So many challenges other than sanctuary state
Mahalo for not making Hawaii a sanctuary state. We are a very compassionate state, but we have so many people at home to take care of.
Before we say yes to letting more people in, can we solve our major problems first?
Veteran organizations tell us that every night over 500 vets are sleeping on the street.
Thousands of families are seeing their children and family members flee to the U.S. due to the high cost of living.
Our wonderful police department needs to focus on upholding the law, and we need more officers on Kauai.
The drug problem in Hawaii needs more attention. We must stop the flow of illegal drugs entering the state.
Off-island investors are buying up real estate, yet how many Hawaiians are waiting for their home?
We have a critical shortage of affordable housing.
All of these problems, and the financial crisis we are in, need to be fixed before we can ever open our doors and accept more undocumented people.
It’s interesting that Rep. Jimmy Tokioka reported he received 30 calls opposing this bill.
Everyone I know was opposed to accepting Syrian refugees that Gov. David Ige announced, and everyone opposed the sanctuary state bill because we have so many problems at home.
Mahalo to The Garden Island report by Jessica Else.
The government website with all the bills listed is extremely hard to navigate.
It would be wonderful if our paper and our elected officials could simply list and tell us about those important bills coming up so we have time to weigh in.
M. Martin, Poipu
“…..yet how many Hawaiians are waiting for their home?” I’m always puzzled by contributors who use the term Hawaiians but don’t provide a definition. Is it anyone who currently lives here, someone born here no matter what race or ethnic background, someone with 15% Polynesian blood or some other definition? The term is thrown around constantly but no one knows what it means. Please define it before using it.
Totally agree! We also shouldn’t be wasting money suing Trump every five seconds over issues that do not affect our islands and should be putting that money into our infrastructure instead!
Well, Mr. Martin had some concerns about Syrians refugees, even though the only ones eligible were middle class professionals with families living together in the UN camps and vetted by 5 US government agencies over a 4 year process. Leave the camp, lose your turn!
I’m sure this was a thoughtful concern so let’s pose a question to Mr. Martin:
How many fellow American deaths have been caused by those with refugee status from any country over a forty year period from 1975 to 2015?
While he’s trying to remember all his important research, let’s consider an even less dangerous concern: In 1994, Jeremy Brenno was killed on a golf course when, frustrated, he struck a bench with a 3-wood golf club. The shaft broke, bounced back at him, and pierced his heart. There may have been other golf course tragedies like this; but not with a 3 wood!
The correct answer is “3” Americans. This is raw data from HS. We don’t know if it was terror or about someone’s wife. We can say that Mr. Martin is measurably safer bashing a 3 wood than bashing a refugee!