Kapiolani’s lesson
After reading the “Geothermal concerns vented” article (Tribune-Herald, April 23), I thought there must surely have been some knowledgeable people there who had signed up to comment on this ultra-clean and safe energy, but I read no such comments.
In fact, that meeting catapulted East Hawaii back into the Stone Age. Perhaps we need a brief history lesson. Let’s go back to the early 1800s, when High Chiefess Kapiolani came against this form of idolatry by walking more than 100 miles from Kona to the Kilauea crater to defy this supposed deity.
Her message to those weeping, wailing and begging her not to go was, “If I am destroyed, then you may all believe in Pele, but if I am not, you must all turn to the true writings” (the Bible). When Kapiolani arrived at the caldera, she walked to the edge of the roiling lava, where she defied Pele over and over again by breaking every taboo possible.
Instead of being consumed, the once tumultuous lava calmed completely down and the people were amazed. All who witnessed this brave act lost faith in Pele’s power that day, and they willingly did as their alii had commanded.
Her words still ring true today. Evidently there are those today who have gone against their royalty’s decree. Perhaps the government should sue them and their “goddess” for the continual emission of toxic vog into the air. To think a geothermal power plant could do more harm or add one iota more of pollution to the land is laughable.
I plead with our officials to have an intelligent conversation about this and not let a few ill-informed, superstitious people determine the future of this land. Geothermal is a great alternative, and it’s the way we must go.
Karen Welsh
Hilo
The rail scheme
The massive Honolulu rail support pillars will be giant, three-story-high concrete monuments to insatiable greed and a devastating bankruptcy of vision. The pillars are lauded to lift us to higher prosperity, but instead are doomed to weigh us down and crush our children’s future. They will be ugly symbols — not of hope, but of cynicism that catering to special interests is the best that a politician can do.
A bolder vision would be one in which people on and near the Leeward Coast had jobs near them. A better vision would be one in which parents were close to their children’s schools so they could participate in their education. A beautiful vision would be more family time, instead of a 20-mile commute, twice every day.
The traffic solution that beats rail in all ways is to put jobs on the Leeward Coast, where the population is and growing. The ironic tragedy is that this solution would serve special interests even better in the long run.
The real driving force behind rail is that it will become a massive, semi-legal money-laundering scheme for politicians and special interests — converting tax dollars into campaign donations, kickbacks and profit for the rich.
Rail is a plot hatched by politicians hoping for golden parachutes provided them by the special interests they serve — especially when the economic shibai hits the fan.
But use your own eyes and think. We don’t even have money for current needs.
Leighton Loo
Mililani, Oahu
