Veterans unite
Veterans unite
There are more than 15,000 veterans living on Hawaii Island. That represents 10 percent of the residents older than 18.
If each vet has one dependent of voting age, that means 30,000 of this island’s people are vets or vet family members. Wow, that’s a lot of potential votes.
Maybe if we got together and exercised our voting muscle at the polls, our elected officials also would be veterans. Something to think about.
Lester Brandt
Mountain View
More equal?
I cannot think of anything more corrosive to our community, one based on the rule of law, than for all of us to be watching the continuing Thirty Meter Telescope spectacle unfold. By allowing the “protectors” to continue to flaunt our laws, our government’s inaction is indicating that when push comes to shove, a minority of a minority is more equal than the rest of us.
Our leaders need to ask themselves what will be the long-term damage caused by the current look-the-other-way policy. What are we saying to the world and, importantly, what are we teaching our children?
Bob Saunders
Piihonua
Do the right thing
Here’s a plan for solving our trash problem. After the County Council passes a law requiring everyone to sort their rubbish into recycling and composting containers, plastic trash bags will be forbidden. Initial training for the public will be done with radio, TV and newspapers. We’ll hire 12 rubbish specialists to inspect everything being dumped. Anyone who didn’t sort properly will be told to step aside and finish their sorting.
The peer pressure and extra work sorting at the transfer station will help train people to do the right things. After awhile, we’ll all “get it,” and the initial congestion at the transfer stations will stop.
The $1 million a year (?) it would take to do this would be offset by the reduction in cost of trash disposal. Plus, it adds jobs to our community.
Recycle Hawaii said a 50 percent reduction is a reasonable goal. In Germany, they recycle and compost 80 percent!
When everyone is looking for alternatives, why do we look for so-called “cheap,” wasteful, political, polluting alternatives?
Is it too much to ask just to do the right thing?
James D. Buck
Keaau