Kailua-Kona has serious
noise pollution problem
My wife and I bought into a homeowners’ association almost 20 years ago, and except for the pandemic year, we have spent at least a month in Kailua-Kona for all those years.
I am about ready to return to the mainland with a question I have asked myself every year: “Does Hawaii sell motorcycles with mufflers?”
I live in a city on the mainland of 200,000 people, and the noise pollution there cannot come close to the noise from motorcycles, cars, trucks and those scooters with the lawnmower engines here in Kona.
I don’t get it. Kailua-Kona is a tourist vacation spot, so who wants to listen to the sounds of an urban freeway? Or a boom, boom, boom from cars driving slowly down the beach as people are attempting to enjoy a meal?
I don’t get it, and don’t understand why the business community doesn’t demand a change. It hurts their businesses, without a doubt.
On my way to the mainland and peace and quiet!
William F. Johnston
Kailua-Kona
Concerns about a case
involving religious school
There is a case before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding an Oklahoma religious school that wants to be publicly funded.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof … .” If the government funds one religious school, then why shouldn’t it fund all religious schools?
If you’re Baptist, how do you feel about Mormon schools being funded? Why not fund Catholic, Hebrew, Buddhist or Muslim schools?
Why not fund a Shaolin Taoist school centered on the martial arts?
And of course since we are not prohibiting the free exercise of religion, why not start and fund a Satanic school devoted to libertarian principles? How about a Rastafarian school that teaches home agriculture, or one devoted to Haitian voodoo?
The problem with mixing government and religion is that you instantly favor one religion over everyone else.
Russ Button
Pahoa
