It’s just mean
So, Councilman Matt Kaneali‘i-Kleinfelder and others think that basic county services should be selectively offered, with prejudice against outsiders and private interests (Tribune-Herald, Sept. 4, “Costs keep rising”)?
This breathtaking presumption is extraordinarily Donald Trump-like (“America first!”) in its small-mindedness.
Do we no longer supply firetrucks if Home Depot or Safeway (each a private corporation based outside the state) catches fire? Do our ambulances ask for proof of residence before picking up accident victims? Shall we exclude immigrants because processing their entry costs taxpayer dollars? Will visitors no longer warrant police protection? The list can go on.
What really surprised me here is that everything Trump does is so completely anathema to Hawaiian progressives, yet this egocentric Kaneali‘i-Kleinfelder attitude mimics Trump’s policies in its stingy meanness.
We might still be part of the Aloha State, but it’s clear that we are no longer an aloha island.
Skip Sims
Ninole
‘Listen and learn’
I have lived on the Big Island for 20 years, first as an employee of University of Hawaii at Hilo and then as a private citizen. I am astonished by the Tribune Herald’s obvious bias in the Thirty Meter Telescope controversy, as indicated by twice giving front-page coverage to state Sen. Lorraine Inouye’s somewhat hysterical opposition to the kia‘i blockade of the Maunakea Access Road.
Sen. Inouye is certainly entitled to her opinion in this matter, but I think it is highly improper for the HTH, as a “community” newspaper, to present her opinion so vociferously without providing equivalent prime space for rebuttal by the kia‘i.
Civil disobedience is an honored American tradition. Kapu aloha raises that bar immeasurably. Our greatest treasure in these islands is our host culture. Let us listen and learn.
Lynne Marcia Stamoulis
Hilo
Not a red herring
I cannot believe that County Council Chairman Aaron Chung, a lawyer, would actually consider the issue with the cemetery in Pu‘ueo a red herring.
Then he asks the questions: How many people know people are buried in that cemetery? And how many people knew of that cemetery?
It’s an old and overgrown cemetery so people who knew about it are dead and gone. So it’s a rhetorical question meant to be spiteful.
I ask him the question: Does it matter? The fact that there now is a recognized cemetery there should be enough to discuss options before proceeding with the planned development.
The fact that the Edmund C. Olson Trust is withdrawing its rezoning application to work with the community to first address any concerns about damage to historic monuments has shown to the community its sympathetic apology to what has happened.
I commend the Olson trust for this action to delay this development.
Robert M. Yamada II
Hilo
