Four years and counting
I’d like to share a glimpse of perspective on the timeframe my community has endured still awaiting the opening of roads that remain inundated by the 2018 Kilauea eruption.
My daughter left for college in August of 2018, the month the eruption ended, to attend her freshman year at University of Colorado, Boulder.
At that time, I realized restoring roads, giving people access back to their homes, was the first and most important step to recovering their lives.
My daughter, on May 6, will be graduating from college, a four-year journey, and my community is still awaiting our county roads to reopen that FEMA funded to reopen over three years ago.
Last week, we were informed that the roads will not begin construction this spring, but the community will now have to wait until the end of 2023 for the beginning of breaking ground. I can’t express the amount of despair and struggle from those still awaiting access home.
The road to recovery begins with roads, four years have passed, my daughter earned a degree in that time, and unbelievably, the community is still awaiting the roads.
Smiley Burrows
Puna
‘Armchair warriors’
Fascinating times! Nonveterans, having had no experience in combat, are chiming in on how we should take care of Vladimir Putin with military might.
The comments and letters to the editor tell me that in certain people’s view, you are pro-Putin if you do not wish to have military presence over in Ukraine.
All vets reading this are probably chuckling on the inside, as we have seen armchair warriors all our lives. But I guess, in reality, the stench of war is real, so we think a little harder when faced with opposition.
So many unhinged civilians with zero weapons training, much less the capacity to kill another human being, are so ramped up right now to stop Putin. They forget the “yellow peril” or the “domino effect” propaganda of decades past in regards to the spread of communism during the Vietnam War era.
But I want the civilians with zero combat experience to sign up for the military, if you’re so gung-ho about getting involved. Heck, I will even help train you.
Start slow. Buy a water pistol at Walmart and practice trigger control. Then psyche yourself up for some real fun! Throw on your “Halo” computer game, and be all you can be! I await your test results. We need you to fight for democracy!
Oh, how I love to troll civilian armchair warriors who think they know better. Until you learn the horrors and weirdness that keeps people up at night for the rest of your life, do not come across as macho or experienced in life-taking around people like me. And there are many here who are vets who don’t have the bloodlust that the inexperienced seem to have.
Such fools.
Allen Russell
Hilo