Postal workers do it all and with holiday cheer

I wanted to thank the men and women working at the Kaneohe Post Office. I have been there several times during this holiday season and each time I am amazed at the efficiency with which they work. They all have smiles on their faces and are willing to help in whatever way possible. A special thanks should be given to Renee, who works the kiosk and makes trips to the post office quicker and easier than I ever thought possible!

During this holiday season I think it is important to thank those who allow us to make the holidays special for our loved ones who are far away!

Madoff has a place in government

I have the perfect job for alleged Wall Street defrauder Bernard Madoff. Appoint him head of the Social Security Administration. After all, Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.

Pflueger unfairly made to be a villain

I have known Jimmy Pflueger for almost 50 years and I have always held him in high respect. Unfortunately, during the past few years, he has become a convenient target by government agencies that want to avert the blame over water quality issues and a tragic loss of life caused by the breech of Ka Loko Dam on Kauai. The dam issue is still under investigation and I do not wish to comment on that. However, I am familiar with earlier claims by the state and the County of Kauai that Pflueger was responsible for killing a large section of the coral reef below his property at Pilaa, Kauai.

In 2001 and 2002, heavy rains on Kauai produced sediment run-off that did affect the shallow back reef habitat inside the barrier reef off Jimmy's property at Pilaa. The state and county claimed that these run-off events were responsible for killing all of the dead coral off Pilaa. In truth, sediment run-off events at Pilaa have been taking place for many, many decades going back to the 1800s, when Pflueger's property was owned and cultivated in sugar cane by Kilauea Sugar Company. However, because Pflueger had bulldozed a roadway on his property in 2001 without a permit and some of the loose sediment from this activity was carried into the ocean during the heavy rains, he was scapegoated for killing all of the corals and fined accordingly. Since that time, Jimmy has been demonized as an environmental villain.

The truth is that his property at Pilaa is one of the most environmentally beautiful and well-managed properties in the state. For this reason, it is often used as background landscape for Hollywood films. But there is much more to my 50 years of knowing Pflueger. The many friends and families that he has generously helped financially over the years are too many to list. He also is an icon in the history of surfing and other water and land sports in Hawaii.

Pflueger should be proud of his life achievements and I am saddened that recent events and media distortions forget and distort his lifetime of productive achievements that have been so beneficial to Hawaii. To me, Jimmy Pflueger has a heart of gold and I know how sad he must feel about the Ka Loko Dam tragedy. I'm confident the truth of what happened will vindicate his good name.

Gift to youngsters keeps on giving

In October, my third-grade granddaughter came home from school saying excitedly, “;Mom! Guess what? My classmates and I each got a neat dictionary today!”; (from the Rotary Club of Kahala Sunrise).

Upon further inquiry, I discovered that the Rotary district chairwoman, Gloria King, learned about this project from the mainland and started it here in Hawaii in 2005. I understand from Gloria that the dictionary project was so satisfying and successful during the first year that Rotarians wanted to continue the project every year since.

The first year, Rotarians gave more than 15,000 dictionaries to all third-grade students in public schools on all the Hawaiian Islands. In the following years, the project was enlarged to give dictionaries to all public, private, charter and home schools on all the islands, amounting to more than 18,000 dictionaries yearly.

What a tremendous and satisfying undertaking this was, as the Rotarians presented dictionaries to each third-grader. During the presentation, Rotarians asked each student to write their name in their dictionary and explained how to use the dictionary.

What an incredible gift to give to youngsters to help them with their basic foundation for knowledge, language, science and math skills.

My granddaughter Jade and our entire family would like to thanks Rotarians throughout the state for their generous and outstanding gift.

Mayor beats Lingle in economic efforts

As horrible situations in both the local and national economy unfolded, what did Gov. Linda Lingle do? Nothing, nothing, oppose rail, agree with John McCain that the fundamentals of the economy are strong, do nothing, refuse to meet with the president-elect on helping states with economic recovery, do nothing and then hold a press conference to announce she's releasing money for projects she should have released months ago. Mayor Mufi Hannemann saved the Navy shipyard, organized job fairs, helped plan a fundraiser for Aloha Airlines employees, got the rail project passed and met with Barack Obama's team to lobby for federal money for counties.

And to think that economic development is supposed to be the purview of the state. Someone better tell the governor that!