Misinformed
Misinformed
In reply to Dani Stein’s letter (Sept. 19, Your Views, Tribune-Herald): As a resident of the Big Island, I and others take strong exception to your letter.
First of all, your “friends” have misinformed you. We do not live here because it is cheap and isolated. Isolated perhaps, but cheap — no way!
We buy what we can afford, which does not include $600,000-plus homes on Oahu. And we prefer also not to live on your island and be subjected to the daily traffic jams, water-main breaks and other woes that you and your fellow citizens are subjected to.
Please, if you will, bear in mind that tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes and, yes, volcanic eruptions are nature-caused and for the most part unpredictable, including their magnitude or course.
No, we don’t want or need your sympathy. A little aloha and understanding would, however, be welcomed!
Ron Baptista
Mountain View
Lack of decency
The Hawaiian Islands are entirely volcanic and, technically, even Oahu could be subject to volcanic eruption. In some areas of the Puna District on the Island of Hawaii, lava is a very real threat, but lava inundation could conceivably occur virtually anywhere on the island.
Hawaii Island is special — a place of great diversity, beauty, history, climate, culture and mana. People are drawn here from all over the world, and many of us can’t imagine living anywhere else.
Many people live in the Puna District for many reasons, including family and cultural heritage. To say, as Dani Stein did in her Sept. 19 letter, that people live in Puna because it is cheap is an ignorant and insulting oversimplification.
This type of comment reinforces the idea we Neighbor Islanders have that Oahu residents, and especially Honolulu residents, feel they are superior to the rest of the people in the state. Most of us would not live on Oahu for any price!
It says much that this place is so special people are willing to live in the shadow of four volcanoes that are considered active, just for the privilege of being here. King Kamehameha agreed. The attitude of Ms. Stein and others like her is so lacking in aloha, much less common decency, it sounds like it came from Los Angeles!
Laura Buck
Keaau