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This Weeks Letters
SHIVER ME TIMBERS
August 18, 2005
Several of our members brought to my attention that Lahaina Yacht Club was described by [Samantha Campos] and [her] friend as a "members-only, dive-bar-on-the-sea" (Holoholo Girl, Aug. 4, 2005). Not only our staff but our members are offended by your description of our yacht club and find your column appalling.
Over the past 40 years the Lahaina Yacht Club has been involved in many charitable events and raised thousands and thousands of dollars for the community: re: Golf Tournament/Auction, Chili Cook Off, Lahainaluna Scholarship Fund, and other community events such as Junior Sailing program, Vic-Maui International Yacht Race, and Spring, Jackpot and Keiki Fishing Tournaments.
As an invited guest your comments regarding our club were inappropriate.
-Eve Jordan, Lahaina Yacht Club General Manager
The Editor responds:
We're very sorry you found our story "appalling," but the comment you're referring to belonged solely to Samantha Campos. That being said, her use of the term "dive bar" to describe the Lahaina Yacht Club was entirely complimentary—dive bars are interesting, colorful and comfortable places that we enjoy. We meant nothing derogatory, and are very sorry that you felt offended.
COLD ANALYSIS
Your story "Akaka's Eskimos" (Aug. 4, 2005) was very well researched showing how big oil has, thru the alliance of Hawai'i's senators [Daniel] Akaka and [Daniel] Inouye with Alaskan senators [Ted] Stevens and [Lisa] Murkowski, set their sights on the Arctic Ocean offshore oil leases and oil drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. All at the cost and loss of America'sEmost precious resource—the wilderness—and the last entirely intact ecosystem left in the American Arctic.
A lot has happened since 1995 when Akaka went to Kaktovik [yet] he justifies voting for drilling from that visit 10 years ago. Recently things are really speeding along: for example, all the offshore areas are being leased to big oil companies (freaking out ocean dependent Inupiat subsistence hunters). Other wildlife sanctuaries have been leased to oil drilling like the huge breeding ground for waterfowl and Caribou, Teshupuk Lake, in the National Petroleum Preserve. And the Coastal Zone Management Plan has been abandoned by state agencies (therefore no enforcement of policy and standards for resource extraction).
Most important, considering each Kaktovik resident would become a millionaire with the passage of oil drilling for area 1002, those 59 Kaktovik residents brave enough to sign a petition [against the drilling] are saying "we will not trade our natural wilderness, our pristine ecosystem, our subsistence and traditional way of life for any amount of money." I wonder if we could say the same if we thought about it long enough.E
-Lance Holter, Paia