• Perennial hawk • DOE is Scrooge • Kapa‘a traffic jam • ‘Constitutional Judo’ Perennial hawk On Dec. 17 with almost no public or media attention, the House of Representatives passed legislation that commits an additional $725 Billion in FY2011
• Perennial hawk • DOE is Scrooge
• Kapa‘a traffic jam •
‘Constitutional Judo’
Perennial hawk
On Dec. 17 with almost no public or media attention, the House of Representatives passed legislation that commits an additional $725 Billion in FY2011 to military and war spending. According to the National Priorities Project, Hawaii’s tax payers have already spent more than $3.6 Billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alone since 2001.
Now, with virtually no debate, dissent or discussion, this additional sum was approved overwhelmingly by both Democrats and Republicans including Kaua‘i’s Congresswoman Rep. Mazie Hirono (Rep. Djou did not vote). Then, three days before Christmas, the Senate approved the bill unanimously. This vote makes it clear that the U.S. Government, together with an under-ambitious and under-funded media, unable or unwilling to report matters of grave importance, and a citizenry too distracted, dislocated, and disinterested to voice its concern, have successfully made funding America’s endless war programs and policies a non-issue.
In spite of the ongoing economic woes of our nation, this state and its local communities, Americans seem unable to make the connection between our government’s insatiable appetite for war and military spending and the self-evisceration of our own society.
Even as we continue to neglect our nation’s physical infrastructure, forfeit opportunities to advance and lead in innovative technologies that can face the challenges of climate change, energy and food crises, and poverty here in the U.S., our government shows itself to be a perennial hawk with both its left wing and right wing flapping in unison to ensure the country’s largest corporations, defense contractors, lobbyists and wealthiest minority are continuously grossly over-funded while we, working class taxpayers, are left to fight over scraps, expected to accept less and less each year while even our so-called “progressive” representatives in Washington support unspeakable amounts of money for war without so much as a word of explanation to the people who voted for them.
Jon Letman, Lihu‘e
DOE is Scrooge
A Christmas wish: before the Department of Education spends $1.9 million for a new softball stadium for Kapa‘a High School how about paying the $20 million the DOE withheld, embezzled, from substitutes’ pay beginning in 1996.
Substitutes were awarded $20 million for just a portion of a nine-year period: five years from 2000-2005. Court appeals; court cost; attorney fees; and other issues increased it to $30 million. The last appeal was denied August 2010 and now taxpayers must pay with taxpayers’ dollars. Fourteen years being cheated by your employer! In the private sector that employer would be fined and in jail.
Gov. Abercrombie, stop giving $77 million to unions and the DOE and pay Hawai‘i’s substitutes teachers; hold those responsible accountable with criminal prosecution and penalties; correct this injustice!
What would readers want done if their bosses withheld portions of their pay for nine years denying their families full pay, no benefits, for their time and energies performing their jobs?
John Hoff, Lawa‘i
Kapa‘a traffic jam
Traffic from Kapa‘a to Lihu’e after 11 a.m. and well past 4 p.m.. is most often bumper to bumper all the way to Wailua bridge, causing constant frustration and a significant waste of time and fuel.
A couple of years ago you published my suggestion to have the contra flow arrangement currently used only in the mornings used constantly, 24/7 from Wailua to Hanama’ulu.
Maintaining effective southbound access to Wilcox Hospital and the airport, etc. should be of prime importance. As long as we have only one lane northbound through most of Waipouli and Kapa’a towns, the two north bound lanes in use from Hanama‘ulu are mostly ineffective until you reach Kealia anyway, and at this point the contra flow arrangement is not needed.
The time and labor that is spent for the contra flow every morning could well be used for other purposes.
Has anyone else got a suggestion to help improve traffic flow without increasing costs?
Syd Jacobs, Kapa‘a
‘Constitutional Judo’
Our great American empire has reached a critical juncture in regard to how much liberty and freedom individuals are willing to sacrifice at home in the name of safety. Benjamin Franklin told us, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
You may not be aware how close tyranny lurks.
Please read an excellent modern treatise entitled “Constitutional Judo” by Giordano Bruno of Neithercorp Press. It can be found at http://neithercorp.us/npress/2010/12/constitutional-judo/
An excerpt:
“Liberty is most threatened in moments of great duress. Desperation breeds reckless abandon, and such an atmosphere is suffocating to wisdom. Each point of balance in the struggle for freedom requires considerable focus, and that focus can be twisted, flipped, and wrenched by the shock of disaster. The preservation of Constitutional rights depends greatly on our ability to maintain a sense of integrity and discipline as a culture, even when all the world seems to crumble around us.”
Whichever direction this great country rolls, we have only ourselves to credit or to blame.
Rolf Bieber, Kapa‘a
