‘Get out of the way’
Shame on the County Council and Mayor Kim! You’re no longer even trying to hide your contempt for the people and businesses of Puna.
You don’t listen to the people at all. You don’t work with Puna’s representatives to accomplish anything. The lava viewing area has been a bunch of hot air that has not materialized for months. The Pahoa pool remains closed, with no timeline to reopen. No tax relief for local businesses that got absolutely slammed by the eruption and are hanging on by a thread.
You have blocked just about every attempt by residents to solve any of their own problems, including increasing temporary housing, creating lava viewing areas, reopening roads and getting permits in Leilani to repair structures damaged by the eruption.
So, what are you doing?
Trying to use the eruption to get state money to spend elsewhere on the island in places such as Hilo. Trying to take away Puna’s short-term vacation rentals so people are forced to stay at large, corporately owned resorts in Hilo, which will take an enormous amount of funds and economic activity out of Puna.
You’re dragging your feet on every single initiative put forth by the people of Puna and Puna’s representatives to help boost long-term economic recovery. And that’s absolutely unacceptable and shameful!
It’s one thing for the people to suffer because of a natural disaster. It’s quite another for that suffering to be made worse at the hands of local government officials who are being paid lots of money to represent the people. You’re hurting jobs, hurting businesses, hurting tourism, hurting recovery and even hurting the people’s efforts to create more temporary housing projects and open up roads!
County Council, Mayor Kim: Almost everything you guys are doing is making the suffering in Puna worse. Where’s your strong leadership? How are you instilling hope and a vision for the future for the people who have suffered such tremendous loss?
If you don’t want to help the people of Puna, that’s your choice, and you will have to live with that record. But get out of the way and let the people take care of themselves and bring about their own recovery!
Ryan Finlay
Pahoa
Bakken’s gift
During the 1990s, I was the school principal for Bishop Elementary School in Sunnyvale, Calif.
One day, a single mom came in to enroll her second-grade daughter and told us she was a tomboy and loved sports.
However, she had recently received a pacemaker, one of eight children in the United States at the time lucky enough to receive this gift of life. The other children were instructed not to hit her chest when playing ball but otherwise treat her as any other child.
Her mother supported this, and the little girl thrived. She must be in her late 20s now, and I thank Earl Bakken so much for his work in saving not only her life, but the lives of so many people.
May he rest in peace. He has been amazing here on Earth, and we are forever grateful.
Pua Tokumoto
Hilo