Support a project that will save lives

This is a response to the letter “Use hospital funds for the new fire station” in the June 30 issue.

It seems we are seeing another reason why so many people are confused about “Truths and Misconceptions” in our community today. Much of this is due to a failure to communicate.

Su Campos’ letter suggests: “Before Joe Pluta starts soliciting funds for an Olowalu Fire Station, maybe he can use the funds that were collected for his non-existent hospital.”

First, the personalizing of this effort by the West Maui Improvement Foundation Inc. to one of the board members is placing personalities before principals. That is wholly inappropriate.

Second, the funds solicited by the WMIF were 100 percent used and were successful in obtaining necessary government approvals for a Certificate of Need and land use changes and zoning requirements. Finally, it’s been in the hands of the private developer (and his West Maui Hospital Foundation), who has had financing hurdles which it seems they are still attempting to overcome.

A simple phone call to the WMIF could have clarified this, and we regret that it did not occur.

To be clear, the West Maui Improvement Foundation is committed to improving the health and safety of the West Maui community. Our prior fundraising efforts for the Napili Fire and Ambulance Station over 20 years ago was unprecedented and wholly successful in saving lives and money in reducing fire insurance expenses by 50 percent for all the property owners there.

We are striving to do a “Hana Hou,” repeat at Olowalu. While we can all agree to disagree on many things, we should all be in support of public-private partnerships with our county government and our fire department that will save lives and money similarly. It’s time to put differences aside and join together on improving efforts for the health and safety of the West Maui community. See www.westmauiimprovementfoundation.org for more information.

JOSEPH D. PLUTA, WMIF President, Lahaina

Stop treating animals as commodities

When we think about our independence and freedom in the United States, I wonder how many people think of the freedom of farmed animals. There are currently 1.6 billion animals in our nation’s 25,000 factory farms who often never see the light of day.

Cows, chickens, pigs and more are subjected to unnecessary breeding, overfeeding, abuse and slaughter each and every day. The majority of these animals are raised in environments unfit for any beings, and there seems to be no end in sight.

But releasing animals from cages, crates and the psychological torment of BigAg and slaughterhouses can happen and is truly a step towards independence for all. When we stop treating animals as commodities, overall suffering in the world reduces, the Earth can heal, pandemic and antibiotic-resistance risks are reduced, and human health will improve.

Luckily, there are options. Browse any grocery store or food co-op and you’ll uncover a variety of delicious, and nutritious, plant-based burgers and more. Companies like Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Gardein and Field Roast are showing up at cookouts across the country and are proving there can be freedom for all.

LEX NAKAHARA, Lahaina

Water shortage or infrastructure failure?

I don’t think they should call it a water shortage. It’s a fact that the West Maui Mountains are one of the wettest spots on planet Earth. I’ll say it another way, so it sinks in. The West Maui Mountains are among the rainiest places in the entire world.

The so-called “water shortage” is really just an intelligent planning shortage and another infrastructure failure.

NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST

Document spells out tyranny

The historical following portion of our Declaration of Independence is the copy of how our country’s creators itemized all the ways the king was establishing “tyranny” against the states. The actual list they created is here, containing the first portion. It will always be a complete copy of our original.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

He has dissolved Representative House repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

BONNIE DeROSE, Lahaina

Good news/bad news about cryptocurrency

The good news is that Hawaii residents will be able to keep trading in cryptocurrency. The bad news is that Hawaii’s policymakers haven’t given up the dream of regulating it into oblivion.

For years, Hawaii residents who wanted to buy or sell cryptocurrency were stymied by the state’s Money Transmitters Act, which demands that digital currency companies hold cash assets equal to their digital assets. For example, under this “double reserve” rule, a company with $1 billion in Bitcoin and Etherium must also have $1 billion in cash reserves.

This double-reserve requirement makes Hawaii one of the most unfriendly states for cryptocurrency, and in 2017 — the same year that the value of Bitcoin climbed from $1,000 to $19,783 — exchanges such as Coinbase, Binance and Bitstamp simply stopped doing business here.

Ironically, during that same year, both the Hawaii Senate and House approved an exemption for cryptocurrency from the Money Transmitters Act, but that exemption was removed in conference committee and never passed. As a result, Hawaii residents were forced to watch rather than participate in the worldwide digital currency boom for the next couple of years.

Finally, in 2019, Gov. David Ige authorized the “Digital Currency Innovation Lab,” a temporary regulatory “sandbox” that allowed certain companies to do business in Hawaii without being subject to the double-reserve requirement.

Since the lab’s inception, 134,000 Hawaii customers have been able to complete more than $800 million in transactions involving cryptocurrency.

With the lab set to end this year, Hawaii policymakers during the latest legislative session faced a dilemma: if cryptocurrency is going to survive in Hawaii, it needs to be exempted from the double-reserve requirement. That small change in the law is all that is required.

But rather than passing a simple bill exempting digital currency from the double-reserve requirement, as contemplated in 2017, the Legislature instead considered a massive 90-page licensing bill that set out an exhaustive program of regulation, licensure and oversight for cryptocurrency.

Eventually, the licensing bill collapsed under its own weight, leaving policymakers scrambling for a solution that would not result in an abrupt end to cryptocurrency in Hawaii.

They ended up approving a resolution asking the state to administratively extend the Digital Currency Innovation Lab project for two years, and a bill to create a task force that will study the issue.

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts can breathe a sigh of relief: the state Division of Financial Affairs and Hawaii Technology and Development Corp. extended the sandbox until June 30, 2024, so — for now — cryptocurrency in Hawaii lives.

If our lawmakers continue to embrace heavy regulation and licensing schemes, this might be a short respite before cryptocurrency is killed off permanently in Hawaii.

Under the byzantine licensing scheme considered earlier this year, Hawaii would have gone from the worst state in the nation for cryptocurrency to … the worst state in the nation for cryptocurrency, though perhaps slightly better than before. If only lawmakers would realize that the answer is right in front of them. The sandbox is light-touch regulation in action. All that it does is remove the double-reserve requirement for cryptocurrency.

If the sandbox works — and judging from the pleas for an extension, it clearly does — then why not learn from its example? There is no need to create a burdensome regulatory scheme when we have proof that a simple, common sense approach is better and more effective.

The clock has been reset for cryptocurrency in Hawaii. Hopefully, policymakers will spend that time wisely and learn the value of light regulation.

That way, we could make Hawaii one of the best states for cryptocurrency, rather than one of the worst.

DR. KELI’I AKINA, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii