Thank you,
The Big Island Magic Club and the Society for Kona’s Arts and Education (SKEA) would like to thank everyone who contributed to making our 32nd annual Magic Spectacular a huge success.
The long list includes the performers from the island as well as our guests from Las Vegas and Japan, the volunteers, the donors, Bottle of Blue for the equally spectacular musical interludes, and the staff at the Aloha Theatre.
The members of the community who came out and filled the house also deserve our thanks, with our apologies to those we had to turn away. The art of magic is alive and well on the island. Just wait till you see what we have in store for next year’s show.
Barry Gitelson and Arnie Rabin
Big Island Magic Club
And you,
Thank you to Laura Ruminski and Cameron Miculka for the wonderful article and photography covering the South Kona Artists Collective’s fourth annual Artist’s Tour in West Hawaii Today’s Sunday, Feb. 5 paper.
The interviews with the artists were so important for they revealed some of the thinking behind the work and a more expansive reason for the tour, that being: sharing knowledge, process, and creating community.
The spread helped promote the tour, the artists, and stir interest in the community. The pictures were a total surprise.
Thank you for featuring our collective, I was blown away.
Joyce Monsky
Kona
Funny what government allows and doesn’t
Awareness is a big part of life and for several months now one’s awareness seems to be focused on the issue of taxes.
One keeps hearing all this talk on taxes, in particular, after any election. Whether it was JFK, Bush 1 and 2, Clinton and now Trump they, the presidents, become the scapegoat. I was taught that it is the people who are supposed to support their government through the taxes that are levied against them. It is not the other way around where government is supposed to support the people through massive care packages. In other words, the less the government has to give away to citizens, foreigners and other countries the more stable everyday American citizens’ tax bills could become.
On another note, why don’t we hear an outcry from our politicians as to the abolishing of the Jones Act? Just eliminating the Jones Act would be a beginning toward lowering the present cost of living here in Hawaii (notice I use the word beginning).
Another way to begin to lower everyday cost, both for the state and counties, would be to put our prisoners back to work. Some 60-plus years ago prisoners did help in maintaining our parks and other entities. That is until the unions got involved and put a stop to all that. Hate to say it, but there are other states that do have work programs for their prisoners such as cleaning up small boat harbors, parks etc.
But wait, here is the thought of the day: Wouldn’t you, as a citizen living in a free society, like to have the privilege of buying your own ticket to a lottery that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a winner who could be you?
Will someone just explain why, in this state where you are considered old enough to know better and where you may vote, drink alcohol, smoke dope (marijuana), bear arms for your country, pay taxes and on and on, yet you are not allowed to purchase a lousy lottery ticket? The list is endless on what is expected and what is verboten by our state.
Government is not thy shepherd. It is the people who should be the shepherds of their government.
Hugo von Platen Luder
Holualoa