Fear mongering
I have been hearing several versions of an ad on the local radio station I listen to while commuting to and from work. It is in regard to Bill 113.
To me, the most offensive ad features a woman talking and says that “if we pass Bill 113, we will be losing the money to keep our county parks open.” It goes on saying something like, “Other essential programs, like after-school and elderly programs, will be cut because it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement Bill 113, and they (county government) have not budgeted for it.”
The ad then goes to say it is brought to you by the Big Island Ranchers and Farmers, but neglects to tell you what Bill 113 is.
This is total fear-mongering. What they don’t tell you is that Bill 113 relates to GMOs on Hawaii Island, and that a majority of folks are sick and tired of being poisoned by GMOs, both in the food they eat and feed their animals, and the never-ending, always-increasing amount of pesticides those farmers must use on their GMO crops to keep them alive.
All of that is at the expense of the health and welfare of the consumer and organic farmers. So, yes, I encourage you to call your council members, but I would urge them to vote “yes” on Bill 113.
We have to start somewhere.
Sara Steiner
Pahoa
GMO crops are safe
Bill 113 is terrible legislation. This bill shuts the door (only for the Big Island) on transgenic crop technology despite the very real benefits this technology offers, and before we see progress yet to come. People on the Big Island can see that transgenic papaya is still just papaya, and we can see that transgenic corn is corn. In fact, transgenic corn is safer than its nontransgenic counterpart. It has lowered pesticide usage in our fields and mycotoxin content in our food. If the concern is pesticide use and “big ag,” propose a bill limiting those things, but transgenic crops are safe.
Here is a statement from the American Association for the Advancement of Science:
“The science is quite clear: Crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe. The World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the British Royal Society, and every other respected organization that has examined the evidence has come to the same conclusion: Consuming foods containing ingredients derived from GM crops is no riskier than consuming the same foods containing ingredients from crop plants modified by conventional plant improvement techniques.”
As others have said, people are watching. This bill defies logic and scientific consensus. It is an embarrassment. Please don’t support Bill 113.
Michael Shintaku
Professor of plant
pathology
(but not speaking on behalf of University of Hawaii)
Will of the people
Associate justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court (retired) Steven Levinson was questioned for an hour on Friday at the public hearings on the marriage bill.
He stated that the clear intent, based upon the language within HB 117 that gave rise to the constitutional amendment of 1998, was that the Legislature was being empowered to create any definition of marriage it so directed. Rep. Gene Ward asked: Then why are all of these thousands of people here testifying in opposition? Why do 70 percent statewide believe that they voted to define marriage in its traditional understanding?
Justice Levinson said: People believe what they choose to believe.
That is the crux. Levinson puts no stock in the common sense of the majority of Hawaii’s voters. He implies that 70 percent cannot perceive that a statement says what it appears to say. Who are you going to believe: Judge Levinson (and his decades-long attempt to promote same sex marriage), or your lying eyes?
If the political elite and their appointed judges will not hear the voice of the people, then the people will organize and put into office those who will represent them. This organization has already begun.
David DeCleene
Hilo
‘For the people’
To all you politicians and governor, thanks for noting. We put you in office, and this is the thanks we the people get — same-sex marriage. We the people of Hawaii don’t want this. We asked to let the people vote, and you go and do as you want, no matter what we say, and yet it was us the people that voted you so-called politicians into office.
Well, people of Hawaii, now we must vote all these low-life politicians out and put new ones in who are for the people. But most of all, you politicians are going against God’s law. This is bad; you will have to face Him one day.
These so-called same-sex people, you all are wrong. God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. Hello, wake up, and also don’t ever say you where born that way. You were not; you made yourself that way. God made men for women, not men for men or women for women.
So, people of Hawaii and all you Christians, let’s all vote next year and vote every politician out, even the mayor and governor and the lieutenant governor, and put new ones in who are for the people.
William James
Hilo
