The silent majority ADVERTISING The silent majority The Native Hawaiian Roll Commission has successfully enrolled 114,000 Hawaiians who would like to move forward and begin the process of nation building. These enrollees were clearly not at the recent statewide hearings
The silent majority
The Native Hawaiian Roll Commission has successfully enrolled 114,000 Hawaiians who would like to move forward and begin the process of nation building.
These enrollees were clearly not at the recent statewide hearings held by the departments of the Interior and Justice. They remain a silent majority that did not want to be verbally assaulted by hecklers who support Hawaiian independence.
The Hawaiians that protested at the meetings are not the Hawaiians that show up to the polls to actually vote. These independence-minded Hawaiians refuse to sign up for the roll and do not want participate in the process in a reasonable manner.
The ugly verbal abuse displayed by Hawaiians who do not want to participate in any discussions or redress by the federal government for the taking of our lands and kingdom was not just rude, but it gave the world a view of angry Hawaiians who do not represent all 400,000 of us who do not agree with them.
With tourism being the state’s No. 1 industry, impressions made by these people will certainly impact future visitors who will not want to come to visit a place where its people are hostile. Auwe!
Rowena M. Akana
Trustee, Office of Hawaiian Affairs
Baseyard deceit
Your report on the “baseyard battle” (Tribune-Herald, Sept. 6) suggests the kind of insider wink-and-nod situation that the County Council was trying to avoid with its (failed) ethics bill. If an industrial warehouse can be disguised as a single-family home and win approval from both the Department of Public Works as well as the Windward Planning Commission, then the enforcement of county zoning and building regulations is clearly not as vigorous with good-old-boy county employees as it is with the public.
Randy Riley says that he couldn’t tell the difference between a residence and an industrial warehouse until after it was built. Apparently, the county couldn’t either, because it issued both the building and occupancy permits. All this strains credulity: Confusing a household residence with a warehouse designed to store large sewage trucks would simply not pass even a cursory sniff test, on any number of levels.
Plaudits are due for Arlene Kimata, who fought this miscarriage of justice, and for Valerie Poindexter and Margaret Wille, two councilwomen who stood up for what is right. Perhaps it is now time to revisit the ethics bill, given this seeming chain of ethics violations.
Skip Sims
Ninole
Put trees to use
OK, the albizia trees caused serious problems, but maybe it could be considered a good wake-up call. Someone should do research on the tree, the pulp and the bark. We saw a beautiful surfboard made from it; why not make paper, food plates and containers, and so on? The trees are abundant; let’s use them. Just a thought.
Lynise Tarring
Hilo
Mahalo to all
Dear HELCO and all those who were so helpful in the Puna District after Tropical Storm Iselle came through our area. I want to thank all the people who went out of their way to cut down trees that were blocking roads and, in some cases, even houses so that people could move freely from their homes and neighborhoods.
Thank you for those who delivered gallons and gallons of water and also pounds and pounds of ice to those without power or generators to keep their food in edible condition.
There were so many agencies helping us all that I am unable to name them all here, and rather than slight any, I will just say that all their help was greatly appreciated. I even had my mail carrier personally deliver me a meal one evening — a meal that was enough for two nights, not just one.
I know those working for HELCO and Hawaiian Tel and possibly Time Warner as well were getting paid for their extra time, but just the same, I still want to say THANK YOU!
I even had friends bring by some oil lamps, and another also gave me some food — not just for one night, but for two as well, and they even gave me a charger that worked without electricity so I could charge my cellphone because I was unable to continue using my car in order to do that.
Barbara Ferraro
Pahoa
