Your Views for December 6

Power grab

Here we go again. Seems the last state Legislature passed a bill that restricts county oversight of geothermal development, even though our planning director, Ms. Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd, was “monitoring” it.

Why don’t our government officials know what is in the bills that become law? Ms. Leithead-Todd is absolutely correct to be concerned about this power grab by the state government in the name of “streamlining the process,” according to Sen. Gil Kahele. I’m all for making it easier for businesses to operate in Hawaii, but not at the expense of the people.

Unfortunately, the governmental “power pyramid” is upside down, and our officials should be working to turn it right side up, not vice versa.

The people at the base of the pyramid should have the most power, the county government a little less, the state a little less, and the feds the least.

But, then again, the feds have been taking power away from the states for years, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised when the state does the same to the counties. Reminds me of the Public Land Development Corporation fiasco. It’s all about power.

Fred Fogel

Volcano

Help the homeless

Aloha, my name is Tyler Blanco. I am from Pahala. I noticed an article that caught my interest in the Hawaii Report section of the Tribune-Herald, “Many homeless face attacks.”

I could not believe that one-third of the homeless people surveyed were attacked by other people. I never knew that living on the street nowadays could prove fatal. I think, with the abandoned buildings on Oahu, they should open up some shelters for them.

I never thought that being homeless could be so dangerous. Maybe having a shelter and people helping the homeless get their mental and physical health up to par would let them go out on their own.

Well, that’s all I have to say about the homeless being attacked.

Tyler Blanco-Louis

Pahala

Trickle-down

I would like to offer a new and more appropriate definition for “supply-side” economics so dear to the “vulture capitalists” such as the one (Little George Bush) who put out country in the ditch with their shameless favoring of the obscenely wealthy at the expense of those who actually perform physical and mental labor.

The working people should be considered the supply-side, because they supply useful work and skilled activity that makes the food and material we need to survive.

The rich should be called the demand-side, because they constantly demand less taxes and more profit. Money, since the death of the gold standard, is merely a token for work. … I fail to see how one individual can produce a billion dollars worth of useful work.

This wealth can only be obtained by sucking the profit from the top, and we who swing hammers or push wheelbarrows know what “trickles down.” Just ask any plumber.

Robert Flood

Keaau