Where is outcry?
Not long ago, a friend argued with me about a then-funny but now serious issue: Was America more a “jock-ocracy” than a democracy? Being a Jeffersonian of sorts, I sided with democracy, until the other day when the president of the United States — one of the most powerful and influential men in the world — spoke out about a decision that changed the result of a football game.
And yet … neither he nor any elected official, national or local, has voiced concern for the plight of an American citizen, a minister with vast popular support in his community as a dedicated American, a gentle, good and loving soul who has been held for over two years in the federal prison in Honolulu without bail, without a trial, and without visits from his wife, friends, colleagues, etc.
Where is the outcry from those wannabe patriots who cry out against similar abuses in foreign lands? Not one flag-waving, chest-pounding galoot of a politician in America has raised his/her voice in alarm over this vulgar, un-American miscarriage of justice — an indelible smirch on the claims of being a beacon and guardian of human rights today.
Oh say can you see an end to the hypocrisy. I cannot!
But is it a completed pass or an interception? It is a blasphemy, is what it is — a sacrilege upon all America would like to mean to history and to the world, and a cruel disregard for the lives lost defending the ideals so valiantly established and today so conveniently and capriciously dismissed. The lives of these loved ones were not sacrificed for blatant miscarriages of justice.
And, yes, the Rev. Roger Christie found God and peace through his imbibing cannabis-marijuana. The Constitution guarantees his right to “establish” religion.
Bail denied: The man is a danger to the community. Persons threatened: none. Persons injured: none. Property stolen or violated: none.
Bail denied. Touchdown: USA!
Tomas Belsky
Hilo
Red Mondays
No matter what the intention of Act 55 was … in its current form, it is a poorly written and extremely dangerous piece of legislation. The bill (which created the Public Land Development Corp.) should be repealed and rewritten to bind it to its “intent.”
We do appreciate the governor and Mr. William Aila (chairman of the Department of Land and Natural Resources) coming to talk to us. But respect is not a one-way street. And a real conversation means that both parties listen to each other.
If you support this view, please wear the color red on Monday, Oct. 15 and every Monday there after until Act 55 is repealed. If they cannot hear us, perhaps they will be able to see us.
Gayla McCarthy
Waimea
