Kenoi’s reprimand ADVERTISING Kenoi’s reprimand Thank goodness for Councilwoman Margaret Wille attempting to find an appropriate reprimand for Mayor Billy Kenoi. Shame on the rest of the County Council for condoning his wrongdoing by looking the other way. There has
Kenoi’s reprimand
Thank goodness for Councilwoman Margaret Wille attempting to find an appropriate reprimand for Mayor Billy Kenoi.
Shame on the rest of the County Council for condoning his wrongdoing by looking the other way.
There has been talk of Billy’s achievements as mayor, but that does NOT entitle him to break (the county’s rules) and get away with it.
He has violated our trust and we, the community, must prevent him from ever running for public office again!
How will we ever know if he’s repaid all the money he so conveniently and unlawfully “borrowed”?
What? You waiting for the attorney general? The Ethics Board? Good luck!
Yay, Wille!
Dino Venard
Hilo
Offended
by column
I am a Vietnam War veteran. I am profoundly offended by Curtis Beck’s naive Sept. 20 portrayal of me as a fighter for freedom of speech (“Their Views,” Tribune-Herald).
The war in Vietnam had a twisted relationship with freedom of speech and was more about irrational Cold War paranoia. The events in the Gulf of Tonkin, which precipitated that war’s expansion, were boldly misrepresented in the press by the Lyndon Johnson administration. This deceit is now openly acknowledged, even by the then-Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara.
A similar deceit, concerning weapons of mass destruction, occurred at the beginning of the war in Iraq.
But, at the beginning of both wars, any journalists suggesting this reality were disregarded by the mainstream press and professionally disadvantaged.
Is this freedom of speech? Both Johnson and George W. Bush were presenting us with a deceit created to justify all-out war, with no well-thought-out objective. Our mainstream, commercial, so-called “free press” offered great support only to those who were not questioning this popular deceit. Is this free speech?
Is it possible that I am missing the point here, and that Beck actually still supports the now thoroughly discredited, original “free press” versions of these events? In any case, Beck offends me far more than James Borden or Jim Albertini. In the future, I am hoping that he will please refrain from naively mischaracterizing me and my motivations.
Bob Lee
Hilo
