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LETTERS for September 15 issue

By Staff | Sep 15, 2011

DON’T MOVE THE HIGHWAY

The article on the front page by Louise Rockett (whom I consider a friend) regarding the Honoapiilani Highway does not sit well with some of us old-timers.

I happen to sit on the task force that was formed several years ago for just this purpose — to discuss relocating the highway. We elected Mike White (current County Councilman) as our chair. Most of us do not favor relocating it.

Erosion? The highway can be elbowed around these two or three spots and save millions upon millions of OUR tax dollars.

This route is a hundred years old. A minister traversed it from Wailuku by horse and buggy monthly just to have services in Lahaina.

It is one of the most beautiful drives we have here, and I certainly don’t want it destroyed by changing its location.

Perhaps five years ago, developers were hounding the planning director for permission to develop that stretch (and laugh all the way to the bank). They certainly saw the beauty in it.

I would agree to two more lanes of travel, but this can be done a lot cheaper by acquiring the cane-haul road running alongside our highway. And this would alleviate the fear of another “closed road” situation that was also mentioned in that article.

Along with “erosion,” this is the other fear mongering item that’s thrown out by the supporters of relocation.

I think I’ve said enough for now. Aloha a me a hui hou.

GORDON C. COCKETT, Lahaina

TEA PARTY CARTOON IS DIVISIVE PROPAGANDA

Shame on you, Lahaina News. You continue to do an excellent job of serving our community with local news, but take advantage of your West Maui newspaper monopoly to force-feed your radical right wing agenda.

The recent political cartoon (Sept. 1-7) showing a Democrat accusing Tea Party folks of being “Terrorists” and “Hostage Takers,” while depicting the Tea Party as the true patriotic God-loving Americans, is extreme and divisive propaganda.

Our Lahaina community is close knit and represents many political views. Using your monopoly of press to further extremist views has no place in your paper.

If your politics were extreme left wing bashing of Republicans, this would be just as wrong and out of place. Our community and our country do not need more polemic and mudslinging. We need to stop the cheap name calling and come together as a people.

Keep doing what you do so well by informing us of local events, persons of note, sports and island culture.

That is your proper role here, not to further spew the negative rhetoric that so divides our nation. Be a healer Lahaina News, not a political bully.

MIKEL MESH, Lahaina

MAHALO FOR SUPPORTING ‘FIRE UP DA IMU’

The Lahainaluna High School Foundation would like to thank all those in our West Maui community who contributed to the success of the fourth annual “Fire Up da Imu” preseason celebration held on historic Boarders’ Field on the Lahainaluna campus.

Our grateful acknowledgment to our sponsors, Whalers Realty, Expeditions Maui-Lanai Ferry, and Cool Cat Café — without their financial support, the event would not have been possible.

Mahalo to Lahaina and Maui News for the publicity, Anne Friedman of MauiMassage4U and Princess Nahi’ena’ena Elementary School.

We would also like to thank the school, athletic director and student groups who participated in the event as vendors, and the band and cheer teams that provided the entertainment.

Special thanks to the board members and other supporters, who volunteered their time in set-up, throughout the event and during breakdown.

We appreciate the community support for attending the event and supporting the student groups, who were the recipients of all the money raised.

JEFF ROGERS, Development Coordinator, Lahainaluna High School Foundation

CALL IT HALEAKALA CRATER, NOT ‘VALLEY’

While in Haleakala National Park recently, I saw displayed a very nice photo with the caption, “Haleakala Valley.” Valley? No crater?

I realized then that the National Park Service and Hawaii Natural History Association (which runs the park shops) were implementing a program I had heard about years ago to educate the public that Haleakala Crater is not a true volcanic crater. It seems that it matters not at all to them that it has been called Haleakala Crater for nearly 200 years.

If you tell anyone in Hawaii — from Hanalei to Hilo — that you’re going to the crater, they know what you mean. If you tell them you’re going to the valley, they’ll think, “Are you lolo or what?”

Haleakala Crater has been a part of the history and culture of Maui and the rest of Hawaii for many, many generations.

Way back in 1828, when explorers made the first recorded trip to the top, they used the word “crater.” For example, they wrote, “The circumference of the great crater, we judged to be no less than 15 miles.”

Maybe technically it’s not a true volcanic crater, but in our common and traditional language, it has always been and should always be that beautiful, spiritual place that is the crater — the one and only Haleakala Crater.

Although I was born and raised on Oahu, Maui has always been “no ka oi.” And I have had many, many wonderful days on Haleakala and in the crater.

My first memory of Haleakala is the night our family spent in the old Kalahaku Rest House after the road was opened in 1935. After I retired and moved to Maui, I became involved with the park through volunteer projects in the crater and on the slopes of Haleakala. I know Haleakala and I love it.

I have great admiration for what the park service has done for Haleakala. Most important was building the fence around the crater to keep out feral animals and the removal of goats and pigs that had devastated the crater for years. I can still see and hear the hundreds of goats pouring down Hanakauhi on their way to the mamani trees at Na Mana o ke Aku.

The National Park Service is doing a great job protecting Haleakala’s natural and cultural resources for future generations. This is its mandate.

But it doesn’t have the right to change history. This is a place name that has been in use for generations. It belongs to the people of Hawaii. It’s been on maps starting with the first one ever drawn back in 1896.

I doubt if many of the people who have called it a crater all their lives know that the park service has unilaterally decided to change the name.

Come on, National Park Service — give us back our crater. We don’t need an “erosional depression,” and we have lots of valleys.

There is only one crater on Maui, and everyone knows where it is.

MARY EVANSON, Founder, Friends of Haleakala National Park, Makawao