Schools instead of radars
I really enjoyed Kip Goodwin’s Jan. 12 editorial piece about the stupidity of constantly preparing for nuclear war.
For sure, the Westside does not need another monster radar blaster. O‘ahu doesn’t want it, so they are trying to pawn it off on West Kaua‘i. Don’t we have enough microwave radiation with all our computers, cell phones, smart meters and what not? This thing is microwave on steroids.
Instead of spending 2.1 billion dollars on a radar blaster that will be obsolete by the time it is built, how about we take the federal money for Kaua‘i and build a few more schools, give teachers a big raise and hire a bunch of addiction counselors?
Gordon LaBedz, Kekeha
Quarantine the sick, let the rest of us go
Approaching 400K deaths in US from COVID-19, we are now approaching the number that die from cigarettes every year. No lockdowns there.
I remember when my grandfather got TB. No lockdowns there. He was required to go to a sanitarium and be quarantined until no longer infectious. It seems to me that the appropriate response to this virus would have been a similar approach.
Quarantine the sick, perhaps even the positive tested, and it also seems to me that military bases would be the appropriate locations. Medical facilities for treatment could be expanded and/or moved to these locations, freeing our hospitals.
Let the rest of society go about their business, thereby avoiding the economic fallout and collateral health damage of these lockdowns. One thing is clear: Our hospitals and society were totally unprepared for such an event just as we were and are unprepared for a massive solar burst as happened in the 1800s. If that happens, all society will come to an end due to our reliance on computers and technology.
If we could so rapidly build an atomic bomb to end WWII we certainly could do the above IF our “leaders” and the people demanded it.
Michael Wells, Moloa‘a
Putting the ‘p’ in ‘pestilence’
Select the best word(s) to fill in the blank:
The putz _________ a putsch.
Provoked; preached; pushed; prepared; plied; pumped; personified; presided over; parented; promoted; perpetuated; presumed; pulled; peddled; planned; propagated; patroned; pegged; partnered; prompted; passed; propelled; preferred; prosecuted; prodded; played; performed; passioned; powered; programmed; pitched; proclaimed; plugged; permitted; pervaded; pressed; or, promulgated.
Jed Somit, Kapa’a
They just don’t get it
Some 244 years ago, the American colonies were under the control of the royal elitist class in England. Civil rights were crushed, free speech controlled and unfair taxes levied, all to benefit the crown and to maintain power.
This led our forefathers to write the most important document the world has ever witnessed, that started with the words WE THE PEOPLE. WE THE PEOPLE were the farmers, ranchers, bank clerks and explorers, and these words lit a flame of freedom.
The bankers, ship owners and other powerful elite remained faithful to the crown, hoping the revolution would fail and not decrease their hold on power. But, instead, these words led to the creation of the most powerful country the world has ever known. WE THE PEOPLE made the steel that built the skyscrapers and laid the railroads. They built the ships and planes that helped us resist aggression in two world wars. They spearheaded every major scientific and medical discovery and helped conquer many dreaded diseases. America became the manufacturing powerhouse of the world.
Today, the kings and queens and royal courts have been replaced with a new elitist class. They are the media giants, Silicon Valley powerhouses, snobbish politicians, self-described “morally-superior” educators and corporate boards.
But nothing has changed.
They strive to control our free speech, our thoughts, and look down on those that dare defy them. Those who disagree are “deplorable,” “trailer trash,” “racists,” “white supremacists,” even “Nazis.” They use their power to destroy us using the internet, deny us employment, destroy our reputations and, at times, even put us in physical danger.
The last four years have NOT been about Donald Trump. He simply relit the flame of freedom for WE THE PEOPLE. He reminded us that WE have the ultimate power, that WE are America and WE must continue to fight to keep the freedoms that were bestowed upon us by our ancestors alive and well. We must strive to keep our country strong, to keep our manufacturing jobs here for our prosperity and safety, embrace the diversity of our people and respect and cherish that which was given to us by the many generations that came before. WE THE PEOPLE has no race, no color, no religion, no gender.
And NO, this is not a call to arms or violence. It is a call to use the power of our voices, our votes, our economic power and our legal freedoms to resist the elitist class and all they stand for. For them, it is simply power to control. For us, it is the right to be free! Let your voice be heard, your vote be counted and use your economic purchasing power to say “WE THE PEOPLE” are in control. Remind them that every farmer is as important as every political elite, that every store clerk is as important as every snobbish professor that would look down on us. Every factory worker, steel worker, every bank teller, every store clerk, “WE ARE THE PEOPLE,” and we are as important, if not more, than any elitist snob that would work to take our freedoms away, debase us or silence us.
WE THE PEOPLE will not be silenced, controlled or forgotten! WE are America!
They just don’t get it, but they will !
Barry Dittler, Wailua
