There really is no place like home
There really is no place like home
Appreciating our island isn’t always easy when we witness the abuse of alcohol, drugs and crime that touches us daily. The only real way to appreciate what we have is by going to another location and see how “the other half lives.”
My current mainland trip brings that to light in a clear way. Visiting a small town slightly smaller than Hawaii County and seeing how the lives of these people compare to what I am used to is an awakening of sorts. They have many of the same problems we have and others unique to their location. It makes one appreciate what we have even with problems that seem to pop up from time to time.
If we could figure out how to deter DUIs, take care of our drug problems, teach people who live on Hawaii that throwing your trash out of your car window is not benefiting our island and teach our young people that when you impregnate a woman you are responsible for the outcome, we could then concentrate on the poor and homeless. Even with our “problems,” we live in one of the best locations in the world.
Discounting the politics, being a “welfare state,” the protests and the few fanatics: “There is no place like home.”
Frank Dickinson
Kailua-Kona
When will highway be repaved?
I don’t believe that I am the only resident in Waimea who has patiently waited for repaving of the Mamalahoa Highway stretch between Lakeland and Waimea town.
I understand that portion of the highway is under county funding. Heavy rigs and frequent rainfall have demolished this stretch and yet repaving on a regular basis is nonexistent. Damage to vehicles, safety hazards and physically revolting gravel debris are encountered on a daily basis by anyone passing through Waimea.
When will this be addressed? At this point in time, the portion of Mamalahoa that I travel daily is in Third World condition. Anyone out there willing to do the right thing?
Karen Kurlanaky
Waimea
Farewell to the family kitchen table
Congress has reconvened and will be considering the re-authorization of the Child Nutrition and WIC Act, which includes the Summer Food Services Program. Over 3.2 million children were provided a free breakfast and lunch during the summer of 2013. Another 21 million children ate a subsidized breakfast and lunch during school year 2014-15.
Beware. These programs are producing consequences for generations of children who, year-round, eat the majority of their meals off a plastic tray that were provided for them at a school or institution. Millions of children grow up believing that their meals will be prepared — away from home — in a commercial kitchen, and then served to them in a cafeteria or feeding center. These kids are not benefiting from seeing their mother or father in the family kitchen preparing meals, which they could eat together around the kitchen table, where family cohesion is formed and where important values and beliefs are taught and reinforced.
America’s feeding centers are replacing the once traditional family kitchen table. Cafeteria servers have become America’s new moms and dads. Regrettably, this contributes substantially to the demise of the American family as we once knew it.
Richard Dinges
Hilo