Weekend noise
Weekend noise
Motorcycle guys love their engines’ sound
Ya know? After 40 some years I believe I finally have it worked out — in my mind anyway. It has taken me that long, but think I have it right.
I believe all of the motorcycle guys go up to Honalo, Kainaliu or perhaps Captain Cook and spend the week tuning their engines where they couldn’t possibly make one more decibel of noise. Then, come the weekend, they all descend on Kailua town and cruise “the gut,” scaring the tourists out of their wits while they demonstrate what they had been working on all week.
It seems this happens just about every weekend of the year, so it must be organized in some way. We should all applaud them for the great show they put on, but I can’t say everyone really appreciates it.
Doug Holliston
Kona
Afghanistan
War must stop, bring our warriors home
Our nation, our government’s intentions started out so benevolent, so good, when the wars started in Afghanistan and Iraq. But, now 10 years on, we have become tired and vicious and our good intentions are somehow forgotten in the crucible of war. The few, the brave, who went to war for our nation have lost their vision and their mission. It has become a drudgery that drags on and on and survival and revenge are our warriors’ only guidance.
Whatever the original cause, it has become lost. And with it, the poor souls who fight for us have become dispirited and broken. War destroys the souls of those who fight. It takes away their humanity and replaces it with simple savagery and survival.
Those warriors we sent away to fight will come home changed and hurt in a way too deep to mend fully.
What they have seen and done may fade, but not be forgotten. They will come home in body, but not in spirit.
Spirit died in the hills and mountains of a place most of us can hardly find on a map.
The people of Afghanistan just want to live again in peace. Taliban or whoever will be fighting for the next century. Or two. There will be no winners, just some survivors.
What ails that nation is abject, grinding poverty. War will not change that. Growing poppies will not change that. Our aid to rebuild will not change that. Taliban will not change that.
What we have done is pave the road to a new hell with our good intentions.
It is time to leave Afghanistan to itself. If the Taliban decide the fate of that nation, does anyone here really care? Do you care? It might as well be the moon.
This war must stop. Our people must be brought home and honored for their sacrifices.
No more war. Stop this insanity and this waste of national treasure.
Tom Beach
Waimea