Coral litter
Not age-old tradition
I read the article in the WHT titled “kapulu coral” and felt good that some group took on the task to clean up the coral littering the lava fields.Today’s WHT (April 5) letters to the editor refer to the coral writings as “decorations” that have been around long enough to obtain the status of “historical significance.”
Another writer refers to the coral litter as “age-old traditions” and “local traditions beloved by generations.” The writer then goes on to say the lava “fields are one of the only places locals can express that humanity.” This statement is in direct contradiction to a writer’s earlier suggestion that there are many other places where people can volunteer instead of spending their time clearing up the roadside coral litter.
It is obvious these two writers are not aware of how this coral litter became available to the “artists” who arranged them into roadside messages. I must admit, some of the roadside messages are rather entertaining. There are marriage proposals, birthday wishes, messages of love, messages that express domestic feuds and the occasional vulgar expressions of hate. Most of these messages remain for a few weeks then get rearranged by the wind, loosing their shape and messages thus becoming litter.
In the 1950s, Kawaihae was located at the end of the road, with only one way in and out. It was a unique community with two grocery stores, one post office and one school with three or four rooms that went up to the ninth grade. Kawaihae had a coral reef that was unsurpassed in size, depth and aquatic life by any other coral reef on this island. The reef provided the community with a steady supply of shoreline fresh fish for the taking.
In those days, Spencer Park was nicknamed “White Sand Beach.” The currents that moved down the coast replenished the white sand with each storm and it was a favorite beach for children, clean and white.
Then, along came the state with a dredging rig to put in the deep sea harbor. It dug up the coral reef with its aquatic life, heaping it into piles of white skeletons killing all that was dug up and everything it covered, along with the food supply in the form of fish, crab, lobsters and shell fish. It also prevented the currents from resupplying White Sand Beach with clean, white sand.
The piled up coral was crushed and sold to agriculture users, especially to the sugar cane plantations. When the Queen Kaahumanu Highway was built, someone had the great idea the coral would make an excellent sub base, so it was then hauled and buried as fill beneath the black top. Some of this coral fill remained on the outside and was eventually collected and used to articulate roadside messages in the lava fields.
To some, the coral littering the lava fields qualify as “beloved age-old traditions” but to some of us, it is a reminder of the destruction to the oldest, most significant, and functional coral reef this island ever had.
Kawaihae Harbor has greatly enhanced development, commercialization and commerce. The displaced coral skeletons that litter the roadside are now faint reminders of a once majestic coral reef full of aquatic life that has been reduced to roadside litter. Beloved age-old traditions? Maybe, but only to the uninformed.
Leningrad Elarionoff
Waimea
Government spending
Destroy assumptions
In 2010 the United States of America crossed a disastrous tipping point when the government was spending more money on citizens than there was money from taxpayers to pay (2012 Index of Dependence on Government).
If we add the crippling debt that the administration has no plan to repay and seventy-seven million baby boomers leaving the work force lining up for benefits we are worse than doomed.
But there is a much larger problem: we’ve lost our way as a culture. Gradually in the last one hundred years when the ruling, privileged elite put capitalism in leg irons and began its inexorable march toward government control we were indoctrinated into the expectation of a pain-free, risk-free, failure-free, problem-free universe. Citizens have been taught that the government is a great super-parent that has great wealth, objectivity, and maturity. Then it is a short step to the expectation of government as a supplier of education, medical care, retirement income, housing, handouts to the needy, support of illegal invaders, safe drugs, safe foods, scientific research, unemployment benefits, protector of government unions that don’t pay for pensions or benefits, and unearned income to non-taxpayers called a “tax refund” ($50 billion per year).
Unfortunately, perception becomes reality. How does one overcome a false view of government as wealthy and philanthropic? Government has no money of its own. To get its money government actually takes from everyone including low-wage workers, college students, the homeless, and seniors. The government drains resources from what could be vibrant and prosperous communities. Government can’t cut spending while its people are demanding more and more free stuff from the Super Sugar Daddy.
One way to alter perceptions and begin the long road to overcoming the self-deluding spell that has overtaken our nation is to require everyone who receives government money to sign this statement:
“I understand that the funds I am about to receive come from the nation’s taxpayers, and I am grateful for the sacrifices they are making on my behalf.”
This statement must be signed when paperwork is filled out for any government grant, subsidy, loan, food stamps, welfare check, public housing agreement, public pension benefit, small business loan, Medicaid benefit, Medicare discount, government food bank, research grant, etc.
Only 45 percent of the residents of Detroit are literate and public education has become another devastating cultural problem. If the person can’t read this statement aloud before signing then it must be read to the recipient of taxpayer money before signing or “marking.”
Over time this would destroy the assumption that government spending harms no one. This would disavow the entitlement mentality of those who believe that since they were born in America the government owes them something for nothing.
Donna Sweere
Kailua-Kona