County in way of Kapoho’s success
The Kapoho community was the hardest hit of any by the 2018 lava flow, after years of building a vibrant community (i.e. roads, water, mail boxes, tide pool access for the public, etc.) without government assistance or support. It was truly heartbreaking after all of our work!
Now, six years after our destruction, the county has yet to meaningfully help us recover. All of our grant requests (except one small one in the first phase) have been denied by a selection team composed of Disaster Recovery Officer Douglas Le and two of his staff.
The ill-conceived buyout program is excessively rewarding some, and denying help to others, while creating an unplanned mix of county and private parcels (all while county staff are patting themselves on their backs for doing well!).
While the community has been trying to recover, the county has been our biggest obstacle — first by being slow to provide access via Highway 137 (and even preventing us to access our properties over the lava prior to 137 to construct roads); second, by denying significant grant support from the huge amount of federal and state funds allotted for victim assistance; and third, by not thinking creatively about how to help (i.e. requiring grading plans/fees when we try to put roads into their previous locations, not allowing lot consolidations without fees so that the bought-out lots can be used productively for agriculture/consolidated utilities, modifying building requirements/waiving all fees, etc.).
What I am asking is that the county start representing its constituents who are trying to reestablish their lives.
Please learn to say “yes” to our requests, or at least “let’s see how we can work together to meet your needs,” rather than “no” or (quietly/behind closed doors) “let’s put up barriers to Kapoho’s success.”
Hartley Phillips
Pahoa
Racial bigotry and Black authors
So, now a parent in one Florida school district has to sign a permission slip before a student is allowed to read a book by a Black author! This is racial bigotry, plain and simple.
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize winner. Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston and many other Black authors have written brilliant works which all students should have access to.
But, no! In Florida, the skin color of the writer is more important than his or her literary ability.
How about making Black parents sign a permission slip before their children are allowed to read Shakespeare, Hemingway or Dostoevsky? Does that sound reasonable?
Is there any way we can re-fight the Civil War over and let the Confederates win this time? I really don’t want to be in the same country as these bigots.
Dan Lindsay
Hilo