THANKS FOR SUPPORTING ‘DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS’

The Lahaina Complex After School Enrichment Tutor Project gives thanks for the Aina Nalu homeowners’ fundraiser, “Dollars for Scholars,” held on May 27, 2011. We would like to take this opportunity to extend our very sincere thanks to all of the following for their various contributions to this very successful event!

First, a special thanks for donations of wine from Chambers & Chambers, Tedeschi Vineyards Ltd., Better Brands, Patricia Hendershot, Don and Carol Heape and Rebecca Lauricella; beer from RB Black Angus Steakhouse; pupus by Island Catering/Luis Fuentes; water, sodas and fruit from Howard Hanzawa/Kaanapali Land Management; coffee from Java Jazz & Soup Nutz; audio-visual equipment and services by Chad Wilson; live music by Howard Ahia; food, services and other support from Phil and Liz May/AAAAA Rent-A-Space, Don Lehman, Lisa Agdeppa and Williams and Associates; floral arrangements by Florence Makekau; Richard Nagamine for tropical fruits; and Lahaina News for helping to publicize this event in advance.

Also, special recognition goes to these individuals and businesses for their generous direct monetary donations: Ironwood Associates, Jeanne and Jim Riley, Debbie Arakaki, Sheila Gerbig-Hussey, Lahaina Rotary, Aloha Realty Group, Linda Knutson, Petaluma Portfolio, Michael Miller Insurance and Jim Somers.

Not to be overlooked, these tutors and volunteers gave their time to help us at the event: registration and ticket sales — Emma Smithson, Lori Powers, Sandie Lammerding, Phyllis Nakamura, Michelle Schultz, Una Ratterman, Carol Inaba, Jane Huff and Noah Unger; food servers — Debbie Arakaki, Victor Terra, Siu Whitehead, Phil and Liz May, Louise George, Terry Warwick, Arleen Gerbig, Elise Sharon and Bev Will; wine servers — Fred Sconfienza and Lisa Agdeppa; security — Ian McPhee; set-up — Jim Henderson, Chad Wilson, Mark Johnson, Victor Terra, Brandie and Clint Henderson, and Mike Lammerding; silent auction — Nancy Johnson, Liz May, Maria Crichton and Cheryl Henderson; photographer Kevin McDermott; emcees Lee Potts and Davis Caddis; cleanup — Clint Henderson, Mike and Sandie Lammerding; and the rest of the committee.

Finally, a fond thank you to the 2011 Aina Nalu Fundraiser Committee members: Debbie Arakaki, Maria Crichton, Pat and Richard Endsley, Sheila Gerbig-Hussey, Cheryl and Jim Henderson, Michelle Langeveld, Barbara Potts, Victor Terra and Karen Voycik.

A huge mahalo to all of you and to any others, whom we may have inadvertently omitted.

PAT & RICHARD ENDSLEY, Lahaina

WHY GIVE DETAILS OF BIN LADEN MISSION?

This letter should really be going to the national media — like CNN and Wolf Blitzer — but I’m not smart enough to figure out how. I’ve been chewing on this for a few weeks now — ever since the assassination of Osama Bin Laden — and it just has to come out. These idiots up there who think they know it all are really causing a problem now and in the future.

I’m talking about all that intricate information about HOW it was carried out, and HOW the information was learned, and WHO led them to it, and WHO carried it out and WHERE they are stationed. All this information can get people killed — now and forever into the future. In fact, some of it has already started back there.

Who cares about who carried it out? Who cares about how they learned where he was hanging out? We should only care that it was DONE, period! Pau story! Stop already!

GORDON C. COCKETT, Lahaina

BAGS A BIG LITTER PROBLEM

I did it again! I have a dozen reusable bags at home, and once again I forgot to bring one.

This time, I’m gonna just make myself buy a new one every time ’til I acquire the habit.

I am proud of Maui for leading the way in the “ban the bag” crusade. But now, as on Kauai, I am seeing a lot more paper bags on the side of the road — still not as many as the plastic bags before.

I (we) have to change our ways or choke in our own trash. We already have a huge amount of rubbish headed our way from the Japan tsunami, and it’s gonna all end up in the North Pacific Gyre — the floating island of trash between here and the “Madland.”

At least the size of Texas, there is no way to attack

it yet, and our only recourse is to reduce consumption, recycle and reuse.

Surfrider Foundation’s Maui Chapter will be showing the movie “Bag It” at Lahaina Civic Center on June 15 at 6 p.m. Don’t miss it, and bring a note pad!

LES POTTS, Napili

MAHALO FOR SUPPORTING LIS STAFF AND TEACHERS

The Lahaina Intermediate School PTSA would like to extend a big mahalo to the following businesses for their support and generous donations toward our annual Staff and Teacher Appreciation Week Luncheon: The Banyan Tree Bakery & Deli, CJ’s Deli & Diner, Penne Pasta Cafe, Roy’s Kahana, West Maui Glass and the Royal Lahaina Resort.

Because of these businesses, the PTSA was able to serve a gourmet lunch for the nearly 100 members of our staff to thank and honor them for their dedication to our keiki.

LAHAINA INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL PTSA

MAKE SURE CALLS TO MHS ARE ACCURATE

To the person who called Maui Humane Society and reported that we were abusing/neglecting our puppy — had it locked up and we were not home — please check your facts before you make that call. It is called crate training.

Motoki, our chocolate lab, is ten weeks old and was only barking for 18 minutes. We were right there. We are home all the time since Jim (my husband) has cancer, and I am retired.

Since you took the time to get our address, why didn’t you notice we were home with our cars and Harley in the driveway and garage door open?

Crate training is a way to teach one’s dog manners and a sign of a responsible dog owner. The puppy needs to get used to not being out in the house all the time and to learn housebreaking at the same time. We have crate trained all of our puppies, and they were all well-behaved, sweet and loving.

Those who know us can attest to our love for our animals — they are so spoiled and treated with respect.

If you want to go into noises on Hui Road F, try listening to a bird who only knows one thing to say all day long; wind chimes that are at a pitch detrimental to one’s well-being, peace and quiet; motorcycles with illegal mufflers; and cell phone users walking down the street using obscene language.

Patience and kindness are virtues. This will be over in a few more days!

TERE PATTERSON, Napili

LIVE FOR TODAY

Many reports I hear on TV are meant to cause me concern.

Social Security will be broke in 2025. Medicare will be broke in 2021. Polar ice will melt by 2030, and the world will be under water.

There is nothing I can do about it since I’m almost 90 years old.

I won’t be here.

I’m living for today. How about you?

ARSENE “BLACKIE” GADARIAN, Lahaina

A TRAFFIC LESSON

Kahana Ridge residents are going to seriously injure or kill someone.

Traffic laws in every state in the country, INCLUDING HAWAII, require traffic that is turning left to yield to oncoming traffic!

If you are leaving Kahana Ridge and driving down the hill on Hoohui to the highway, and you are turning left heading toward Lahaina, state traffic law requires that YOU must yield to oncoming traffic.

If the traffic headed up Hoohui from the lower road is turning right toward Lahaina or going straight across Honoapiilani Highway to Kahana Ridge, and you are coming down from Kahana Ridge and turning left, YOU MUST YIELD RIGHT OF WAY!

Several Kahana Ridge drivers have screamed at me that they had the right of way when they were turning left to Lahaina and I was turning right to Lahaina. You are wrong! You are crossing my lane of traffic, and you are required by law to yield to oncoming traffic when turning left. Period!

Over the last several years, I have almost been hit numerous times by vehicles coming down Hoohui and turning left toward Lahaina, and this has happened three times in the last week. Everywhere in the country, any vehicle turning left has to yield to oncoming traffic, no matter if the oncoming traffic is turning right or going straight. This is not open to interpretation or debate, IT IS THE LAW.

Please get this straight before someone is seriously injured or worse.

NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST

CORPORATISM IMPACTS PUBLIC MEDIA

Complaints about commercials on public radio/TV are accurate, although they may not be aware of the congressional corporatist wing’s many notorious attempts to defund public media.

Funding cuts have accompanied demands that these stations pay their own way.

Although public donation drives are regularly productive, corporate sponsorship has been a bargain for buyers, indicating the rise of access and influence that long ago drowned independence and courage on commercial media in a swamp of advertising and censorship.

All stations are granted exclusive use of public airwaves for the “public good.” History illustrates the influential, well-funded corporatist belief that public resources and revenues are only to be leaked through private hands before they reach the public, lest some possibility of private profit at public expense be missed. Anything else would presumably be socialism.

Corporatist lawmakers understand that government-licensed corporate profiteering means a continuing flow of campaign donations for the PR wars that dominate politics today — a domination that would be threatened by strong independent reporting unafraid to expose the lies that cost so much to maintain.

Hopefully, even the staunchest corporatist politicians will recognize that their value to corporations only remains so long as there is a threat from opposition, and ensure their job security by not allowing all of free speech’s boats to be sunk.

Those organizing opposition to any public benefit from public assets can be swept up in their own propaganda. Of such shortsighted movements are ideological wars made against social services essential for Democracy.

DANIEL GRANTHAM, Haiku