EHCC complaint ADVERTISING EHCC complaint I am writing to express my disappointment in the new leadership at the East Hawaii Cultural Center. Earlier this month, I offered to donate more than $2,500 a year to the EHCC on an ongoing,
EHCC complaint
I am writing to express my disappointment in the new leadership at the East Hawaii Cultural Center.
Earlier this month, I offered to donate more than $2,500 a year to the EHCC on an ongoing, annual basis. The next day, I received an email from new EHCC executive director Mike Marshall refusing my donation. As someone who used to raise $350,000 annually for an arts nonprofit, to say I was shocked is an understatement.
My donation was offered in support of the Tuesday evening figure drawing group that has called the EHCC home for more than two decades, and of which my father, a Hilo native, is a member.
Recently, the new leadership at EHCC evicted these local artists when they could not afford to pay the new rental fee, which went from $50 per month to $50 per hour. This represents a 1,200 percent increase.
Ironically, the current EHCC theme is “Home/Homeless,” which is appropriate considering it has rendered this group of local artists homeless. Interestingly, one can rent a studio space at the Maui Arts &Cultural Center, considered the premier arts center in the state, for only $25 per hour.
According to the IRS, the EHCC took in $1,181,104 in direct public support from 2010 to 2014, with 2014 being its most profitable year in four years.
The job of the EHCC executive director and board is to ensure that our taxpayer dollars are used in a way that benefits the community, not detracts from it. So, as an Emmy and Peabody award-winning filmmaker and artist, who has called Hilo a second home for more than 40 years, I encourage Mike Marshall and the new EHCC board to do what’s right and welcome these local artists back to their rightful home.
Marc Michael Murai
Bedford, N.H.
Litter isn’t the cause
Many people on the island are not able to properly dispose of trash, not because they’re “ignorant and lazy,” as Mr. Tahara states (Your Views, May 19), but because we as a population have become complacent and comfortable with being in thrall to the systems in place which produce our commodities.
To begin to see improvements, we need to recognize that litter is not the cause of the problem, it is the effect.
One way to get rid of the litter is to produce increasingly less amounts at the source level, one step of which can include allowing for the production of biodegradable products to replace extant modes. Individuals need to make these changes at the level of their expertise and with what we as a community provide.
Buy a soda or make lemonade at home? Styrofoam- or plant-based container? Toxic, less toxic or nontoxic? Car, truck or bicycle? New plastic or recycled plastic? Throw away or re-purpose?
When we see our streets littered, our rage is displaced when we fail to see the product of our own choices. Because of the complexities of our own entanglements with manufacturers, we as individuals need to take steps to clearly understand the issue of sponsoring better choices for our community if we want to see changes.
Iris Ruiz
Hilo
