Bad bill
Bad bill
I’d like to congratulate the powers that be on Hawaii’s insidious medical marijuana dispensary bill. We have made it so restrictive that we are discriminating against more than 13,000 people. This is a bad law, and all in the Legislature have shown your true colors, besides Sen. Russell Ruderman.
It is amazing and apparent how the lobbyists and police control the Legislature, and the only thing we can hope is the governor vetoes it as being bad for the people of Hawaii.
The overburdensome regulations will bite you in the okole! Oh, wait, I forgot that is your plan to keep it as illegal as you can to generate crime, unaffordable prices, and the continuation of the black market.
Good job. (NOT!)
Sara Steiner
Pahoa
Protesters are hypocritical
On May 5, the Tribune-Herald published two more opinions concerning the debate about the Thirty Meter Telescope. Mr. Cook wrote of the lengthy seven-year vetting process for the TMT and its results. Mr. Chan wrote from a historical prospective about the decisions made by the heirs of Kamehameha the Great to abolish the kapu system in order to move along the progress of Native Hawaiian society. Both writers made compelling points.
In Mr. Cook’s missive, he also wrote of the intimidation being leveled upon those who are in favor of the TMT. He wrote, “A dark side of this debate that is threatening to silence many who support TMT are the threats of violence and the tremendous amount of intimidating comments through social media and peer pressure.”
In another missive to the Tribune-Herald on April 16, it was written that supporters of the TMT withdrew from the Merrie Monarch parade due to, “threats that were made to them.”
The anti-TMT group speaks of reverence for the spiritualism of Mauna Kea, and that the TMT would desecrate Mauna Kea both spiritually and physically. Yet, they say little to nothing about the thousands of cesspools around the Big Island (destroying the ground water), all the decaying cars and trucks spread through the county, not to mention all the trash on Big Island roads.
Need it be said that invasive ants were brought to the demonstration site? According to the Star-Advertiser on April 26, “During a cursory survey of the protest area around April 16, ants that are common at lower elevations but haven’t gained a foothold on Mauna Kea’s heights were discovered in a pile of palms that was being used to thatch a hale across from the visitor information station at about 9,400 feet (elevation).”
The hypocrisy of the anti-TMT faction is glaring. They have no real basis for their position, so they resort to loud demonstrations and name-calling.
Mauna Kea is one of five mountains on the Big Island. The entire island should be held with special reverence. All of the Big Island is our home, and all of it should be treated with utmost respect.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote: “Insults are arguments employed by those who are wrong.” Since the anti-TMT folks have nothing, they go with insults and intimidation.
Perhaps in a spirit of compromise on this issue, the builders of the TMT could accelerate the decommissioning of one or more of the oldest-technology telescopes, with the TMT replacing them. A firm and rapid timeline would be set for the removal, and the footprint of the removed telescopes would be restored to the point that no one could ever determine a telescope was there.
This sounds reasonable and logical. Sadly, however, reason and logic rarely intersect with emotion and intransigence.
Arthur Warren
Keaau