PC gone wild?
Whatever happened to Girls’ Day (March 3) and Boys’ Day (May 5)?
What’s with this Children’s Day? Is Boys’ Day and Girls’ Day too gender-specific for today’s political correctness?
What’s next? Getting rid of Mother’s Day? And who decides this stuff?
Michael Engstrom
Hilo
Power plant not needed
Honua Ola is outdated. Yes, its investors don’t want to lose all of the money they put in. But we, the public consumers of electricity, don’t want to overpay for something we essentially need.
Dollars and common sense: Solar technology has advanced, both in efficiency and storage, so its costs are going down. HECO will locate solar arrays in places that have more reliable sunshine, unlike Hilo or Waimea.
Solar means direct conversion of sunlight to electricity, so it’s relatively simple.
Honua Ola: Complicated. Just to burn a tree, it has to harvest it with fossil fuel-burning heavy equipment and haul the logs with diesel-powered heavy trucks to the wood-burning site. Pollution, carbon emissions.
Such equipment wears out, meaning the ever-rising cost of vehicles, cranes, chippers, incinerators, pumps for the hot water waste injection wells that disrupt the soil ecology. There are also rising personnel and management salaries (people want pay raises).
It seems like Honua Ola won’t be able to maintain its projected price of providing power, because its expenses will keep increasing.
Affordable electricity and clean air. Isn’t that what we want?
Go plant a tree today.
Lloyd Fukuki
Waimea
Appreciation for police
Generally, I vehemently disagree with letter writer James Borden’s beliefs that he regularly displays on signs and billboards on the side of the road.
But I found myself in full agreement with his April 29 letter (Tribune-Herald, Your Views) commending our local police. Thank you, Mr. Borden, for your voice of reason in this case.
I also agree with the Black Lives Matter movement, and I do think that we need to look at “excessive force” amongst police officers with scrutiny and potentially reform practices. But I do think that police officers are really being raked over the coals right now, and I have a lot of compassion for those who may be feeling embattled, even questioning their career choices.
Like Mr. Borden, I want to sincerely thank our island authorities for their hard work and willingness to serve our community. I can imagine what a heavy toll such a job takes on their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being, and we humans have a tendency to critique more than compliment.
So, thank you, Mr. Borden, for echoing the sentiment of many of us out in the island community who appreciate our peace officers and their commitment to “protect and serve.”
Tiffany Edwards Hunt
Keaau
