Voting is such a boring topic so I figure a rant is in order.
People that already vote, will yawn and say “been there done that … move along … I’ve done my part and now I can get back to working in the yard.”
People who don’t vote will likely have already skipped this column after reading the first sentence, saying to themselves with a double yawn …”why bother … nothing changes … and I am far too busy complaining about all the stuff that is wrong in our town … plus I have yard work to do.”
Pardon my obsession with the yard work, but that also has been at the top of my list lately (to be clear not willingly).
To both the voter and the nonvoter, I say a pox on you both. Frankly, I am sick and tired of the excuses from both sides. Hawaii has the worst voting turnout in all of America and it is your fault.
It is more than just embarrassing and it should be criminal. Not voting and not making sure others vote, is like walking away from the helm of a ship full of people that is heading for the rocks.
Abdication of your responsibility as a citizen is not something to be taken lightly. If you neglect your job, you can be fired and if you neglect your children, you can go to jail.
But you can neglect your community and get away with it. Many of you don’t even feel guilty about it.
Shame on you.
Our entire community for generations to come, pays the cost of your neglect and you go about your business oblivious to the harm you are causing.
I am betting that most in the community do not realize that whether you voted or not in the last election is public information.
Yes, I can simply look up your name on a data base of voters that is public information and see whether or not you voted. The information available will not say who you voted for, nor what political party you belong to, but it will indicate whether you voted or failed to vote.
Maybe that information should be public, as in posted online or in the local newspaper? Does anyone think that public shaming would increase voter turnout?
As you can tell by now, I am mad as hell and am not going to take it anymore.
To those few who are still reading today’s rant on voting, thank you! We can only manage our community problems and steer our community forward to a positive place, if we all take responsibility for the decisions and decision makers. In desperate situations, sometimes a rant is in order.
I ask that you stick with me for a few more paragraphs, please.
To those who now vote, thank you for doing so but simply filling out the ballot is not enough.
Do I need to say it again? Filling out the dang ballot is not enough and you must do more. You need to take your civic duties to the next level and talk to your friends, family and neighbors; ask, insist, beg them to vote. Then ask them again to make sure they voted.
Then drop the hint that whether or not they voted is public information and you will find out (possibly the whole world will find out), whether or not they are lying to you.
To those that do not vote, and perhaps have never voted … I will take a kinder gentler approach and appeal to your higher angels. Please, we need you to participate.
And your vote, truly does matter. In the recent primary election there were candidates who won or lost by literally a handful of votes.
Your vote, the vote cast by those who have never voted in the past, is in many respects the most important vote as it reflects the future.
New voters are often the youth, and God knows we need the spirit, guidance, and vision of the youth today.
Finally … to the 5 nonvoters who may still be reading, don’t believe the Office of Elections when they tell you “The deadline for voter registration is (blank) day.”
I know it is hard to believe that while I tell you with one breath how it is important to vote, in the next breath I tell you that the Office of Elections does not have its act together.
But it is true. While they want you to register to vote early, there is no requirement to do so, and you can register to vote on the same day that you actually do vote.
Thank you all who have gotten this far, for letting me get this off my chest.
Now, go vote, and bring a friend and neighbor with you. Please.
•••
Gary Hooser formerly served in the state Senate, where he was majority leader. He also served for eight years on the Kauai County Council and was former director of the state Office of Environmental Quality Control. He serves presently in a volunteer capacity as board president of the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action (HAPA) and is executive director of the Pono Hawaii Initiative.
Thanks for the rant Mr. Hooser! On the other hand, would you please write some pap concerning responsible voting? You know, if a person is voting for someone because they like it’s smile, DON’T VOTE! If you are not going to inform yourself and do research into the candidates before you choose one, DON’T VOTE! If you choose a candidate because they offer you “free” stuff and higher taxes for businesses or individuals, DON’T VOTE! Other than that, ask yourself this question, “am I better off today than I was 2 years ago”? If the answer is yes, vote for the incumbent. If the answer is no, vote for all members of the opposite party that’s been in power the longest and let’s see what happens? Other than stupid, greedy, selfish, uninformed Politicians, there is no reason why our lives should not be getting better every election cycle! This is America!
I think voters have indulged you on enough of your rants, pal! Enough of your pontificating! Too bad TGI is so ready and willing to give you an undeserved spotlight!
No…I am not the Pal of keyboard warriors like yourself who gain pleasure throwing rocks from the safety of your anonymity. If you are able to write and willing to use your own name (I know I am asking a lot of you here), I am confident that TGI would also print a letter or column from you. But of course, the fear of what people may say about your thoughts or ideas (assuming you have some to offer), will keep you from doing this. Or maybe you can run for office sometime? Oops. There goes that ugly fear thing popping up again, which will keep you from doing that as well. So…guess your intellectual civic activity is somewhat limited. As you can see, I am not your Pal.
I voted (absentee) for my mom and dad – both veterans of WWII. And for all veterans – alive, dead, MIA – and for all current service members.
When the system of government is broken. When Kauai’s election is a popularity contest, where the elected officials hire their cousins. Where nothing really makes any progress, and if any progress it is slow. Where the government wastes almost all the money it budgets only to ask for more money. It is no surprise that there is a lack of participation. If anyone thinks there are making a change by voting they are just lying to themselves. Next year we will have all the same ussues we had this year.
No, Hooser, you’re a hater. Don’t you know when you’ve lost and are irrelevant? Guess not as seen here. All you can do is attack people for not using their real names. Ever here of “fools faces appear in public places.” That’s you, Hooser.
Spoken as a true career politician…and the “pal” was, as you are aware, a figure of speech. But I guess I have zero right to respond to or criticize your “rant”…because I “fear what people may say…” or because I choose NOT to run for office, perhaps my “intellectual civic activity” must be as you put it, “somewhat limited…”. Just commenting on your (what seems to be) twice monthly “rants” that TGI prints whenever you submit them. Not that anyone else gets that much free press or limelight from TGI, but thank goodness for small favors, in that voters choose NOT to deal with you in elective office…or do I sense a run for ..perhaps “mayor”? I cherish my anonymity, which does not in any way diminish my opinion or what I express, as you so subtly put it. As if your holding elective office is a “favor” to the various government entities you worked with and for, and grants you a “special” right to “rant” or denigrate those who have legitimate questions concerning what you say, and your motivations for saying what you choose to. But to my point, why not publish a current donor list for your HAPA “charity”, so all can see what ( assuming there are some) mainland special interest groups fund this 501 (c)3? That could be an interesting TGI article that I’m sure a few Kauai voters might be interested in, since HAPA professes to be “non political” ( in order to qualify for 501(c) treatment by the IRS). There are a few “keyboard warriors” out there, a few of which, have exposed some of your dubious activities over the past several years, and they are the real “investigative” journalists. Me, I’m just a person who prefers to remain anonymous, questioning exactly why you should get so much regular exposure from a newspaper who is not really known for their investigative prowess. If they were, perhaps they could start with you. Nope, definitely not pals, however willing to “throw rocks” at a glass house needing shattering, since the address of mine is…well….anonymous.
What is boring is that TGI gives you more Rant time than anyone else who wants to. But this is always how guilty folks roll and resulted this time, in a staged arrest of someone above the law, which sidelined a kanaka maoli contract suicide.
Enoughalready took the words outta my head, not that tgi will ever print my views because they are so busy spreading untruths and dissonance in a once Hawaii’an Island of happy people…. now a filthy, polluted and dysfunction bunch of self proclaimed elitists.
E’o. None know what we have lived! we know who was naughty or nice. We know and we don’t forget what is resultant in abhorant criminality. I pray for them!