• Will you change it? • On park restrooms • Tinted windows present dangers Will you change it? After reading Ron Holte’s Guest Viewpoint column (Forum, March 16) titled “What have factions done for you lately,” I feel it would
• Will you change it? • On park restrooms • Tinted windows present dangers
Will you change it?
After reading Ron Holte’s Guest Viewpoint column (Forum, March 16) titled “What have factions done for you lately,” I feel it would have been better titled, or at least subtitled, “Pick your poison.”
Mr. Holte, the former chairman of the Kaua‘i Republican Party, tells us “In fact, what has developed (in Congress) is that extremist liberal and ultra conservative group factions are now the majority blocs within the respective parties.” He describes a two-party system of Republicans and Democrats that has done very little for us other than divide and polarize themselves and the citizenry, but I could find nothing about their constructive accomplishments or promising solutions.
The piece concludes with the apparent call to action, “If you want your government back, you need to get cracking.” I enjoy the use of metaphor, but I’m not sure what he means by “cracking” in this context. “Cracking the whip,” “head cracking” and “butt cracking” are equally distasteful possibilities. To me, what’s really shaking us up are political, economic and natural systems that are apparently cracking and falling apart.
Although I consider myself to be an advocate for peace, I do have a high regard and deep respect for many of our past military leaders. Sending men and women into battle to die for your beliefs must be a horrifying experience but some do come out the other side of that horror with deep wisdom and understanding. George Washington’s intuitive mistrust of a two-party system demonstrates this wisdom, as did President Dwight D. Eisenhower when he warned us of the dangers of the “acquisition of unwarranted influence … by the military-industrial complex” when he left office. Unfortunately, their warnings basically fell on deaf ears and were quickly swept aside by other forces.
Does anyone actually believe that Lincoln’s words in the Gettysburg Address — “… that we here highly resolve that these dead have not died in vain… that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom… and that government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth” — has actually been achieved or ever will be within this system? If such people do exist, please ask them to take a look at the recent Supreme Court decision opening the doors to more corporate campaign contributions and suggest they think again.
The warnings and words of these wise men, expressing high ideals and humanitarian principles, have essentially been over-ridden and swept away by corporatists and other political and economic elites that have become very deeply embedded in both political parties. Hopes raised by Obama’s election are rapidly fading with the system’s ever deepening embrace of corporate agendas.
I believe Mr. Holte is imploring us to exert more energy focused in the same direction. To me, this can only produce the same or worse results.
So what then? Several authors have observed that in times of rapid social and economic change, such as when the Berlin Wall fell, human responses tend to divide into two basic categories of behavior. We either go into fear, denial and/or behave as victims, justifying anger, violence and killing in the name of something, or we accept and embrace the changes, see where they are headed, and creatively adapt.
I can not predict what that means to us here on Kaua‘i, but I often ask myself, “Do we actually need a national government that spends so much of our tax money to destroy human and natural resources bombing other places, and saving their corporate sponsors from collapse, that we can’t educate, feed and provide decent medical care for our children?” I don’t think so! But isn’t that actually the current bottom line of this so-called “democratic” capitalistic system?
Can we change it? This is not about throwing the baby out with the bath water. It is about acknowledging the baby has grown into an adult with sociopathic behaviors and then modifying our own personal and collective behavior on the ground and in our communities so we are more likely to thrive and less likely to be seriously harmed in the name of progress or security or God or anything else.
How long will we collectively agree that something (the known) is better than nothing (the unknown)? Until we shift gears, it’s going to be pretty hard to “creatively adapt.” When we do, I feel the operative question for each of us to answer becomes “Will you change it?”
David Makana Martin, Kalaheo
On park restrooms
Hey dude, when you are done with your tai chi class on a beautiful day, try pitch in and clean the bathroom yourself.
Oh, yeah. Did you pay the county for the commercial use of the park? You could be one of those released from jail for petty crimes … and get to clean the bathroom yourself.
Most of us are busy working.
Hector Ryzak, Kapa‘a
Tinted windows present dangers
Mr. Mayor, please consider enforcement of tinted windows on vehicles in order to catch those who might be using electronic devices after the new law comes into effect.
If this does not occur, more drivers will be using dark window tints to avoid detection by police officers.
Additionally, dark tinting on vehicles creates dangerous situations in traffic since other drivers cannot see what traffic is doing ahead and around them.
Sherwood Conant, Kilauea
