Letters for Sunday, July 15, 2012

• James Alalem trial a sham of justice • Thumbs down for James Alalem decision • Mahalo nui loa for roadside assistance • Mufi doesn’t live up to promises • Thank Bush, GOP for money mess • Wake up, cable company • Kekaha Beach erosion nothing new

Change in online commenting policy

Starting July 1, The Garden Island has changed how it monitors the online commenting portion of thegardenisland.com. All comments will go through an approval process. Not all comments will be approved. Priority will be given to those that are topical, remain within our comment policies and contain the author’s full name and hometown. 

We encourage continued use of our online comment feature as well as the Letters to the Editor in our print edition. The Garden Island values reader input and encourages thoughtful debate.

James Alalem trial a sham of justice

The United States of America is the great self-proclaimed champion of truth, justice and democracy, except when dealing with the “Hawaiian problem.”

The indigenous aboriginal Hawaiian people, their culture and their hereditary national lands have been taken against their will and exist under the gunpoint rule of a former foreign treaty partner.

On July 10, for all to see, a foreign prosecutor, of a foreign government, under a foreign judge, before a foreign jury, convicted an indigenous aboriginal Hawaiian kanaka maoli for defending sacred burial grounds and iwi of his ancestors.

Gerald Markel

Kilauea

Thumbs down for James Alalem decision  

Only in Hawai‘i, under an American government, can a kanaka maoli be convicted for defending his ancestors’ bones and burials from desecration from human excrement.

Michele Daily

Kilauea

Mahalo nui loa for roadside assistance

My dear friends and neighbors,

On a recent Sunday morning, I went shopping for groceries in Waimea. Luckily I wasn’t speeding when I blew a tire. My front left. I parked on the shoulder and stood outside my car with my thumb out.

I waited for 35 minutes for someone to stop and help me.

Suddenly, this nice young lady with three young boys in her car stopped to help me. She told me she was Mike Koerte’s daughter.

I said all I need is a phone to call my son, Robin Haynes, for help. She even dialed the number for me (what a blessing).

Robin sent Gail (her fiance) to help me with my shopping.

I was able to drive my car home because Robin had taken care of the problem.

I thank the good Lord and bless all your moms who have sons like mine.

My name is Maria, born in Kekaha 87 years ago (1925) with snowy white (gray) hair. With many friends and family on the island, especially the Westside, and no one stopped to help. Maybe they were late for church.

Thank you and God bless with much “aloha.”

Maria C. Lewis

Kekaha

Mufi doesn’t live up to promises

Mufi Hannemann recently sent me a flyer with his supporter saying that he would be effective in Congress because he would be able to get us federal funds. If this is the case, I’d like to know why rail construction on O‘ahu is already started and we still don’t have the federal money?

Back in 2009 Mufi assured us the money was on the way. If he’s so good at getting the money, why didn’t he finish his job as mayor and make sure we actually got it? He locked all these contracts in place before we were even assured of federal funding and now taxpayers have already paid $15 million in “change fees” and the construction hasn’t even begun yet!

On top of that, even if he did get federal money, what would he do with it? We see now how his friend in Lychee Productions has been getting million-dollar PR contracts for the rail and no one even knows why they are being paid all this money.

Shelley Withers

Pahoa

Thank Bush, GOP for money mess

Russ Boyer asks why revenue under Clinton was only $11.8 trillion dollars while under Bush it was $17.1 trillion.

Firstly (from the Tax Policy Institute using OMB data), the numbers are really $12.4 trillion and $17.2 trillion, a difference of $4.8 trillion.  

Inflation is one answer. If measured in constant 2005 dollars the difference drops to $2.3 trillion.

American economic growth is another reason. The revenue as a percentage of GDP averaged 19 percent during Clinton and 17.6 percent under Bush. Although that 1.4 percent difference doesn’t sound like much, our national debt should have been $1.4 trillion less at the end of Bush’s presidency.

The question is, “Who cares?”  

Looking at only one side of the deficit equation is much like buying a house after looking only at the nice paint job on the outside and ignoring the mold and rot on the inside.  

George Bush prosecuted two unfunded wars, borrowing (stealing?) the money from the Social Security Trust Fund and driving the budget into deficit.

Bush also allowed the banksters to engage in exotic financial instruments that no one understood; the failure of which resulted in the need to bailout the too-big-to-fail banks further increasing the deficit and throwing our economy into recession.

It is simple: President Bush spent much, much more money than he made.  And he did it on purpose for the benefit of his “have and have more” friends.

The question before us now is, “How are we going to get out of Bush’s recession?” Strained analysis of limited facts that fails to take into account all the factors that put us here is not helpful.

Let us be clear, the reason our economy is in the tank is because of George Bush and the Republicans.  

John Zwiebel

Kalaheo

Wake up, cable company

 Hawai‘i Oceanic Time Warner cable is in negotiations with the local ABC affiliate KITV. Last Monday at 11:59 P.M. KITV blocked their signal to Time Warner cable affecting approximately 300,000-plus viewers statewide because the cable company says KITV wants too much money to broadcast their signal.

Ironically, just two weeks prior, Hearst Television, the parent company of KITV said, “blackouts are unfair to customers.”

What is the cable company thinking? What is KITV thinking? What is KITV doing to calm their advertisers down for loss of viewership? Why would a cable company want to alienate half the state’s population?

 Every month when my cable bill arrives I am always alarmed at a new charge for something. One special has expired and another special went up, while they now charge for what was once free.

At this time in history for the cable companies to be raising prices is ludicrous. Ludicrous because 99 percent of all network shows are available via streaming on the Internet for free.

My cable  bill is outrageous and Oceanic cable cannot even guarantee me a major network TV station? The same station can be picked up with a rabbit ear antenna if you live within broadcast range.

It’s time to tell Oceanic Time Warner we’re not gonna take it!   

There’s always Direct TV, Dish, Hawaiian-tel, Netflix and the Internet. The cable companies are unlike many commodities inclusive but not limited to the VCR, DVD, digital cameras, microwaves, etc., that have all come down in price after the novelty and newness dissolves.

It’s time the cable companies lower their premiums or go broke in the new world of live streaming.

Remember just about  any 8-year-old can connect a HTMI cable  from the family computer to your TV and start live streaming unlimited shows, newscasts, sporting events and movies for free from the Internet right onto your TV screen.

Wake up, cable company, or you may be blocked out yourselves very soon by the very viewers you’re abusing right now.

James “Kimo” Rosen

Kapa‘a

Kekaha Beach erosion nothing new

While alarming, the erosion of Kekaha Beach is nothing new.

I remember seeing similar erosion in the 1970s, and the first official response was to simply dump canefield rocks along the highway. Those were repeatedly swept out to sea, until a contract was let to methodically place huge boulders to form the present seawall. It is seemingly holding the line until the sand again returns, as it did in prior years.

Before the rock seawall was constructed, County Councilwoman Rose Ono Shaw famously suggested “dynamiting the Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor” to prevent continued erosion. (The Garden Island, Nov. 19, 1976).   

Fortunately for Westside fishermen, that never happened and the beach still comes and goes.

Steve Hansen

Kekaha