Parents should get involved in schools
I agree with Diane Aoki’s letter,“High marks doesn’t mean education system has improved,” which ran March 10 in West Hawaii Today. She is accurate.
Washington giving high marks to our Department of Education means the DOE did what Washington wanted it to do — push Common Core/Glsen in our schools. Washington paid our state bribe money to do so, as it did all states.
Many states in which Common Core has been implemented are now fighting to get Common Core out of their schools as it has proven to hurt students, not help. All the new questionable programs have come in under Common Core and some are dangerous.
Parents check to see what is being taught in their child’s school. Get involved.
Judy Taggerty
Kailua-Kona
It’s time to get rid of fish collecting
All this talk of aquarium collectors’ rights, they shouldn’t have any rights. Collecting tropical fish should be a crime. It is theft of public property.
Tropical fish are as rare and special as dolphins, whales, turtles and monk seals. There shouldn’t be tropical fish collectors any more than there should be dolphin, whale or sea turtle collectors. It should not be allowed any more than elephant or rhinoceros poaching.
Our colorful fish are going the way of these other animals. We protect whales, dolphins and turtles. It is time we protected tropical fish. Breeding them would be a solution, but it’s easier just to go out and take them.
Click on the article, “Effects of Aquairum Collecting on Coral Reef Fishes in Kona,” by B. Tissot and Leon Hallacher. They found that during a recent two-year period in Kona, seven out of 10 fish species were depleted. The collectors also eliminated 75 percent of the tropical fish in a section of the coast.
A West Hawaii Today article on Feb. 20 revealed that 70 percent of all tropical fish collecting in Hawaii is in Kona. This might mean that all the other islands have been fished-out, but it definitely means Kona is being overly plundered. Our tropical fish are being stolen.
Fishing for food is a necessity, plucking these jewels out of the sea is stealing.
People probably think this is a radical, unrealistic viewpoint because there is a huge tropical fish industry with much interest and money involved. You can’t stop a big industry, they say. Sure you can.
The killing of whales, dolphins and turtles, as well as elephants and rhinoceros creates huge, multimillion dollar industries, but more enlightened countries like the U.S. make this illegal. Making money and a large public interest in something does not make it right.
The entire country of Japan wants to eat whale meat but we care not to and make it illegal to hunt whales.
We ban something because it is harmful or immoral regardless of the money it makes. It’s the same argument used to ban genetically modified organisms.
It’s time to get rid of fish collecting. We must save our sea life, it is our kuleana.
Aquarium collectors are conning us into thinking it is a legitimate business. Don’t be fooled. Stealing our tropical fish should be flat out illegal with stiff penalties.
Dennis Gregory
Kona