ige talking about opening things up for the holidays what do you think that will mean if we don’t take some stronger action now?

Please let’s get this under control before the holidays. Let’s take care of ourselves, our ‘ohana and our community NOW!

Patrina Blakely, Kapa‘a

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

A wise man once said, “People should not be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.” I don’t know about you, but I am tired of being afraid.

My fear of Kaua‘i’s government started 13 months ago, when I returned from a trip to see family and discovered that the Hawai‘i National Guard would be making sure I didn’t leave my house. Yes, I’d agreed to quarantine. But I’d had no idea that would mean uniformed soldiers would walk onto my property uninvited and demand to see my ID nearly every day.

This week, I was treated to another show of strength by the bureaucrats who now run every aspect of our lives. My daughter got an upset stomach at school. She’d eaten junk food from a gas station and had a difficult tummy. I made the mistake of admitting her malady to the staff at her school when I picked her up. Admitting any symptom whatsoever means a child needs to go to the nurse for a COVID screening, before going home and quarantining 10 days or until they get a negative COVID test.

We went home and my child dutifully told her teachers to email her work — and was accused of lying by one teacher who didn’t believe the school would possibly make someone quarantine because they ate some sketchy spam.

Days later, we got in line for a free COVID test, standing in the rain, 6 feet apart, behind the line of other wretched souls who needed a test from the government to go to work or school. When we got to the front of the line, I found yet another uniformed national guardsman, this time performing the COVID test.

I thought about asking her why she, and not a nurse, was performing the test. Maybe I would have offered that she didn’t need to wear a uniform to do a nasal swab. After all, it’s unlikely she’d need to break for the trees, where her camouflage would protect her from enemy fire.

In the end, I was too scared. I’ve been too scared for a while now.

Anyway, I know why the National Guard is giving nasal swabs: likely because all the unvaccinated nurses got fired. If that’s not the reason, then it is simply to scare us. To intimidate us. To make sure we know our place.

It’s been 21 months, and we still cannot go inside the DMV without permission. We can’t go inside any county building. I’ve given up trying. In 21 months, the government has gone from serving us to scaring us, to threatening to take our jobs away, and taking away, at their whim, our children’s right to an education.

Around three people die each day on Kaua‘i. I know, because I’ve started reading the obituaries. You know what? They die of things other than COVID. They die of cancer, heart disease, old age… They die tragically and quietly. None of them has been made immortal by a vaccine. None of us has, either.

November 5th is drawing to a close, and I’m about to serve dinner. But I’m thinking about the famous Gunpowder Plot, and the circumstances that must have precipitated it. I think about how intimidated I felt every time military walked onto my property, how scared I am that my kids are being made sick by their face masks, and how I wince when someone shoves a COVID test up my kid’s nose.

I think of how odd it is that the State of Hawaii decided it had the right to tell me whether or not I could return to my own property. I wonder how many others think the same thing.

Remember, remember the 5th of November. Remember the tyranny of kings, and how Americans decided long ago we would have none of that nonsense. I, for one, am tired of living in fear, and I have to ask, are you are really scared of COVID, or are you scared of what they will do to you if you catch it?

You elected these people to work for you. They are not your kings; they are your servants.

It’s time they started acting like it.

Jennifer Cornforth, Kilauea
Source: The Garden Island

Be First to Comment

    Leave a Reply