Letters for Saturday — November 06, 2004

• Another side

• Election followup

• Ohana Kauai

Another side

This is in response to the November 2 letter from the Kauai Democratic Party Chairman regarding the Republican rally on October 31.

For the past several months, sign-waving supporters of Democrat, Republican and non-partisan candidates have been sharing Kaua‘i roadsides in the spirit of aloha. Then on the final weekend before the election, Governor Linda Lingle and Lt. Governor “Duke” Aiona flew to Kaua‘i to cap off a good campaign. It was a mixed group of happy Republican and Democrat Kusaka and Cummings supporters who awaited their arrival at the Kauai Shopping Village.

Then Mr. Rice and friends arrived on the scene. Instead of the usual Hooser/Case signs, they flashed provocative handmade posters that were insulting and demeaning to our Governor and the President. They were reminiscent of the anti-signs from the ’60s. Then they adopted an “in your face” approach and started to photograph our participants with video and still cameras. They were like the proverbial playground bullies trying to spoil the fun of the rest of the kids. Sure some of our people were irritated at this childish display and our folks showed remarkable restraint. This isn’t the way we Kauaians welcome our dignitaries.

It was not our first encounter with the errant Martin Rice. Many have complained that he was harassing our supporters by driving his car in front of our sign-wavers blocking them from view.

Mr. Rice says that people “should learn to control their anger and hate in the future.” That is good Mr. Rice. You set an example that we can follow.

Ada Koene

Koloa

Election followup

Well, all the votes have been cast and counted, all the winners are preparing to begin or continue their terms, and all the losers are left to ponder their political futures. Here on Kaua’i the campaigns that were run primarily on the issues at hand, (traffic, development, housing, solid waste, etc.), we rewarded with resounding victories, while those that chose to mix their valid ideas with the muck and mire of negativity and personal attacks got their just rewards.

Congratulations, however, should go out to all that chose to run, whether they were victorious or not. The willingness to put one’s personal political ideals, philosophies, and reputations up for public review and scrutiny, along with the inherent sacrifices of money, time, and effort involved in a political campaign are personality traits indicative of those willing to serve the many for the greater good of all.

This needs to be recognized, admired and applauded, whether it was a Democrat or Republican; indeed, whether victorious or not. Now some advice for all of those that ran for whatever office : Go and collect all of your signs off of all of our roads! Mahalo! One last thought for the winners : Get to work! There is much to be done, and the countdown to our next election has already begun…we are watching you!

Stan Koga

Kapa‘a

Ohana Kauai

The people of Kaua‘i have spoken. The distortions, the untruths, the smokescreen put out by those determined to defeat the Ohana Kauai Amendment were blown away by the facts and the common sense of over 13,000 voters.

Ron Kouchi’s support for the measure as told on the front page of the Garden Island (10/31) was also a huge stimulant to this overwhelming vote for the Amendment and we thank Lester Chang and Chris Cook for their factual reporting.

As for the legality of the proposal based on inquiries from the Council and the Mayor to this Amendment. we can only hope that rational minds will prevail and that the legal challenge will be dropped. To somehow disenfranchise 13,000 voters who passed this Amendment would, it would seem to me, be illegal.

Remember that the Ohana Kauai group (led by Walter Lewis) followed all legal mandates to have this proposal put on the ballot and our County Clerk and our County Attorney’s ok’d the total process. If there were any concerns as to the Charter’s legality, the powers that be had over a year to find them and not wait until the measure was voted on to challenge its legality!

Glenn Mickens

Kapa‘a

When the Ohana Kauai was collecting signatures to push for a referendum to curb the county’s ability to tax the average taxpayer out of his/her home the County Council did everything in it’s power to see that it did not get on the ballot.

Once it was obvious that it would make the ballot, that same Council used every threat they could find to make us vote against it. They threatened to fire all the police and firemen (while keeping the raises they recently granted themselves and their cronies).

Then, when it appeared that we might possibly ignore their demands, they spent our tax money to file a lawsuit so they could ignore whatever choice we made. At the polls, the state supplied signs and literature discussing the pros and cons of the amendments to the state constitution – and made them easily identifiable on the ballot. The county, on the other hand, provided no voter information except for the tiny print on the ballot itself – hard to find and not easily identified.

In spite if all their shenanigans we made that choice overwhelmingly. The only precinct that did not vote for the amendment was on Ni‘ihau where property taxes are probably not an issue.

But, at the same time we re-elected 6 of the 7 dwarves to the County Council. The logic of this escapes me. This is like hiring the guy who just robbed your house as a security guard – or perhaps hiring the wolf to guard the hen house.

Elected officials are theoretically supposed to respond to their constituents needs and wishes. The current bunch seems to have no such ideals.

Sadly, the amendment we voted for will probably never be implemented by the current administration. It is much more likely that they will have to further raise property taxes to pay for the legal bills incurred in long court battles to thwart our wishes.

Stan Godes

Hanalei