Education? Health Care? Con-Con!

Dear Editor,

It’s amazing that all the ads for a proposed Constitutional Convention are negative, but not when you consider who is probably paying for them it is not so hard to understand.

I imagine that they are the Stakeholders, like the unions, DOE, HHSC, the party in control of the Legislature and other state controlled departments and organizations protected and mandated by the current Constitution. They are organized and have the resources to oppose the opportunity the people have to re-make our Oahu centric constitution and are vested in the status quo.

We on the outer islands do not like the status quo when it comes to Health, Education, Roads or other issues decided for US in the Capitol. It is time to decentralize, keep most of our tax dollars where we live and do a better job with education (couldn’t do worse) than the O`ahu DOE.

As to health care, we could abolish the antiquated Certificate of Need and allow free enterprise to dictate the hospitals not an obsolete set of rules to protect the crumbling, debt ridden system keeping out successful operators from opening and giving we the people modern hospitals we deserve.

Then there are the roads, such as the, Mokelele which took 6 years to do 6 miles for $12 Million. Don’t you think we could do it better here on Maui? or the people of Kaua`i or Hawai`i? I do. Give us a chance.

I am a proud Democrat, support Obama, but believe the state-centric run bureaucracy has to be broken up and that our dwindling tax and visitor taxes need to be locally controlled for more efficiency and benefit to the people who pay them. Don’t believe the one sided ads, from the organizations and departments who have the money, thanks to our dollars, to advertise on this important issue.

It’s time to take back our State just as it is to take back our Country.

Hermine Harman, Kihei, Maui

No Amateur President

Dear Editor,

With Russia using muscle to achieve regional hegemony in places like Georgia, Pakistan wobbling on the issue of fighting terrorists in their own country, the growing specter of a nuclear-capable Iran and now the possibility of instability in the never-never land of the Democratic Peoples Republic of [north] Korea, this is not the moment to substitute “Amateur Night” for a credible American foreign policy. Putting an untested political infant -- with zero accomplishments as an elected official -- in the White House hot seat at this critical juncture would be unfair to both Sen. Obama and to this great country of ours.

This is no time to gamble on a pig in a poke no matter how attractive the rhetoric. Better a pit bull with lipstick to bolster an aging, but formidable warrior as a Commander in Chief who will brook no trespass of American interests.

To achieve enduring peace in this troubled world, our potential adversaries need to conclude their own self interests are better served by diplomacy than trial by combat arms. President McCain will help them achieve that understanding.

Thomas E. Stuart, Kapa`au, Hawai`i

Con-Con = Change

Dear Editor,

I’m confused. The people who want change don’t want a Hawai`i Constitutional Convention (ConCon) so I must assume they don’t want change. Can someone explain this? Do they want change or do they not want change?

Of course they tell us that it will cost too much in these critical times, yet they can give their friends a $1.2 million increase in pay. Then they tell us a ConCon will cost $40 million and some are saying it would have to come out of the DOE’s $2.3 billion budget, when the last ConCon cost only $3 million. I’m not an accountant, so this is probably why I don’t understand it all.

Then I am told that I can vote no on the ConCon two ways. One is by voting no and the other is by not checking any box on the ballot for or against ConCon.

Just think, if this ConCon voting method was applicable to the candidates, all we would have to do is go the polls and leave the box blank. What would happen then? Would this negate all those votes for the candidate? Why not? What’s good for ConCon should be good for the candidates, in all honesty.

Don Gerbig, Lahaina, Maui

Faking Lana`i residency?

Dear Editor

Would Hawai`i Island put up with such obvious misrepresentation of a candidate’s residency?

To settle this issue regarding County Counsel Candidate Sol Kaho`ohalahala’s residency, did the commission check his voter status, has Mr. Kaho`ohalahala voted in the last two elections from the District of Lana`i? Check his voter registration, where was his registration cards mailed to? Also, did he actually vote on Lana`i, if he voted “absentee” what was the address he claimed? If these addresses say Lana`i, “we” might not have an objection to him running for the Lana`i Counsel Seat.

However, Why would Mr. Kaho`ohalahala need to prove or report his residency through an attorney? If I was in his situation, I would have just turned in a copy of my Driver’s License, Utility bills, Voter Registration card, and/or Vehicle registration card(s) (all of them) to prove my residency on Lana`i. Right! He probably didn’t have any of those with a Lana`i address. Think about it, there must have been some “scare tactic” being done here, by using an attorney. Shame on the County Clerk’s office if the mentioned items were not checked. It is absolutely absurd for them not checking some of the obvious “evidence” of his residency. The claim that he would in the near future reside on Lana`i again, is ridiculous, therefore I could have also filed to run in any other district office on Maui besides Kihei, if I win I’d move there....What a joke!

It’s unfortunate that such alleged unethical practices are still in our society today.

Just my opinion

Aloha

Waldo Fujie Kihei, Maui

Marathon booted from Volcano

Dear Editor,

Without fanfare, Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park Superintendent Orlando has terminated the yearly marathon in Park that had been in place for over 20 years.

She cited invasive species and trail deterioration. I suppose these other 3 million visitors from US and around the globe are clean? 1000 runners aren’t going to make much difference compared to 3 million. Deterioration is generally a lack of good maintenance.

No consideration as to what this does to the island economy especially business in the Volcano area.

If Pele is as powerful as they say she would have taken care of any disrespect herself if she did not enjoy the runners. Personally the Volcanoes are just nature in action.

It is time Park Superintendent Orlando to move on. Start your letter writing today to National Park Headquarters and your Representatives.

Vernon H. King

Volcano, Hawai`i

Temblors indicate danger

Dear Editor,

Recently I spent an evening with a nice couple, John and Myrna Nay in Ocean View, Hawaii on the south end of the big island. John is a retired geologist who formerly performed geochemical analysis for the volcanologists of the Global Volcanism Program (GVP) at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, D.C.

John now studies the Kilauea volcano near his home using his own resources, which includes fallout ash he collects at his home. Earthquakes, plus seismic tremor counts shared by the Hawai`i Volcano Observatory (HVO), GVP, & USGS volcanologists, leads John to alarming conclusions. The earthquake counts have increased from 20 in a two week period to more than 50, recently as high as 100. The seismic tremors have increased from below 40 a day to as high as 200 a day. The largest jolt I felt was a 4.2 earthquake a few days ago. John also says the serious danger zone is roughly a six-mile radius from the active vent. That 12 mile diameter area includes the volcano park headquarters, Kilauea Military Camp, and Volcano Village.

To John it appears that the Hawai`i volcano authorities and the federal volcano authorities don’t think the current Kilauea activity is serious enough to warrant an increase in the budget for study and monitoring by American scientists. Instead the main study and monitoring are being done by foreign educational institutions that have been sending their scientists to study our volcano. Kilauea is not only quite active, but it is also the most accessible active volcano in the world. Mr. Nay thinks the Hilina Fault System shows enough cracks and movement caused by the hundreds of continuing seismic tremors and earthquakes, that the whole area could slump off into the ocean. His volcanologist friends agree, saying it has happened before and could happen again.

Of course the predictability or timing of any cataclysmic event is unknown. Mr. Nay and possibly the other scientists think that the Hawai`i and federal authorities are asleep at the wheel regarding how dangerous this current situation is.

For more information see: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea and http://www.volcano.si.edu

Frank Thornburgh

Miloli`i, Hawai`i