Do something to ease West Maui traffic

In response to letters from Dale Thompson and Angus McKelvey regarding the traffic issues we face daily on the West Side; first of all, putting traffic lights in at Launiupoko and at Highway 3000 guaranteed backups. Highway 30 is pretty much the same highway (with some widening) that I drove in 1981! The majority of tourists coming into Lahaina have no idea what the bypass is, as the signage is so small as to be unnoticeable. How about a large sign that announces “Incredibly Scenic Bypass?” Give the tourists a reason to avoid driving through Lahaina.

Highway 30 is our only road, and there does not seem to be any plan to alter/improve it to handle the out-of-control timeshare and residential development. Ten years ago, I could drive across the island (either way) and count 35 cars per mile. Now it is 60. How many more will the new Westin timeshares and the “affordable” houses across from Safeway add?

I know “progress” cannot be stopped, but in a couple of years, a trip to Costco will be an overnight stay-over! What can we do about it? Better do something soon…

FREDERICK LaCOUNT

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West Maui is lucky to have Dr. Leo Murakami

I am writing this letter of gratitude and appreciation for our West Side vet, Dr. Leo Murakami at Lahaina Veterinary Clinic.

He helped and assisted us during our 15 years with our dog, Peaches. She was our wonderful little Chihuahua that brought so much joy and happiness into our lives.

When God called her to heaven recently, Dr. Murakami went to extraordinary measures, making sure her passing was peaceful and gentle. We are forever grateful to him and will always appreciate the kindness he showed our family during this sad time.

He has a true heart of gold for the animals and their owners. We are lucky to have him here in Lahaina.

SANDY LUNDBORG, Napili

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Governmental overkill continues in Hawaii

Excessive bureaucracy, food limitations, ending human life considered good, and restricted areas around elite people with oppressive penalties were practiced. Hawaiian royalty abolished that kapu system.

Some Hawaiians revolted because the kapu system’s demise diminished their wealth, power and control. A decisive battle was fought. Christian missionaries arrived in the aftermath with good news of great joy. The majority of Hawaiians embraced the Gospel.

“The Life of the Land is perpetuated in Righteousness of Christ Jesus” influenced the new order.

Kingdom of Hawaii 1840 Constitution: “God must be our aid… Wherefore we first present our supplication to HIM, that he will guide us to right measures… It is therefore our fixed decree that no law shall be enacted which is at variance with the word of the Lord Jehovah, or at variance with the general spirit of His word. All laws of the Islands shall be in consistency with the general spirit of God’s law.”

Americans influenced Hawaiians’ enactment of erroneous land divisions and regulations inconsistent with God’s Levitical land laws. Negative consequences ensued.

Since the United States overthrow, it’s the same old song: governmental overkill. Laws regress to modern versions of the kapu system.

Walls, gates, surveillance increased. Food security decreased. Abortion is lawful. Euthanasia is pending legalization.

“Rescue me from the hand of foreigners whose mouths speak lying words… I will sing a new song to you, God… happy are those whose God is Jehovah.” (Psalm 144)

MICHELE LINCOLN, Lahaina

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The diet of Lent

March 1 marks the beginning of Lent, the 40-day period preceding Easter, when many Christians abstain from animal foods in remembrance of Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness before launching his ministry.

The call to refrain from eating animals is as old as the Bible. In Genesis 1:29, God commands humans to eat only plants; then Prophet Isaiah predicts that “none will hurt or destroy on God’s holy mountain.”

A number of Christian leaders have followed the call, including Methodist founder John Wesley, Salvation Army founders William and Catherine Booth, Seventh-day Adventist Church founder Ellen G. White and prominent evangelical leader Franklin Graham.

A meat-free diet is not just about Christian devotion. Dozens of medical studies have linked consumption of animal products with elevated risk of heart failure, stroke, cancer and other killer diseases. A United Nations report named meat production as the largest source of greenhouse

gases and water pollution. Undercover investigations have documented farm animals being caged, crowded, mutilated, beaten and shocked.

Lent offers a superb opportunity to honor Christ’s powerful message of compassion, but also to protect the health of our family and our planet Earth by adopting a meat-free diet.

LEX NAKAHARA, Lahaina

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State bill would make sex trafficking easier

House Bill 1533 makes PROSTITUTION and PIMPING LEGAL, introduced by Rep. Joe Souki. The bill also makes it legal for a police officer to engage in sex with a prostitute in the course of the investigation.

Everyone, especially parents and grandparents, need to know that there is no such thing as a “teenage prostitute,” because every teen is enslaved by a pimp/trafficker.

I was alarmed when learning of the process wherein a teen becomes enslaved; see www.PASSHawaii.org.

Though more victims than criminals, the enslaved prostitutes, when arrested, are separated from their pimps and can ask for legal help. Ending arrests would cut off their one hope for rescue from their pimp/captors.

HB 1533 guarantees a huge increase in the enslavement of teens and adults in this despicable world of forced prostitution.

Alarmingly, every attractive teen and young adult is a potential sexual slave! I am relieved my teenage grandchildren don’t live in Hawaii! Every big event (athletic, music or conference) in Hawaii attracts sex traffickers, who fly in enslaved prostitutes from all over the world.

Souki knows the issues of sex trafficking due to the diligent work of Dr. Kathy Xian.

Souki has dishonorably created a tremendous threat to our young people with HB 1533; see the movie “Taken.”

Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of Evil is that good men do nothing.”

SUSAN LUSSIER