Letters

My husband and I have visited Molokai for 13 years and have found the people and the island beautiful.  We stay on the west side because of the golf course.  We have also enjoyed the movie theatre, grocery store and Lodge in Maunaloa Town.  Everyone we came into contact with on the island was so very nice to us.  Molokai is truly the ‘Friendly Isle’. 

We had already secured a condo for next year and had planned to stay much longer this time. We have been following the events in the last few weeks with great sadness. 

We just returned from your beautiful island, and I feel obligated to thank you and your fellow islanders for your hospitality. This was our second visit, and certainly won't be our last. We love visiting Hawai'i, but especially Molokai because it's so real.

We stayed on the west end in a privately owned condo at Kaluakoi Villas.

We hiked up on Kalaka Rock to watch whales in the morning, and spent many hours on Popohaku Beach. We made a point to visit Kalaupapa, and met Mrs. Marks, who is a perfectly lovely woman.

We were saddened to hear about the closing of the ranch; especially as it will leave so many individuals unemployed. I do hope that everyone fares well, and I certainly support the islanders' decision to buy the land so they can determine what is done with it, if anything.

Today while driving through Ranch Camp I had the misfortune of encountering two male students of Molokai High in the midst of a physical altercation. Yes, they were “scrapping”! 

In a panic I stopped my car in the middle of the street, jumped out and tried to separate them. I gave them both an earful and sent one of them on his not so merry way. To my dismay the father of the second boy was in his garage less than 20 feet away instructing the other students to “let them fight”.

When confronted, all this person did was put blame on the other boy. All I heard was “Him, him, him! Not my boy’s fault! You don’t know!” 

By DeGray Vanderbilt

An Advertiser editorial ("Molokai residents must be vested in island future," March 28) suggested that our Molokai community needs to determine what it wants in the wake of the Molokai Ranch shutdown.

Molokai knows what it wants, and has known for a long while.

I've lived on Molokai 30 years. During that time Molokai has been consistent on the vision it sees for future generations.

This vision has been promoted in a wide range of state and county planning documents since 1980. It's a vision based on long-term sustainability and living within one's means.

I may not have been around the Kaluakoi Golf Course as long as most homeowners on the west end, but I have been around the maintenance shop long enough to understand its operations and long enough to know the dedicated crew who works there. They take pride in what they do and have worked hard to bring the eighteen hole Kaluakoi Golf Course back to what it is today.

At one time, the superintendent who oversees these workers had a staff of eleven. This number has since dwindled to only five who have had to rely on close teamwork in order to maintain all 18 holes of the course.

Why would the course staff want to destroy their own hard work and the beautiful landscaping at Kaluakoi? One homeowner suggested it was vengeance, and that employees were acting out on their own because of the shut down. Hello! This is property damage and something that this crew would never attempt.

One of the ancient stories of Hawaii tells of a young Hawaiian boy, Kahanaiakeakua, son of Hina and Ku. The father has gone to Kahiki (Tahiti) and the boy longs to meet up with his father who he has not seen for some time.  

The boy asks his mother Hina for help. Hina then chants to their ancestor, the coconut tree. She sings, "niu ola hiki”, oh life giving coconut "niu loa hiki”, oh far traveling coconut. Suddenly a coconut sprouts in front of her. 

A photo looking east across the flourishing Halawa valley in November of 1938. (Photo submitted by Anakala Pilipo Solatario.)

April 1, 1946 was no fooling for the people of Hawaii, including those of us living in Halawa. I was only six years old when the tsunami hit Molokai, but I remember it well.

To see houses move, including my uncle’s house with the family inside, was incredible. The scariest part was the sound; the sound of the ocean sucking, tress cracking, nails being pulled from the houses, and the rumble of boulders.

There was a phone call Sunday night, March 31, warning us of the ocean after an earthquake north of Alaska. But not understanding what the tsunami warning really meant, we went on with life as usual.

Aloha to the MPL employees,                                                March 27, 2008                             

I feel that MPL’s selfish decision to close down and lay-off all their employees to prove a point is typical of a wealthy corporate bully. Guoco, MPL’s mother company, made a net profit of six billion dollars last year.

This is the perfect opportunity for the MPL victims to take advantage of offers that will come their way.  On Moloka`i there is a need for educators, nurses, social workers, computer technicians, bookkeepers and entrepreneurs. For those that are homesteaders use your land and water, get involved in agriculture, whether it is a small garden or large farm. If your 40 acres are fenced, raise cattle for your family or for the Moloka`i Livestock Cooperative. MPL has 500 head; maybe they will donate or sell their young cattle for your self-sufficiency (if they really care about their employees).