Hawaii beautiful but a bit inept
We live on this beautiful island. We love it, even though it seems we are living in a Third World country.
We have a huge, well paid number of government employees, and yet, it seems very difficult to get things done: A highway that does not seem to be able to get finished, despite having been started decades ago. Dividers of the finished stretch still don’t have vegetation, such as perhaps bushes or palms. Wells are down for almost a year without repair end in sight. Roads are in disrepair. Long lines are at the DMV for driver’s license renewal, where frequently people have to return with more documents. To add insult to injury, now we have to go back soon to get the “legal” logo on there.
There are long lines to register cars; long wait for building permits; attack alarm goes off without there being an attack; highest number of homeless in the U.S., simply because they cannot afford the rents in most cases; our drinking water in danger from cesspools. Our ocean is in peril because of all the cesspools along the coast, a problem that will increase with sea levels rising and shoreline erosion.
Aquarium fishing has decimated the population of the beautiful fish around our coastline, as well as “sportfishing” — the biggest marlin caught are females, so reproduction is diminishing.
Fortunately, we are blessed with the best weather of the whole island here in Kona, we are far from the political and racial mayhem, so, I guess we can still say: “Lucky we live in Hawaii.”
Christa Wagner
Kailua-Kona
Thank you for swift missile rescue
At the time the alert went out I was out at the 1.2 mile buoy on the swim course that begins at Kailua Pier. The safety boat for the high school canoe regatta sped out to alert swimmers about the “missile attack.”
I was hauled onto the boat and taken back to the pier. Shortly thereafter we were told it was a false alarm. I would like to acknowledge and thank the two men for their swift response to help others during the critical moments following the initial alert. Mahalo nui loa!
Linda Morley-Wells
Kona
Mistakes do happen, but still…
It was a sunny peaceful Saturday morning in Hawaii when all of a sudden an announcement of an incoming missile heading to Hawaii broke that peaceful feeling.
No sirens were sounded, but this is not unusual considering that they only work half of the time anyway. This was good for deterring tourists. Can you imagine if you had just landed at the airport when this announcement was made? Or maybe a tourist who had just picked up his or her rental car and was heading to a place to stay while in Hawaii or heading to the beach. They may have thought, ‘I should be back in Kansas now, should I turn around and head back to the airport to leave? Oops, too late.’ This little exercise was probably not a good incentive for tourism.
Let’s just hope that this mistake does not happen in Washington, D.C. We might possibly be at war, and for what reason, a mistake! Mistakes do happen when people push the wrong button. Let’s hope that the responsible people aren’t one of those who just got one of those large raises.
Mistakes and miscalculations do happen. We went to an unnecessary war in Iraq when George W. Bush said that they were hiding weapons of mass destruction. Would someone please tell George that he was wrong, the weapons of mass destruction are in Iran and North Korea? But now it is a little to late for that.
Ted Johnson
Kailua-Kona
Unbelievable mistake!
Thankfully a ballistic missile was not fired! After receiving the terrifying text from Civil Defense, however, I think the person that sent that warning needs to be fired!
That this mistake can happen is unbelievable, everyone here in the islands will remember this day forever, sadly Apocalypse Day was real for 20 minutes.
Happy New Year, everybody, welcome to 2018!
Janeen Abell
Kailua-Kona