LETTERS for November 12 issue

Questions that arise while driving in West Maui
Just a few questions that pop into my mind every time I drive from Napili to the Pali:
1) Do you think it is possible to build a few more hotels/timeshares in Kaanapali? Seems to be a bit of open space left?
2) Can we rename Honoapiilani Highway to the Super Freeway? Can we go faster, cut more people off and run more red lights?
3) Can we have more cars in Lahaina – maybe add some more lanes like Honolulu?
4) Can we add some more traffic lights, like the one at Launiupoko, so that more traffic backs up worse than it is?
5) Can we seriously stop all this crap and try to remember what West Maui used to be like?
Our politicians need to take a good hard look at what has happened and stop this madness. We have already ended up a mess – let’s not continue to make it worse.
It saddens me after my 45 years here in West Maui to see what has become of my favorite place on Earth.
SU CAMPOS, Napili
——————
Change the name to boost bypass usage
To get a tenfold increase on Lahaina Bypass traffic, take down the bypass road sign.
Then replace it with a larger sign calling it the “Lahaina Scenic Route.”
DAVID ROCKETT, Lahaina
——————
Save Honolua Coalition appreciates support
The Save Honolua Coalition would like to express our sincere gratitude to Kapalua Resort Association for their generous donation of $5,858 received on Oct. 5, 2015.
These monies will go toward our efforts to provide port-a-potties and general caretaking services (rubbish removal, etc.) at the state-purchased 244 acres at Honolua through the end of 2015.
The donation was secured through the efforts of Kapalua resident Gunars Valkirs, Paul Brown, the association director, and the KRA Board of Directors.
It is very heartwarming to have members of our community step up during times of need to malama (take care) of what makes West Maui such a special place to live, work and visit.
We continue to fundraise and write grants to fund efforts to take care of Honolua in perpetuity, and we are encouraged by the Kapalua Resort Association’s donation and expression of support for our efforts thus far.
SAVE HONOLUA COALITION
——————
Another successful year for the Aloha Team Classic
Beyond the Rainbow Foundation, an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) in Maui, completed the tenth annual Aloha Team Classic on Oct. 15. Over the ten years, this event has raised almost $125,000 to help youth-based agencies across Maui.
This year’s event included 24 players and another 20 people from across the country taking part in the four-day event.
After starting with the wonderful Sunset Welcome Reception held at The Westin Maui Resort and Spa’s Relish Oceanside Restaurant in Kaanapali, participants enjoyed two rounds of golf played at the Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course and one round at the Kaanapali Royal Course. Each day of golf included lunch (Plantation House Restaurant and Roy’s), and the event concluded with the Dinner Finale held at the Plantation House Restaurant in the Kapalua Resort. There was also an optional special dinner on Wednesday evening at Sansei, Kapalua.
Debbi Katz, president of Beyond the Rainbow Foundation, expressed the appreciation of the foundation to all the supporters of the Aloha Team Classic. “Without their continued support, the foundation would not be able to host this event which brings visitors to the island each October to help raise money for Maui’s youth.”
Supporters for this year’s event included: Cohn Restaurant Group (Pineapple Grill and Plantation House Restaurant), Grand Wailea Resort, Gray Line Tours Polynesian Adventures, Hawaii Aloha Chapter of CRS, Kaanapali Golf Courses, Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas Homeowners’ Association One Ohana PAC, Kapalua Golf, King Kamehameha Golf Club, MIRA Partners, Sansei Restaurant, Kapalua and the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua.
A big thank you also goes out to the numerous businesses across the island that provided prizes and welcome gifts for the participants.
The most impressive aspect of this entire event is the countless hours by volunteers to plan and promote the Aloha Team Classic throughout the year to bring visitors to Maui to participate. This is an amazing example of how individuals and businesses are working together to help Maui’s youth.
Debbi summed it up best when she said, “This is a community-wide effort to bring visitors to Maui to raise funds for some of Maui’s smaller nonprofit agencies that are truly ‘Helping Maui’s youth realize the promise of their future!’ Mahalo to all for a job well done.”
For more information about Beyond the Rainbow Foundation and the Aloha Team Classic, be sure to see the foundation’s website at www.Beyond-the-Rainbow.org or call (808) 665-5815. Planning for next year’s Aloha Team Classic has already begun. Join the effort by volunteering on the committee and/or being a supporter.
BEYOND THE RAINBOW FOUNDATION
——————
How can we win America’s peace?
The United States is in a standoff with Russia over Ukraine. The “war on terror” has been ongoing for 14 years. American political pressure is being brought to bear on any kind of a negotiated agreement with Iran. U.S. military involvement continues in Iraq and Afghanistan as tensions rise with other powers in the region. Yemen is dissolving into a state of civil war, and Syria has become a crucible of international conflict, record refugee flight and armed rebellion
“In view of these circumstances, there were some who urged that I end the war at once by ordering the immediate withdrawal of all American forces But I had a greater obligation than to think only of the years of my administration and of the next election. I had to think of the effect of my decision on the next generation and on the future of peace and freedom in America and in the world Let us all understand that the question before us is not whether some Americans are for peace and some Americans are against peace. The great question is: How can we win America’s peace? For the future of peace, precipitate withdrawal would thus be a disaster of immense magnitude It would not bring peace; it would bring more war.”
The casual reader may be forgiven for any confusion with respect to the source of this presidential speech. It could be Barack Obama or George Bush. For that matter, it sounds remarkably similar to what you might hear from John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina or most other recent contenders to the throne in the White House.
The noble quest for peace through ongoing war is eloquently described above by Richard Nixon in his address to the nation on Nov. 3, 1969. In the speech, he invokes Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson before him with respect to U.S. policy in Vietnam, harkening all the way back to Woodrow Wilson’s “war to end war” speech that marked America’s entry into the First World War. All either lies or delusions.
The prevailing political ideology now calls for the U.S. to use its military power to serve the geopolitical interests of the West’s financial and political elite. As in the times of the Nixon and Johnson administrations, the price of this policy is paid with the blood and labor of the common citizen at home and abroad.
Nixon got it wrong, of course. Instead of winning “America’s peace,” his policy brought only three more years of war in Vietnam and cost another 10,000-plus American lives. The eventual, precipitate withdrawal of U.S. forces that culminated with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1973, did not lead to a large-scale bloodbath or an expansion of the Soviet Union into Southeast Asia. Twenty years later, the U.S. would lift trade sanctions against Vietnam, which the U.S. Census Bureau now ranks 13th among trade partners for import commerce.
The concept of waging war to end war is a falsehood. War is the failure or outright dereliction of diplomacy over time. The answer may very well be that there is no war to end war; no war to bring peace. The rise of Hitler, Stalin and the Second World War was, in any deeper analysis, a consequence of WWI. The war in Iraq is a direct consequence of The Gulf War, which was partially the result of U.S. policy in the Iran-Iraq War. The current map of instability in the Middle East can be traced back to the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the Balfour Declaration in World War I. The war in Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban are repercussions from the Cold War, which was itself a result of WWII.
Forty-five years after Nixon’s disastrous decision to continue the war in Vietnam, the lesson should seem clear. A policy that favors warfare more than diplomacy will not bring peace, as Nixon and his like have long suggested. It will only bring more war.
ROBERT TED HINDS, PeaceVoice