Musings: Smoldering

The sky was a bed of smoldering coals blanketed in a thin layer of gray ash and the mountains were blushing rose when the dogs and I went out walking on this hot, humid morning.

It's quieter than normal — oh yes, it's Admission/Submission Day. For the state, it's a holiday. For Hawaiian Nationals, a day of mourning.

I was driving last evening, and stopped to let a mama hen and her chicks cross the street, prompting an impatient motorist behind me to toot his horn. It made me think of a study I read, where a scientist placed realistic-looking stuffed animals alongside a road to see how motorists reacted. While most swerved to miss, 6 percent swerved to hit. I imagine the percentage would be higher with chickens on Kauai.

As all this was going on, I was listening to the tail end of Jimmy Trujillo's show on KKCR yesterday afternoon, which he wrapped up by playing one of the Superferry songs. Yup, it was right around this time five years ago when the Superferry battle started heating up. And here we are today, with a 160-foot super-yacht raising hackles in Hanalei Bay and Linda “cross the security zone and we'll take your kids away” Lingle running for Senate. I noticed that a woman on Facebook is recycling her old “Lingle Sucks” tee-shirt for the campaign.

Wonder how it would be if the big boat had kept running, dumping out all those cars to snake through the endless road construction at Puhi, Hanamaulu, Wailua and Hanalei before converging, as all tourists eventually do, on poor little Ke`e.

Amazing, how the cops made those North Shore burglary arrests just in time for the Princeville “public safety” meeting, which drew the biggest crowd yet. Actually, the arrests were made last week and last month, but they weren't announced until the night before the meeting. Wonder what they've got saved up for the Kapaa meeting, seeing as how a date has not yet been set. An arrest in the Amber Jackson murder?

Even Police Chief Darryl Perry attended the Princeville meeting. Perhaps KPD is running low on overtime to pay officers and assistant chiefs to travel the campaign trail. And Councilman KipuKai Kualii was there, too — the “progressive candidate” who has curiously hitched his wagon to the law-and-order train.

I did have to giggle at Police Commissioner Charlie Iona — whose wife, Stephanie, was Kauai  co-chair for failed Congressional candidate Mufi Hannemann — claiming the commission “depoliticizes” the police department. Oh, no, ain't nothing political about the commission or KPD. 

In case you hadn't heard, the military's crash-prone Osprey helicopters — and their entourage of some 1,000 Marines — are coming to Hawaii. But Kaneohe isn't the only place that will get to enjoy the ear-splitting, peace-shattering noise. They plan to fly them over here at PMRF, too, using Kaula as a live-fire target. Gee, I hadn't realized the poor nesting seabirds there had declared war on the U.S. — not that that's a prerequisite for American aggression. Just ask Julian Assange and Ecuador.

And what's up with all the low-flying helicopters lately? I've been noticing a couple in Kapahi the past couple of days, and others are complaining about them hovering in Lawai and elsewhere. Quite often people ask, where do I complain? The question really should be, why are complaints never addressed?

I haven't heard what happened with the mayor's meeting in Kekaha last night, but a friend felt like westsiders kind of missed the point by complaining just about the transport of toxic soil. After all, the soil that's being shipped over there was contaminated by plantation pesticide use — the same thing that's currently happening on the westside with the seed companies, the modern day version of the plantation.

Just think. All those toxic goodies smoldering in the soil, the water, the reefs, waiting to burn future generations.