Letters for July 8, 2016

• Lewis said it well about council • Apathy or cynicism?

Lewis said it well about council

Walter Lewis (TGI, July 1) is on target, in the pipeline 5 by 5, etc. regarding our current group of elected “representatives” (the county council). Their actions, collectively and individually, speak much louder than their words. Look at what they have done. Doing nothing is an action.

If we want a change, we must change the county council.

Rhetorical question: how much worse would new blood be?

Frank Kelly, Koloa

Apathy or cynicism?

In the Our View TGI forum section on Wednesday’s, (June 29) Garden Island newspaper the title of this editorial was “Hooser’s survey found one thing: Apathy lives.”

The editorial noted that County Council member Gary Hooser had mailed out an important Kauai Issues Survey to 21,000 registered voters in Kauai. The editorial writer notes that “They didn’t find it too important as not even 1,000 registered voters responded to the direct mail effort.”

The writer neglected to point out that the letter was also a fundraiser — “Yes, I want to help. Enclosed is my contribution check to “Friends of Gary Hooser.” You would think that would be mentioned, wouldn’t you?

I think that Gary Hooser is an excellent council member and I plan to vote for him. But, writing for the 20,000 that did not send in their survey — or their contribution — I might note that many of us have been “down this road” before. I belong to a number of organizations and many of them use the survey ploy (we want to know what you think) as an often effective fund-raising tool.

If Hooser had just sent out a survey letter I would be impressed and I would have responded, but combining the survey with a funds raiser plea turns me — and I am sure others — off.

It is not totally true that “apathy lives.” It is also that cynicism lives, too.

Joe Frisinger, Princeville