Pence act now
I figure many of you know the terms DINO and RINO, Democrat and Republican in name only. There’s a new and very appropriate term, PINO, President in name only. It could’ve been used for several years, but Jan. 6, 2021, another Day of Infamy, was the final dark light of this stained Presidency.
On that day an incitement to insurrection was put forth by PINO. Other right wing lawmakers and media are also culpable. What to do next? In my opinion, V.P. Pence and a majority of the Cabinet should invoke the 25th Amendment and remove this person. Pence is afraid to do so and 2 Cabinet members have resigned.
To Pence I would say, remember what this mob through incitement said about you, “Hang Pence.”
Act now and end this evil era.
Mark Perry, Lihue
“Back to school?” Not even close …
TGI’s “Kaua’i students go back to school,” Jan 5, 2021, does not give an accurate picture of the situation. “Back to school” means just four (4) days a month for high-schoolers from now to the end of the year; eight (8) days for middle school. This comes after middle and high-schoolers were prohibited from attending school altogether last August to December while Kaua’i had little-to-no COVID cases.
Superintendent Zina and others repeatedly say “health and safety” guidelines are the reason they cannot open schools completely. It is malarkey. There are two groups working to ensure our schools will not re-open to a traditional setting: The teachers union (HSTA) and folks invested in Kaua’i’s “education technology pilot project.”
Last July, HSTA re-negotiated that “six-foot-distance in classrooms” be a contract requirement (to expire in June, regardless of any COVID data or vaccine, unless HSTA agrees to give it up sooner), knowing they could not comply at schools with larger student populations like middle and high schools. Schools have openly stated they cannot comply with this requirement, conveniently misleading parents to believe it’s about health and safety while trying to avoid a union action. And there‘s more: Teachers gave themselves Mondays off from all classroom instruction for the year, and lowered standards so that test scores of 55-74% are now given a “passing” grade of C. There are no in-person club meetings, no class pictures for some schools. While government employees have been back to work in-person with their colleagues for months now, the last time public-school kids got to work with all their colleagues was March 13, 2020.
Last spring, Zina and partners including Mark Zuckerberg, State Senator Kouchi, and HIDOE devoted over a million dollars to give all of Kauai’s teachers and students a device, training on how to use it, and remote connectivity. While parents seek, “Less screen time, not more,” these investors use our children – without our consent – in a distance-learning experiment, the success of which hinges on keeping kids out of a traditional classroom. What is this teaching our children?
Kristin Matsuda, Lihu‘e
