Letters for Tuesday — November 02, 2004

• Agrees with Ching

• Incumbents

• SHOPO 8

• Ohana Kauai

• Other side of signwaving

Agrees with Ching

I heartily agree with Mr. Michael Ching’s editorial on racism in today’s (Sunday) Garden Island News. I particularly appreciate his noting that, sometimes, the word “haole” can be used as a racist expression. Originally though the word simply meant foreigner.

Michael Herr

A frequent guest of the island

Incumbents

Some of Kaua‘i’s incumbent legislators are screaming foul about a campaign which consists of merely bringing the incumbent’s voting record to light. Did they think that voting to raid the Highway Trust Fund of $156,000,000 (and losing a potential $600,000,000 in matching federal funds!)…while bridges are literally falling apart in their districts, while the workers sit in traffic an extra 40, 80, or even 120 hours per year, while the commuters waste $400-$1,200 or more each year in wasted gasoline…did they really think their votes would remain unnoticed? Or when they voted to raid the hurricane relief fund…did they think the people of Kaua‘i don’t remember hurricanes? Just because Kaua‘i’s legislators didn’t have the guts to properly balance the state budget? We should remember how our legislators voted every time we are stuck in traffic…and when we vote on Tuesday.

As for their “outrage,” to paraphrase Shakespeare, “methinks she protests too much!”

William Georgi

Kalaheo

SHOPO 8

In Sunday’s Garden Island, The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers ran an ad in which they endorsed 8 candidates for Kauai County Council! I certainly hope this isn’t an indication of corruption within the police force. Surely they know that you are only allowed to vote for 7.

Brian P. Christensen

Lihu‘e

Ohana Kauai

Although the time for debate is late I’d like to urge you to vote for the “Ohana” Property Tax Charter Amendment on Tuesday.

The incumbent County Council members have used the worst kind of fear and greed mongering in perpetrating misrepresentations and- yes I’ll say it- outright lies to elicit a “no” vote.

But this Charter Amendment, though not perfect, does what everyone started out to do: stop sky-rocketing property values from taxing long time owner-occupants off their land and out of their homes, especially those whose land has been in family hands for generations.

That is what the only real property tax problem was in 2002. And that is the only real problem directly related to property taxes today. In the two intervening years the Council has not passed a simple bill doing what the charter amendment will do.

Instead they gathered a group of real estate agents, developers, tax accountants and bankers to propose radical changes to the whole property tax scheme affecting everything from farms to hotels. No one can really say what the results will be- although the task force representatives in the County Finance Department have cherry picked a few statistics to show whatever they wanted to show.

We don’t need a whole new system, we need to fix a specific problem. And the proposed Charter Amendment will do that.

It’s really simple: don’t let them “paper” you- bury you under reams of graphs, statistical analyses and tons of “information you need to make a decision”. And don’t let them tell you it’s “way too complicated” for us mere non-CPA mortals to understand.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head- let us big strong council people take care of this for you.” is the message from the Council and Mayor. And if you would like to be thus patronized, go ahead- vote down the Charter Amendment.

Andy Parx

Other side of signwaving

You should have attempted to get both sides of a statement before printing your front page story, which appeared November 1st.

There was nothing “cordial” about the treatment that I and fellow signwavers received from the Kusaka, Cummings, Bush and Lingle supporters at Sunday’s signwaving, as your newsstory alleges.

I was the first to arrive and set-up on the vacant corner on the Kapa‘a-mauka side of the entrance to Kaua‘i Village Shopping Center. All of the Republicans were set-up on the Lïhu‘e-mauka side of the entrance. No sooner than I had set-up, the assembled Republicans began yelling across the entrance at me in an intimidating manner.

Other anti-war, pro-Kerry, pro-Democrat signwavers began arriving, which apparently infuriated the Repulicans even more, some of whom decided to cross-over and set-up on the Kapa‘a-mauka side of the entrance. One woman in our group reported a rude hand-gesture from another woman on the Republican side.

Several more Republicans decided to cross-over with their signs and blur the distinction between the two groups, and in doing so, made very unfriendly statements en route. I decided to exercise my right to Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Speech and crossed-over to their side to continue my signwaving.

Even though angry Republicans were the first to cross-over, my presence on their corner was greeted with outright hostility. Many demanded that I go back to “my corner” while one woman suggested that I take it farther and “move back to the Castro.” I offered to return to the original corner if the Republicans who crossed-over came back to theirs. No attempt was made by the Republican leaders to accommodate such a suggestion, in fact, those same leaders stood idly by while more disparaging comments were made.

The overt hostility got worse. One man responded to my declaration of exercising my constitutional rights by saying that he was going to exercise his 4th Amendment right (the right to bear firearms) in a thinly-veiled threat to my personal safety and well-being.

There was nothing cordial about the treatment that was received, although two acquaintences did respect my courage and tenacity, another greeted me kindly. Eventually all of the Repubilcans withdrew.

I hope that people learn to control their anger and hate in the future. Someone could get hurt.

Martin Rice

Democratic Party of Kaua‘i