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Floating lanterns are closely monitored
The sight of all those lights bobbing gently on the waves at the Memorial Day Lantern Floating Hawaii event is pretty overwhelming, but some in the crowd have at least one pesky question: What happens to all those lanterns? Do they sink to the bottom of the deep blue sea?
Not if the volunteer paddlers and surfers can help it, said Charlene Flanter, the event’s communications manager. Shortly after the ceremony ends, the crew hits the water and strives to retrieve every last one, she said. The messages contained on the little boats are taken off and saved for a traditional Buddhist ceremony to follow. As for the lanterns, they’re returned to Shinnyo-en Hawaii temple, where other volunteers prepare them for next year, over the next several weekends.
So not only is the Lantern Floating not a polluter, it’s a recycler.
Hoarding is fine until it becomes dangerous
Many of us have seen that television show about "hoarders" — people who can’t seem to help themselves accumulate stuff upon more stuff, until they barely have room to move around in their own homes.
Hawaii has a few of those. Anyone driving around in just about any neighborhood likely will see at least one garage stuffed to the gills with junk of all sorts (and the car parked outside), and a glance to the home’s windows might suggest the rest of the home is similarly packed.
Of course, privacy is paramount, but when hoarding could result in a fire or an explosion, or when rats or other pests might be multiplying amid the junk and spreading throughout the neighborhood, then public officials probably ought to act — as they have been, apparently, in more than 85 communities across the mainland. After all, if billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto can get dunned $5,000 a day for run-down homes and messy yards, perhaps obvious hoarders ought to get some attention as well.