Usual suspects against telescope

Dear Editor,

I’m frankly not surprised and equally frustrated that the usual suspects are going to be pulling all stops to block the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope for Mauna Kea.

They’ve falsely stated that some of the current telescopes are defunct and that the military has connections to the telescopes on Mauna Kea. What is even more frustrating is the fact these activists are taking shortsighted view of Hawai`i’s future.

Do these activists want Hawaii to continue to dangerously rely on unsustainable and cyclical industries such as tourism, construction, and real estate which have had a far more damaging environmental impact on Hawai`i than the telescopes on Mauna Kea? Despite the latter fact, it seems like they want to keep the status quo in place. Especially since they’ve never brought forward any alternatives to diversify Hawaii’s economy--instead they evangelize the politics of no.

Hawai`i County and the State of Hawai`i need to strongly support diversifying our economy away from being so dependent on tourism, construction, military and real estate. The expansion of the telescopes on Mauna Kea is an excellent way to do the latter. It has brought good high paying jobs and creates a high technology base here. Thus the TMT proposal has my firm support.

Aaron Stene

Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i

Stop Bill 324

Dear Editor,

My wife and I started a petition against the Impact Fee Bill 324. By August 26 we have gotten over one hundred signatures in three days. Senator Lorraine Inouye was the first to sign. Then we went to a mayoral forum at Ocean View and got Billy Kenoi, Sam Masilamoney, and Jasper Moore’s signatures. Angel Pilago told everyone how good the bill was and the others told us how bad it is. Senator Inouye’s representative said she would veto the bill if she was to become Mayor.

There were 55 people at the debate; we got fifty signatures on the petition. My wife got 55 more today. We need to get more people involved in this issue, to get this bill killed.

The public needs to get informed on this, every one we talk to has not even heard of this bill, that can effect so many of us and our children who need to build a home, get one permitted, or even add an `ohana house.

Thanks,

Don Schenkeir

Ocean View, Hawai`i

Fascist Takamine?

Dear Editor,

I received an ugly orange mailer today from Dwight Takamine. The slogan he uses is: “One island – One people – One family.”

Given the threats, intimidation, and vandalism by Takamine’s ILWU supporters, all I can think of is: “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuehrer.” Everybody knows the ILWU was founded by Communists, but it appears they have switched sides if not tactics.

Sincerely,

Joe Rodrigues, Hilo, Hawai`i

Tooo Stooopid to reelect Council

Dear Editor:

I’m just tooo stoopid to know what’s best for me and my family. The County Council always knows what’s best for me. When am I going to learn? It’s for my own good, even though I didn’t know it. Once again, it is my foolish childish view that I would know the right thing to do for me and my family, but they once again are going to make me do the right thing for my own good.

I’m just tooo stoopid to know for myself.

You see, I thought it was a good thing for me to put my sticky lychees and mangoes and papayas and guavas in plastic bags when I go Farmer’s Market. When I shop Costco and make that long drive back to Hilo, I thought it was a good thing to put plastic bags around my ice cream and frozen stuffs, and those delicious roasted chickens with their leaking oily juices. I thought it was a bad thing to have to clean up all that goo from my car and my clothes and the kids clothes and my house. And I thought it was a good thing to pay less for my groceries instead of more. Thank goodness once again the County Council is setting me straight on that, making me do the right thing. I hope they make me do the right thing soon on something else, before I really screw up again

I hope I’m not too stupid to vote for them again also.

Aloha

Keoni Yamada

Hilo, Hawai`i

Kaua`i water victory

Dear Editor,

Good news from Kaua`i regarding the Kaua`i Springs case first mentioned in the pages of Hawai`i Free Press. On August 20, 2008, the circuit court granted a permanent injunction, and ordered that Kaua`i Springs’s applications for three zoning permits should not have been denied by the Kaua`i Planning Commission in January 2007. The court ordered the permits to be issued. More details can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/55lpk2.

Without Hawai`i Free Press’ reporting, the public may never have been made aware of the Planning Commission’s actions and Kaua`i Springs’ situation.

Jim Satterfield

Kaua`i Springs

Marine Acquitted --- Injustice Remains

Dear Editor,

A Riverside, California civilian federal court jury on August 28 acquitted former Marine Jose Luis Nazario Jr. He was found not guilty of manslaughter of Iraqi detainees during a fierce house-to-house battle in Fallujah, Iraq on Nov. 9th 2004. The civilian charges were made long after the Marine Corps had chosen not to Court Marshall Nazario.

Civilian Prosecutors had urged the jury to convict Nazario, but the Jury disagreed, finding no credible evidence of wrongdoing. Nazario was the first veteran prosecuted under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, that allows civil prosecution of military contractors as well as military dependents and veterans for alleged acts outside the United States. After the acquittal Nazario said, “It’s been a long, hard year for my family”.

Nazario’s long hard year comes after a long hard deployment serving his country in Iraq. And therin lies the gross injustice that must be challenged!

It is unjust for a Federal Government to go to war, ask for volunteers, send them into battle, and then prosecute them before a civilian comprised of individuals who did not share their risk. This insanity has been contrived by United States Congressmen and Senators, many of whom are lawyers who never served in the military but nevertheless try to micromanage war and display their self-serving personal power by overriding Military Courts that find servicemen guiltless.

Robert Williams

Na`alehu, Hawai`i

Against law to deny schooling

Dear Editor,

I have read Ms. Elento’s letter in the Hawai`i Free Press. Her son with Down’s Syndrome is not being allowed to attend Kindergarten because he is too old. By federal law all children regardless of any disability must be offered a Free and Appropriate Public Education. It is against the law for the state of Hawai`i to deny an education to a child. Regular kindergarten may not be the appropriate educational setting for the child, but that is to be determined by a team which has to include the parent. An appropriate educational setting that meets her son’s unique needs must be offered by the school. Not being privy to all of the facts in this situation I suggest that Ms. Elento contact the Hawaii Disability Rights Center 808-949-2922 or 1-800-882-1057 for assistance.

Elizabeth Johnson,

Kaunakakai, Moloka`i

HSTA vs Con-Con

Dear Editor,

In a closed shop state the union is entitled to confiscate dues from member paychecks, and then use that money to promote a political agenda without regard to what individual bargaining unit members may think.. . even without regard for the truth.

Case in point: a recent HSTA mail-out urges public school teachers to vote against a Constitutional Convention. One of the reasons given is chock full of lies which as a public school teacher I deeply resent. The HSTA tops claim dismantling the single state-wide public school system “would create seven more bureaucracies, taking away money from the classrooms. Children in rural communities an on the neighbor islands would suffer without equitable funding.”

Home rule for schools would ELIMINATE the rogue, out of control statewide DOE bloat-ocracy altogether.

REAL locally controlled school districts would have no need for wasteful bureaucracies because officials could be held ACCOUNTABLE for their actions. In DOE no one is ever accountable for anything.

Only a tiny trickle of the almost three BILLION dollar DOE slush fund “budget” ever seeps down into the classroom; the rest is soaked up by the DOE bureaucracy.

The DOE “reinventing education” provision known as weighted student funding formula has ALREADY emasculated the tiny budgets of small, rural schools like the one where I teach, requiring that we “staff reduce” (fire) those who work directly with children.

DOE is a crooked enterprise that steals money and hurts kids, cynically using them as pawns in the service of perpetuating Democrat Party control of the state at saturation levels. I sincerely hope my fellow classroom teachers will vote FOR a Constitutional Convention and end this travesty by establishing long overdue home rule for our schools.

Thomas E Stuart

Kohala Middle School teacher

Kapa`au, Hawai`i.