Use your head and wear helmet
Shouldn’t it be equal for bicyclists and motorcyclists to wear helmet?
Most bicyclists wear helmets because they know how dangerous it can be to take a spill.
My helmet cracked when I flew ass over teakettle, but my head did not split like a melon. The rest of my body did not fare so well.
I have seen accidents of motorcyclists in Denmark before the laws were change to mandate wearing helmets for both bicyclists and motorcyclists. It was very gruesome. At least with a helmet the body was left to recover.
I do not see it as macho or very sensible to not wear a helmet.
All it takes is one little mistake, yours or someone else’s. Without a helmet you either end up dead or with a head injury that leaves you a vegetable, or in most cases, with severe injuries and a very long and painful recovery time.
Let us all be more reasonable and a little safer.
Use your head and wear your helmet.
Lisa Christensen
Waimea
Kia’i should compromise now, while time remains
It’s time for the protectors of Maunakea to break camp and strike a deal. Their bargaining power has passed its peak and it’s about to plunge. A golden opportunity is soon to be lost.
The kia’i are now in a position to achieve a great deal for the Hawaiian people. In exchange for allowing completion of the Thirty-Meter Telescope, Mayor Harry Kim has suggested a boost to the Hawaiian Homes program. Make it a really big boost — not just dusty lots but urban condos too. Why not also bargain for more STEM scholarships for Hawaiian students? Why shouldn’t Maunakea astronomers be Hawaiians? And why not better funding for the already excellent immersion schools?
What, compromise? The original position of the kia’i is itself a compromise: no TMT, but the original working observatories remain. No delusions of a pristine mountain top. The offer on the table includes decommissioning some of the existing observatories after TMT is built.
So no matter who wins, the result will be a compromise. The best compromise recognizes that the dispute on Maunakea isn’t really about TMT, it’s about Hawaiian grievance. Understandable, justifiable grievance over a century and a half of injustice.
The kia’i should consider carefully the opportunity — as it exists right now — to make the most progress in addressing grievance in exchange for allowing TMT to proceed.
And they should decide to do it now, while they still have bargaining power. The kia’i command enormous love and respect in the community, but that’s beginning to slip, slowly now but soon more quickly. Hawaii taxpayers (presumably including most of the kia’i) have coughed up $11 million to police the site of their blockade. Commuters and commercial drivers are losing patience with the inconvenience encountered in crossing the mountain.
If, as more citizens demand, the state finally enforces the law, forcibly removes the kia’i and builds TMT, the kia’i will have achieved — what?
David Polhemus
Waimea