Superferry protest brings back
memories of another Maui protest
Although I’m more than 6,000 miles away, the story of the protest and
court injunction against the so-called Superferry brought me chills.
It was almost 35 years ago that I stood in the parking lot in Kihei’s
Kalama Park with about 50 others demonstrating against another
interisland ferry debacle being perpetrated by Sen. Hulton of Honolulu.
Back then, Life of the Land was the organization that was forefront in
the not-so-quiet environmental movement.
We gathered 50 cars to traverse from Kalama Park to Baldwin Park,
effectively tying up traffic for quite a while and stirring things up –
good and bad among the people of Maui.
The arguments were the same, the island of Maui isn’t. So much has
changed that the impact would be different today than if it had
happened in the early ’70s. But what wouldn’t change is the loss of the
uniqueness of Maui and Kauai and anywhere else the ferry disgorged its
bellyful of people eager to get their own wheels on the ground.
Back then there’s no way something could have gotten past the populace
without an environmental impact statement. But today? Auwe.
I am proud of those whose are fighting the good, but uphill fight. Maui
still is not Oahu; don’t let it become one. My brother, Steven, would
have been proud of what you folks are doing. Keep it up.
Jonathan Moser
New York, N.Y.
http://www.mauinews.com/letters/2007/9/4/18prote0904.html