Cut instead of tax
The mayor states he has no choice but to impose a general excise tax hike on the taxpayers of this county (Tribune-Herald, Feb. 7).
Not in any of the rhetoric or discussions did we hear the word “savings.” It was all spend, spend and spend.
They get the raises, which we can’t afford, and we still don’t see any improvement in county services.
Where is the complete county audit?
Bob Dukat
Pahoa
Real button needed
Fo’ real. The false missile alert really happened. Yes, there’s nothing like the “real” thing to shake things up.
‘Twas a real missile alert, even though it turned out false. With drills, it’s very difficult to predict how people will react in a real situation. Now, we sort of know.
Fortunately, it revealed deficiencies in the existing ad hoc system. Seems the person(s) who scripted, designed and recorded the procedure for the alert contributed to the error. From what I noted in reading the newspaper, it sounded pretty confusing, really.
Maybe a real button would’ve prevented that mishap, versus the computer screen drop-down menu and selection cursor that was employed in this practice exercise. A simple red button, like in the movies. That, I can understand how to use.
I’m so glad it wasn’t a real missile attack.
Lloyd Fukuki
Waimea
Support Hawaiians
Filipinos in Hawaii must wake up and should not remain silent as Native Hawaiians rectify their legal rights for self-determination and justify their sovereignty in establishing an independent Hawaiian nation.
The Philippines has had a devastating colonial past, first with Spain, then as a U.S. colony after millions of innocent indigenous Filipinos were killed by the U.S. military and by the heinous war crimes by the Japanese occupation.
Therefore, the Filipinos had already experienced the pain of colonization.
Filipinos in Hawaii must morally support the indigenous Native Hawaiians to prevent their ethnocide and exile.
Filipinos have to take a stand against these injustices, whereby our powerful non-Hawaiian lawmakers, with their settler political agenda and will, continue to deceive our Native Hawaiians.
Mel Domingo
Honolulu
Mel Domingo: Please don’t fall for the nonsense coming from UH Hawaiian Studies propaganda factory. They tell you that even if your family has been born and raised in Hawaii for several generations, you are merely “settlers” in someone else’s homeland and have a duty to abandon your hard-won equal rights in order to accept a position of subservience to ethnic Hawaiians. They want to undermine the patriotism of Asian Americans by saying you have a moral duty to help Hawaiian sovereignty activists liberate Hawaii from American colonialism and rip the 50th star off the flag.
There’s a struggle underway for the hearts and minds of Hawaii’s people of Asian ancestry regarding the issue of Hawaiian sovereignty. Will Hawaii citizens of Asian descent see themselves primarily as victims of historical domination and exploitation by Caucasians, and join the ethnic Hawaiian grievance industry expressing resentment and demanding group reparations for “people of color”? Or will Hawaii’s people of Asian ancestry see themselves as fully equal to everyone else — individuals whose forebears freely came to Hawaii to work as sugar plantation laborers, nurses, and hotel maids to make a better life and who succeeded in harvesting a piece of the American dream for themselves, their families, and descendants?
Please read my review of a book on this topic. One example: A Hawaiian activist created an artwork portraying Governor Ben Cayetano as lynching a Native Hawaiian for the pleasure of a Caucasian onlooker. How demeaning is that for people of Filipino ancestry!
To find the book review, including photo and analysis of that artwork, put this phrase into Google including the quotes:
“lay a guilt trip on Hawaii’s Asians”
Mel Domingo: The Hawaiian Nation should be run by 100% Native Hawaiians.
Not by people who ignore most of their heritage, and want to think that they have only one.
Hack, I think you may have a point there somewhere. However, NO Caucasian brought the indentured servants to Hawaii. It was the King’s “Board of Immigration” that was in charge of that in order to fill their tax coffers and populate the islands with worker bees.
All new comers had to be approved by the King Kamehameha I, and many people were turned away from Hawaii. Later, the King’s, Board of Immigration, oversaw the importation of the indentured Japanese, and Chinese, (a form of slavery outlawed in the U.S. after 1865), to work in the fields in order to fill the tax coffers. Specific racial groups were targeted, as King Kalakaua did with the Japanese, and Portuguese.
On November 24, 1882, Hawaii’s Envoy to Japan, Kapena, read an official statement to the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Inouye, a prepared message from King Kalakaua he said,
“We believe the Japanese and the Hawaiians spring from a cognate race and that Japanese children growing up and amalgamating with our population will produce a new and vigorous race, which will repeople our Islands”.
Are the people that arguably made these islands what they are today on their own blood, sweat, toil, and lives not “Hawaiians” too?
Are the only Californians white? Are the only true Texans, Hispanic? This is
not what the Hawaii’s Kings told the other countries that they signed
immigration agreements with. The King’s vision was to have them mate with the
existing population and increase Hawaii’s population. Now, 5 generations later,
in the year 2018 these very same immigrant’s offspring should not count and
they’re taxes should go to pay for raced based Polynesian only programs! Awful
racism is all it is.
Mel, Without a doubt the most discriminated groups over the last 150 years in Hawaii are the Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese. They were sought after by the Kingdom’s “Board of Immigration” to come as indentured servants, (a form of slavery at the time already outlawed in the U.S.), by the Kings in order to provide a work force and populate the islands. (see comment below Hack’s).
They were not allowed to vote, and were encouraged once here to keep to themselves, instead of intermarrying, the opposite of what the Kings told the the countries they signed immigration agreements with. When the new Democratic “Republic of Hawaii” was formed these voting rights were continued. Only those that had been born in the Kingdom, or had become naturalized citizens under Kingdom law were allowed to vote per the new Constitution. This eliminated almost all of the immigrants, and gave the Polynesians who were all born here, and less than half of all “others” here at the time, ability to vote. Polynesians enjoyed a 2/3rds majority vote up until the the 1940s. The majority representation in the Republic’s legislature were Polynesians, as well as the Territorial Government. The first two men elected as Representatives for the Territory to the U.S. Congress were Polynesians. Robert Wilcox, then Prince Kuhio who was elected over and over till his tragic death in 1922 speaking over and over for full Statehood.
The real problem with Polynesian-Hawaiians, and the motivation behind the sovereignty movement, is that they lost their majority voting block after WWII, when we became a State and ALL could vote. As long as they could sway the vote they were relatively happy. Now that they are just another voting block, and know that they will never enjoy majority status again, they want to start their own government. But first they must rewrite history in order to show that they, as a race, were wronged.
The sad thing is that there is no doubt that they have infiltrated the school systems and are teaching this crap to the kids and making them repeat it on a test in order to get a good grade. I’ll bet any kid that challenges this nonsense is immediately put down like a rabid dog.
As Robert Wilcox said in a speech to fellow Polynesians down in Kakaako,
“You all know we control 2/3rds of the vote. If you want to rule it is for you to decide”.
And they did.
Read: Unconquerable Rebel: Robert W. Wilcox and Hawaiian Politics 1880-1903
Fact: There is no such thing as an indigenous Hawaiian! Another racist lie from the pits of hell. How lost can this racist fool get.
Correct Steve, perhaps I wouldn’t phrase it quite that way.
The meaning of INDIGENOUS is “originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native.” “Originating” being the key word.
Everything, and everybody in these Islands came from somewhere else, including the Polynesian invader/colonists.