Closure
Closure
Why can’t Kona have
a course like Hilo?
With the announcement that the Kona Country Club is closing its doors in early June, it again raises the question: Why does Hilo have a county golf course and we golfers on the westside again keep losing out? Our taxes go up, business here in Kona close and all we hear from Hilo is we can’t make payments?
Years ago, I stood with other golfers on the highway north of Kona to see a groundbreaking ceremony. Kona for too long has been the tail that wags the tail here in West Hawaii while Hilo feeds on our taxes.
When will the gang of five in Hilo realize where the money is coming from and share some here? Why not try to save at least one course for us?
Dick Skarnes
Kona
Accident
Sign wavers:
There’s enough distractions already
The headline in the May 12 West Hawaii Today read, “Highway wreck disrupts protest.” I believe the writer got that backwards. This headline should have been, “Disruptive highway protest causes wreck.”
This sign waving and roadside demonstrations are the biggest driver distraction tactics staged on our public highways. The sole objective of sign-wavers is to draw drivers’ attention away from the road and to the demonstrators’ cause, or in the case of our politicians, their campaign.
Any attempt to distract drivers on crowded thoroughfares is wrong. Politicians, protesters, rabble-rousers and even teachers who choose to use the roadside as a venue to display their demands are wrongfully creating and abetting a dangerous situation, regardless of how innocently or naively.
To further prove my point, the article of May 12 states, “Organizer Janice Palma-Glennie called off the sign waving shortly thereafter for safety reasons.” So, the organizer did recognize that safety was an issue? Perhaps it would have been smarter to call off the sign waving before it created an accident rather than after.
The article goes on to say, “All the participants (of the protest) were primarily off the road at the time of the crash.” Primarily? Doesn’t that infer some of the sign-wavers were on the road?
Most disturbing of all was Alastair Glennie’s statement. “It’s always a dangerous spot. We’re just lucky no one was killed.” Well, there you go. These people, or at least some of them, were aware of the danger and still chose to stage their protest at this particular spot. Apparently, the demonstrators’ passion is greater than their intellecutal skills.
Perhaps this unfortunate accident will provide some insight and persuade other groups to choose less dangerous spots than the side of busy highways for their demonstrations.
I’m sure we all can agree driving in Kona requires our undivided attention.
Deborah Wielt
Mauka Keei