Divert the lava
Divert the lava
In order to prevent the impending destruction of the Pahoa Marketplace, it is imperative to take a proactive approach and stop this tragedy from occurring. Form a committee of experts from the USGS and the military to formulate a plan to divert the lava at its source, Pu‘u ‘O‘o, and cause it to flow harmlessly over the older flows into the ocean.
Can we, in good conscience, allow the beliefs of a small minority in a mythical goddess to harm the lives and welfare of the vast majority? We have the ability and science to protect ourselves from the dangers of not only this flow, but of future ones.
It is our responsibility to take required actions to protect ourselves. To fail to act is not only irresponsible, it is criminally negligent.
Dennis Davis
Pahoa
It’s about money
Recently, there have been a couple of news reports I am having trouble with.
The first has to do with domestic violence and a new law that makes domestic violence a felony if it occurs in front of a child. (Does being pregnant count as “in front of a child?”) Why does a child being present make the crime worse than it already is? Do you not think a person being abused does not affect “all,” whether they are present or not? How dare the original offense be belittled, which is what it feels like.
Domestic violence is wrong, period. Perhaps it should be made a felony!
The other news report has to do with e-cigs. I’ve been on one called Nicmaxx for a couple of years. I smoked cigarettes for 50 years, since I was 14. This is the first product that has helped me stop buying cigarettes. I feel much better physically. I’m also saving a lot of money.
Do you know there are more than one kind of e-cigs? There are the kind I buy that come with prefilled cartridges. The cartridges do not open and are not refillable.
And there’s the kind where you purchase a flavored or unflavored liquid and you can control the amount of nicotine.
Why am I going on about this? I understood the harm cigarette smoking was doing to myself and to the environment with secondhand smoke and cigarette butts. But it was the health care costs, supposedly, that also had a huge hand in the movement to get folks to quit smoking. I’ve done that.
As far as I and many others who now use e-cigs are concerned, we are tobacco-free. So, why are we being singled out again? How? By treating the e-cig as if it were tobacco. It’s not smoke; it’s vapor. It’s not tobacco. There are no butts.
Could it be all the money that’s being lost by cigarette companies because of the number of people going on to e-cigs? Or could it be the lost tax revenue? If they treat it like a real cigarette, then they can continue to add the “pleasure/sin” tax, bringing it in line with the real ones. I really thought it was about being healthy, but funny how it always comes back to money.
Sherla Bertelmann
Keaau