Letters | 7-18-14

Hold the line against genetically modified foods

Thank you Margaret Wille for your intelligent and informed article on why we should all whole heartedly oppose genetically modified foods and support eco-friendly food production.

Look around you, people. Increasing obesity, diabetes, asthma, heart disease, birth defects, cancer, food allergies, mental instability. Would you say on the whole we are a hale and robust species, well educated and thinking clearly? Or is it something we eat?

Please for your own sake buy only local and organic produce and local grass fed beef and wild caught fish. That food comes as close as possible to what our bodies and minds evolved over millennia to eat. And where in the world can you find good local pork, I’d like to know.

Please steer clear of the mass produced, genetically modified junk that can and will debilitate your non-Monsanto modified body.

Yes, we should hold the line here against genentically modified foods at every single opportunity.

I’m generally not a big fan of politicians. But Ms. Wille your dedication to our community’s real health and sustainability is greatly needed and much appreciated.

S. Kaye

Waikoloa

Waimea Outdoor Circle says mahalo

Waimea Outdoor Circle members would like to thank the volunteers who gave up their Sunday morning two weeks ago to help us participate in Matson’s Ka Ipu Aina Program (container for the land), by cleaning up the center of Waimea Town’s sidewalks and medians. Eleven dedicated community members were out bright and early, filling 35 large trash bags with cuttings, garbage and debris, which were loaded in their trucks and hauled to the Waimea Transfer Station.

This is an ongoing project of WOC and we look forward to a continuing effort of keeping Waimea “clean, green and beautiful.”

Cheryl Langton

Waimea Outdoor Circle branch president

Waimea

Equality? What about women, others?

This letter is in regard to “Learning the American Language” by Michael Gerson, which appeared in the July 5 edition.

Michael Gerson of The Washington Post has, true to form, again made much of the distinctions between the words of those who composed the Declaration of Independence and their deeds as slaveowners. Granted, they dropped the ball in more than one way in their personal affairs vis-a-vis the ideals they struggled to establish, as perhaps we all do in one way or another. C’est la vie.

Then he goes on to empedestal Abraham Lincoln — one of the few occasions he’s had anything positive to say about a Republican — as the heir of that struggle, while failing to mention that Lincoln imposed military corvee, another kind of slavery, to end the institutionalized slavery of the formerly trade-wealthy Confederacy. White men employing white slaves to end a dispute over the ownership of black slaves, how novel.

The “equality” of indigenous peoples receives no mention whatsoever, but then, he’s writing in an urban daily, the city of which features an NFL team that salutes “redskins” in name only, but nevertheless. But not as “equals.”

The real point of my rant is that in all his philosophizing about equality, he only mentions women once in a letter that speaks of “men” in just about every paragraph, and that’s in the context of the “prostitutes” exploited to infect revolutionary troops. Is this as far as Mr. Gerson and the Post have evolved? My calendars read 2014.

The struggle for equality in America will not be anywhere near concluded until all our citizens enjoy equal rights. I don’t know why, in this day and age, such a pronouncement is still necessary. I believe that Mr. Gerson will well-deserve the TV dinner he’ll be grinding tonight, and maybe for a few nights.

Thomas L. Munden

Kapaau

Let’s look at collecting from fish’s viewpoint

I have read with interest as many letters have been published regarding commercial fish collecting. One side of the dilemma has yet to be voiced — that of the fish themselves.

Having been involved with wild animals that need temporary care, my experience tells me that keeping them in captivity will kill them.

If humans are so interested in having animals, domesticate them. Instead of all the negative aspects of fish removel, just raise them.

There is a big difference between wild and domestic animals. Wild animals belong and thrive without boundaries.

The aina is more than a physical object — it is a state of mind. Caging wild animals is just plain wrong.

Steve Snyder

Kalaoa

Council’s pay shouldn’t be raised

This is in regard to the July 11 West Hawaii Today story: “Salary hikes finalized.”

One rationalization I read is “We’re basically council members 24/7.” Surprise and believe it or not, every person who has a job is subject to questions pertaining to his or her occupation 24/7. The most difficult thing about a politician having to answer questions is the skill required to spin the answer so as to confuse the person asking. After listening to the answer, ideally, the person asking the question goes away feeling that whatever his position, the politician is in concurrence with his philosophy, and again, whatever that philosophy is.

The one important thing that the Salary Commission failed to consider is, every person running for office claims to have a desire to serve the community. The Salary Commission by its action and justification redirects the candidate’s stated campaign incentive to do public service to the more lucrative salary being offered. The increased money does not improve the qualification of the candidate, it just increases the desire to be a re-elected, well-paid, public servant.

There are many of us who do volunteer work in the community, for free. The politician chooses to serve the community at the salary being offered and is voted in to do so by the majority. For some reason, the Salary Commission cannot understand that correlation. Do we really need a Salary Commission?

The sad reality is that the people being taxed to pay for the increased salary do not see the same increases in their own salaries, resulting in less take home money for the family. The only beneficiaries in this case are those who originally chose to serve their communities for the pay being offered during the campaign season.

Our Mayor Billy Kenoi deserves to be congratulated for keeping his word to the people of our county on his stand in refusing the salary increase forced upon him by the Salary Commission.

Leningrad Elarionoff

Waimea