HYPOCRISY: TOWN HALL MEETINGS ON RAIL

by Councilman Tom Berg

What is most bizarre, and completely irrational, is the comments made by Go-Rail-Go propagandist Maeda Timson who exclaimed on the nightly news, that she was disturbed by having experts from the mainland come and share their expertise with us here. The experts conveyed that there are better ways to resolve our traffic congestion.

Go-Rail-Go objected to having experts come to Honolulu on their own dime to speak to us when in contrast, to bring rail to the landscape, our tax dollars were expended to bring mainlanders here to sell it. Four of the five persons to participate in the alternative analysis process were from the mainland - only Dr. Prevedouros was from here, and the remaining four all advocated for steel wheel rail. Without mainlanders pitching rail- there may not have been this steel wheel decision or recommendation.

Our tax dollars were used to bring in from the mainland Norman Mineta- the past US Secretary of Transportation, who was paid $115,000.00 to testify for ten-minutes before the city council that steel wheel rail is the only way to go. How would you like $115 thousand to hang out for ten-minutes - think his testimony was objective and not bought off?

Then take into account, that current HART members could not find anyone locally to lead HART and had to go to the mainland to hire the executive director. We can deduce from HART's actions that nobody is smart enough nor possesses the talent and managerial skills from within our state to get the job. So why isn't Go-Rail-Go complaining about all those mainlanders coming to Oahu on our dime who know nothing about us here?

To put it all into context- see how hypocritical Go-Rail-Go has become - watch the news clip here:

And most disturbing- is how the intent of the pro-rail faction by association with Go-Rail-Go exhibited by their behavior at the rail town hall meetings was to not stay civil, but rather to just go into the meeting and give those respectable men that were here to help us and educate us- to just go and give them a hard time. See it here for yourself:

"The mission of Go-Rail-Go is to function as disruptors and act like goons," stated many constituents at the meeting who were there to learn, adding "They tried to drown out the truth from being told. They tried to keep the facts from being presented and used intimidation tactics by blocking the entrance to the meetings."

And if you missed the who, what, where, when, how, and why- see a synopsis of what the chatter is all about by clicking here.