Homeless encounter
Tuesday evening, after a relaxing trip with my wife and friends to Kona, we stopped by Baskin-Robbins for an ice cream treat before heading up the hill to Volcano.
While sitting outside, eating our concoctions, we noticed a man going through the trash can looking for thrown-away food.
I approached him and asked if he’d like a sub (from Subway). He said yes, pastrami please. So I spent the next 10 minutes or so purchasing a pastrami sub.
When I approached him with the sub, he rose and shook my hand in thanks. I asked him if he was a vet, and he said yes. My feelings were that he truly was a vet, so I thanked him for his service.
I am not writing this to show what a great guy I am and am not seeking praise. I am simply calling attention to the plight of the homeless, including homeless vets, who wonder from where their next meal will come.
When the county destroyed the homeless camp in downtown Hilo recently, my first thoughts were: Where will they go?
This letter is not about generosity. It was only $8 with tax and tip. I won’t miss the money, but I did spend some sleepless hours thinking about this man and the many more who exist in our county and our country.
I recently saw a cartoon where the big guy (a politician) was bragging to a woman that “they” created 8 million jobs this year. The woman replied: “I know. I have three of them.”
I keep thinking: We can surely do more.
Tom McAlexander
Volcano
Blight on mauna
Last week, I had to drive to Kona over the saddle. I cannot express the amount of shock and outrage I felt at seeing the homeless encampment on conservation lands.
I used to look forward to that drive as I often saw herds of big horn sheep and mountain goats grazing there in the saddle.
What I saw instead was a sprawling homeless encampment complete with port-a-potties! What a desecration!
How can they say the new telescope will desecrate the mauna when they have already done so with their encampment? How can they say they are the “protectors” when it is clear that they are the defilers?
Why are they being allowed to remain? Why haven’t they been removed as the protesters to the wind farm were?
They are clearly in even more contempt of the law, and, I’m sure, have caused far more serious damage to the flora and fauna.
Has Hawaii become so lawless that its citizens must fend for themselves because the rule of law doesn’t apply to some groups? What are we to do when the governor, mayor, agencies, etc., no longer enforce the law?
I will be very happy to see the big horn sheep and mountain goats return and the blight on the mauna that the protesters created removed. The protesters have engineered their own arrest in order to gain sympathy for causes that have nothing to do with the mauna.
They do not have my sympathy. I am tired of all the whining and drama and lack of regard for the devastation and divisions they are causing. If they have suffered injustices, they need to take it up with the appropriate agencies, and that is not the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Sandra Kirkpatrick
Keaau