Musings: Get a Grip

The morning rain is moving through as I write, a wonderful sound punctuated by melodic trills from a shama thrush and the constant cheeping of tiny chicks.

I’m going to be taking a little time off, not going anywhere in particular except away from my computer and desk, so postings for the next week or so will likely be sporadic, erratic and decidedly eclectic.

And on that note, I'd like to announce that today I'm conferring two awards.

The first is the “This kind of thinking has got to change” award, and it goes to Gov. Linda Lingle for putting the “Right to Dry Clothes” bill on her potential veto list.

Now this bill doesn’t require anyone to actually use a clothesline, a practice that is a total no-brainer in this land of abundant wind and sun. It simply allows for the use of clotheslines on any privately owned single-family residential dwelling or townhouse — including those communities where hoity-toity neighborhood association rules forbid it.

While I personally can’t imagine wanting to live in a place where they can control your life right down to the clothesline level, many people do. And with electric and propane bills going through the roof, it seems reasonable to give people the option of hanging out the laundry.

Wasn’t the guv just on Kauai last week talking about how Hawaii needs to wean itself off imported oil? Well, here’s an easy and painless way to start. You might even find that you prefer the fresh smell of your sun-dried clothes over that sickening — literally and figuratively — “nature scent” stuff you toss in the dryer.

And the “Hysteria is unbecoming to an elected official” award goes to our own Councilman Mel Rapozo for his quote in Tuesday’s Garden Island, in reference to allowing dogs on The Path:

"You are asking me to approve a bill that could cause a kid to jump off a cliff," Rapozo said.

Apparently Mel fears that a vicious dog on a 6-foot leash will lunge at a dog-phobic child precisely on that stretch of 10-foot-wide path where there is another 4-foot buffer from the path’s edge to the side of a rocky cliff, causing said child to jump over.

I suppose it’s possible. As is the scenario of a person getting run off the Path at that spot by a pack of speeding bicyclists or four stroller-pushing moms jogging abreast.

Meanwhile, as the county labors long over this most pressing issue, each day on Kauai I see children walking and riding bikes on roads that can’t be much wider than 30 feet that are shared not only with dogs — leashed and unleashed — bicycles and sometimes horses, but two lanes of cars, as well.

Let’s get a grip.