Valid feelings
Valid feelings
As a lifelong Pahoa resident, Pahoa graduate and Pahoa employee, my feelings regarding the lava flow are mixed: anger, sadness, confusion, hope, inspiration.
However, the Pele aspect especially puzzles me. I greatly respect and admire the idea of Pele. She is the Goddess of my own backyard, after all. So, renouncing her entirely feels wrong, but embracing our fate on her behalf doesn’t rest well with me either.
Sometimes, people who drop her name also emit a tone of ethnic cleansing, or an air of justification for the approaching destruction. Homes, businesses, schools are being lost. It infuriates me that nothing is being attempted — even discussed — to protect our community, often in the name of Pele.
Yet, a lot of these people then also speak of prayers to a different god, a god that asks that we don’t worship any other. How do people of Hawaii continue to address Pele, while also addressing the god of the people that overthrew their kingdom?!
More so, who are they to speak for her? Won’t an all-powerful entity do whatever it pleases, regardless of the efforts of us feeble humans?
It’s human nature to desire an explanation for catastrophe, and having Pele to look to, in this instance, is reassuring. I suppose my main concern is that those who do suffer great stress, fear or trauma are not shamed out of their genuine feelings due to an obligation to this goddess or her culture.
For those who can rest their weary heads in her arms, I applaud your faith in this difficult time. For those who are confused as to why, despite the comfort she offers, they lose sleep and suffer, I hope you know you are not alone and your feelings are valid.
Kendra Tidwell
Pahoa
Not affordable
It’s (November), and that means HMSA (has sent) out its annual letters to customers informing them of the new rates they will pay for health coverage in 2015.
Here is the case for a 29-year-old Hilo resident (to remain anonymous in respect of their privacy). The letter states that, after a check of federal “guidance,” HMSA concludes the young person “may” keep their existing coverage, and the new rate will be $197.36 per month.
Last year, a similar letter announced that the rate would be $161.54, and the year before that it was $113.75. Do the math and you will see the percentage increases were 42 percent last year and 22 percent this year, with no increases in benefits of the coverage.
Anyone who thinks that the so-called “Affordable Care Act” is “affordable” is seriously deluding themselves.
Curtis Beck
Hilo