Violet Yates's Blog, page 15
March 14, 2014
What is going on in Hawaii?
I was born and raised on the Big Island and it has always been pretty safe to live here, or so I thought. In the late 90′s I left and moved to upstate NY and back then, Kona was still laid-back and pretty quiet. Upstate NY was too. I was gone for 11 years when I came back to Kona in 2010, it had changed.The population had expanded and so had businesses. There were a lot more stores and a lot of other commercial enterprises. That is pretty typical with a population increase. What I hadn’t considered was the crime rate.
Maybe I just never noticed when I was younger, but it seems the crime rate has increased a great deal since then. Another thing that has gone up a lot is the Missing Persons rate. The factor that both of these have in common seem to be the solve ratio: a lot of the missing persons cases aren’t being solved, and the various crimes being committed don’t always seem to be getting taken care of either for whatever reason. At least that has been what I understand from what I’ve read in the newspaper. There’s a shortage of police officers, I hear. There is a need for another station in South Kona. A year ago there was an article in West Hawaii today about how the police officers’ role was no longer proactive but they are there to deal with the after-math only.
It appears sex crimes have gone up as well. I looked up the registered sex offenders within a 3 mile radius of where I live, and 28 (!) men came up, one whom I used to work with back in the 90′s. I had my own personal reasons for doing so, but this did not give me any sort of peace of mind. When you look these men up, you can view what their sentencing was, whether they did jail time, probation, if they pled guilty, no contest, etc. Most of these guys plea-bargained with the DA in order to get a lesser sentence or only probation. Is this the sort of message Hawaii is sending to possible offenders? Commit a sex crime and get off with probation? There was a man on the news just the other day, he was on probation after having been charged with 7 counts as a sex offender! He was allowed to violate his probation multiple times, have contact with a minor and fail to contact his probation officer before they hauled him into court, then they only sentenced him to jail for 10 years. That is not what I call justice. Someone, or multiple someones, are suffering because of the choices that man made. Please go to our State Legislature’s Website here and ask for tougher sentences for sex offenders. This would mean a lot to me as I am a survivor.
Regarding the many missing persons here. The Big Island is small and rural compared to many places on the mainland. You can drive around it in a day if you’re ambitious. There are many small towns and two larger towns (Hilo and Kona). The bad news is there’s a lot of places where people who don’t want to be found can hide, and there are a lot of places where people can ‘hide’ people. The most rural areas are Kau, North & South Kohala, Pololuu Valley, Waimanu Valley, Waipio Valley, Puna & Volcano. In South Kona there are areas where a person can drop off the map, like below Kealakekua, Hookena, Kealia, Milolii… In the Kau District there’s Ocean View, there are a lot of places in Ocean View that are miles off the road that I would never venture onto. There’s drugs, violence, you hear of criminals hiding out… So basically, if someone is missing and they were taken or they were hiding for some reason, those would be the places to look, depending on where they disappeared from. And there have been a lot of people going missing, a lot without a trace or barely a trace, particularly in the last ten years. A friend of mine from High School went missing in 2011. There are some others from Kona, but there are a lot from Hilo side. A lot of those are from Puna. Someone remarked that a lot of the people who are missing are white, and yes for some reason that is true. Most are also women. That factor scares us women in Hawaii and we want answers that haven’t been forthcoming from the police or government. There’s also no ‘official’ missing persons website for our State or our island. Please click here to write Mayor Billy Kenoi to change that. With regards to our State, well, I’ve written to Gov. Abercrombie, but have received no response and that is typical for him.
Another issue I want to briefly touch upon: human trafficking. It is real and it happens on our islands, particularly on Maui and the Big Island. In 2010, the NY Times wrote an article shaming our State on its poor response to human trafficking; we had received an F on how we dealt with it. Farm owners bring foreign workers into the State with the promise of citizenship and freedom and it is all a lie, instead they endure forced labor and threats, even beatings, and they often can’t get away because the ‘owner’ has their documentation and money. The other kind of human trafficking is sex trafficking. These are young men out there looking for young girls, teenagers usually. They target them in places like malls. They act like they are these girls’ boyfriends, get to know everything about them, get the girls to trust them, then they bring the girls in to their boss. Once there, the girls are threatened, told their families will be harmed if they don’t cooperated, their identification held, their training started. Please tell your teenagers to be very wary of this scheme, it is real and out there. Sexual predators aren’t just hiding in the bushes.
Signs of Human Trafficking in Hawaii
Governor Abercrombie Signs Human Trafficking Laws
Understanding Human Trafficking in the Hawaiian Islands
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog.
My friend who is missing is Naomi Monica Shalom Sanders, maiden name Naomi Beshore.
You can click here for her vital statistics.
I want to mention that I have been following the missing women in Maui as well.
What’s going on there is very scary. I want to help find Charli & her baby Joshua, if you know anything, please click here to help.
If you can help bring Moreira Monsalve home to her Maui Ohana, click here.
Filed under: Crime, Hawaii, Missing Persons Tagged: big island, charli scott, come home, crime, disappearance, domestic violence, hawaii, help, high school, hookena, human trafficking, joshua aiden scott, justice, Kailua Kona, kona, law, laws, maui, milolii, missing, missing persons, moreira monsalve, naomi beshore, naomi monica shalom sanders, north kohala, ocean view, offender, police department, pololuu, prison, probation, puna, sex offender, south kohala, south kona, waipio
March 13, 2014
Why
Every day I wish that I could cry
Staring at a lapis lazuli sky
Sometimes I wish he could see
What exactly he did to me
Turned me inside out
But the tears are all gone, now there’s a drought
If I hit the switch
Who will thread the needle and stitch?
Angry orange sphere blazing down into the atmosphere
Why must you disappear? Why must you disappear?
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: justice, poetry, recovery, self-defense, sexual assault, standing up, trauma, women
February 17, 2014
Excerpts from my poetry book, Lost & Found
From my published book, Lost & Found.
See You (2003)
You…
I thought it impossible,
Not being able…
To see…
You…
I broke down.
I realized,
I care.
You mean the world.
And when you called,
I danced…
Echoes (2004)
Your laughter echoes, in the back of my mind, like a dream,
Like a cascading waterfall, tumbling down, tickling my memory.
An ECHO.
It’s just a memory.
It stagnates inside,
Stifles me.
This Pain (2004)
This pain…
Too excruciating.
This pain…
I told myself:
Never let yourself feel again.
So why did I?
Wanted to feel the love without the pain…
Torture,
Exquisite though it may be.
Still too awful to be perceived by anyone but me.
Reality.
Filed under: autobiographical, Poetry, Writing Tagged: addiction, alcoholism, depression, divorce, marriage, poetry, relationships, sadness, women
February 5, 2014
If You Hadn’t Left Me
You used to say, Remind Me
If you hadn’t left me,
You wouldn’t live in such Misery.
Yes, perhaps you are right,
between the red, black & blue,
there would have been moments bright.
He used to say,
When he leaves you,
I’ll do you a favor,
take you back.
Thank you for your ‘generosity.’
Maybe I should be trusted.
Perhaps I can make my own decisions.
Put your guns…
Away.
I don’t want to play…
Anymore.
Filed under: Poetry, Writing Tagged: abuse, beauty in poetry, independence, love, men, relationships, sadness, women
January 29, 2014
Marijuana IS Harmful
Sorry to veer off topic from what I usually post. I wanted to write this in response to all the attention marijuana is getting in the media lately due to the legalization of sales in Colorado and Washington as well as President Obama’s statement that it is not seriously harmful. I disagree. I have personally witnessed and had experiences within my own life to believe differently. I began smoking marijuana at age 13 and was quite the ‘pothead’ until age 17. It was the first drug I ever tried and led to my being exposed to kids who did other drugs and alcohol. While I never did get into other drugs really extensively, I became an alcoholic later in life. I had always been a high achiever in school but soon that changed as well. I would fall asleep in class and fall asleep while doing my homework. My comprehension of assignments was altered. I began missing my bus in the mornings and getting to school late. The crowd I hung with changed, I started to skip school and get high all day within a couple years of smoking pot. I realized too late what was happening with school and tried to go back into the swing of things but I just couldn’t do it. I stopped eating regularly because I was running away from home all the time to be with my boyfriend, and I would pass out while high. My doctors thought I was having seizures but later I found out I had a blood sugar problem. All the while, we were going to parties and binge drinking on the weekends. When I was still only 14, I drank so much liquor (while high) I had alcohol poisoning and could have died, but fortunately my mom took me to the hospital. I was sick for two weeks and couldn’t eat a thing.
At age 17, due to my fainting spells which we all thought were seizures I quit smoking pot. I still smoked cigarettes and drank, on occasion, but I was much more clear-headed for years until my drinking took over my life many years later. I now have 5 years sober and much more clarity.
I met a man who ran one of the NA meetings I used to attend when I first got sober. He was a marijuana addict who had gotten busted and it ruined his life. It had taken over his life- pot was everything to him and when he’d hit bottom he’d lost everything. People who go to NA go there for every kind of drug, including pot.
Pot affects people who are mentally ill with negative consequences. I am talking about those who suffer from schizophrenia and schizo-effective disorder, to name a couple. They get addicted to it, self-medicate with it and when they do not have it or cannot get it, they can get very violent and or depressed. I have experienced this first hand and also know of others who have. To self-medicate doesn’t sound very bad until you consider the fact that doing so has negative consequences, such as the mentally ill person having a fit and beating someone up, then having to answer for it in a court of law and being put in jail or a mental hospital, or put on probation, where they then have to be medication compliant or they’ll land in prison or jail.
Marijuana is also very dangerous when someone smokes and drives. I never got behind the wheel. I know others who didn’t think twice and didn’t consider it dangerous at all. Any mind altering drug should be considered dangerous.
The very act of smoking this drug is bad for health. People get all worked up about people who smoke cigarettes, well, get worked up about marijuana because if smoked it can cause bad health too- ask any pulmonologist and they will tell you it is bad for your lungs. It may not have additives like cigarettes, but anything that is burned and inhaled is not good for you.
If made legal, this drug should be classified as a schedule 2 controlled substance. Personally, I would never take it for pain; I would focus more on the pain instead of less. I don’t like any substance that makes me ‘high.’ I argue with my pain management doctor about putting me on things that are controlled. But for people who are cancer patients who are undergoing chemo and the like, I could see a use for it. I think in Hawaii it is over-prescribed, but that is my personal opinion and may not be true.
Do I ever miss it? Sure. Would I ever use it again? I doubt it.
I believe that it should be approached with extreme caution and no one should ever forget that first and foremost, natural or not, this is a drug. It can and will be abused by many. The addiction gene is out there among us and being an addict is not about choice necessarily but about whether or not that gene is triggered. All it takes is for the right person to pick up a drug and become addicted. President Obama was irresponsible in saying this drug isn’t harmful because it can become much more than a bad habit. Just because it never became more than a ‘habit’ for him doesn’t mean it won’t for others. That is not to say that others will not be responsible and reasonable, but we have to look at risk management. I do not want my daughter, who is 13, to think that marijuana is ‘ok’ because Obama said it wasn’t harmful and because two of our states have legalized it. We can joke about this issue and poke fun about the Super “Bowl” all we want, but would you want your child to become a drug addict? I’ve been there. So has my son. No, definitely not FUN.
Filed under: autobiographical, legalization of marijuana, Writing Tagged: addiction, alcohol abuse, controlled substance, drop out, drug abuse, high school, homework, illegal drugs, laws, legality, legalization of marijuana, marijuana anonymous, maturity, mental health, Narcotics Anonymous, pain medication, pot, President Obama, responsibility, schedule 2 controlled substance, schizoeffective disorder, schizophrenia, teenagers, Violet Yates, weed
January 23, 2014
Jesus the Promise
The Father said to Son
It is time, we must take action
For if we wait, more will be lost.
I am aggrieved, too high will be the cost.
So it was that Jesus, Light of the World,
Born of a virgin, his story unfurled.
Yeshua HaMashiach.
Through teachings and healings people were in awe,
yet there were others who didn’t like it, Jesus foresaw.
The most important things Jesus taught about was LOVE.
And what waited for us in Heaven up above.
He also told people about mercy, kindness and sharing.
Performed miracles and people learned about caring.
When Jesus was ready, he let the authorities take him,
His disciples wept, feeling grim.
It was for the sin of the world Jesus must die.
That whomever believed in Him, payment of sin did not apply.
In Judea, Jesus was crucified,
But three days later, rose again, disciples mystified.
He gave us all the Holy Spirit and a Mission.
Go into all the earth and spread my word.
And a promise: I will come again soon.
Filed under: Poetry, Writing Tagged: belief, Holy Spirit, Jesus birth, Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, Judea, love, the Bible, true story
January 10, 2014
Catherine & Henry
Oh Catherine, Duty commands, to England
Ye shall be a Queen
In this foreign land
Marry, she did, Arthur, a prince
A sad story, this
For he soon died, her a widow, unfortunate consequence.
Stranger in a foreign land
Young Henry looked upon her
Glorious! New King & Queen crowned
They had everything
Love, youth, with the Church they were bound.
Grief soon laid them low
They still had Mary though.
Over 20 years had gone by, yet England had no prince.
Catherine ignored the women, the talk
Henry’s heart had changed since.
The Lady Anne had come into his eyes
Separate from Rome!
I care not if my soul dies!
In isolation and poverty
Catherine separated from her love,
Writes ‘mine eyes long for thee,’
To the Church and for her daughter she was true
Heartbroken she died without Henry
For his love he did discontinue.
Filed under: Poetry, Uncategorized, Writing Tagged: anne boleyn, anullment, blog, blogging, catherine of aragon, Catholic Church, childbirth, daughter, divorce, england, fidelity, henry viii, history, infidelity, love, marriage, poetry, reformation, Rome, stillbirth
January 9, 2014
Isolation
What I wouldn’t give for a smile
An open door, a gentle touch
Some pretty flowers, stay awhile
The coldness, isolation
Gravity of situation
Distant stars, no sound
Cold trees, no wind
Walls closing in all around
Unconditional love is lacking
Sanity begins slacking
Phone rings, neighbors stare
No conversation, so unfair
Dark rushes in
So the wait begins…
Filed under: Poetry, Writing Tagged: anxiety, beauty in poetry, bipolar disorder, expression, gentle touch, illness, isolation, madness, pretty flowers, sanity, solitude, therapeutic, wariness
Dreams
Oh I’m just sick of it, I just can’t stand another,
If you come to me in my dreams once more I feel I’ll smother.
With your loving smile, sweet blue eyes,
Deceptive guile and little lies.
I wake with longing or with dread,
How long my heart has bled.
Ten years I have spent alone,
to the wolves I have been thrown.
The ache, the sadness, never feeling complete,
Neglected, cast out, I have been beat.
My heart longs for what it never truly possessed,
When I pondered on my future this I never would have guessed.
I am unable to love anyone else in this manner, a defect.
Why this is so, why can’t I connect?
I feel this will be my life evermore,
Isolated, alone, dreaming of before.
Filed under: Poetry, Writing Tagged: alone, divorce, isolation, loneliness, loss, lost, love, marriage, regret, relationships, sadness
The Crack in My Heart
Ever Since I heard those words
You were Gone,
there has been a crack in my heart.
We were, too long
too far,
Apart.
Since we were children,
I held your hand,
you were my best friend.
Sharing secrets, clothes,
playing games,
through the fields we wend.
As teens we went different ways…
It often happens,
Yet still love stays.
Ma soeur, la jumelle, la famille,
(My sister, my twin, my family)
Precious is your memory,
Je vous remercie de nous avoir donné le don de vos filles!
* For my sister, Joni, who passed away in August, 2012 at the age of 41. She is greatly missed.
Filed under: Poetry, Uncategorized, Writing Tagged: death, family, grieving, hawaii, life, loss, love, poetry, sisters, writing
