Fireworks laws are being ignored
The Tribune-Herald recently published an article that the Fireworks Task Force had intercepted “a” container of illegal fireworks.
This was intended, I believe, to impress us that the full weight of our government was dedicated to suppressing the illegal fireworks flooding into our state. As anyone who was alive during this past New Year’s Eve can testify, this effort was an utter failure!
I am not placing the blame on law enforcement, as it is obvious that they cannot stop illegal fireworks unless they are allowed to!
Big-time money is spent each year on illegal fireworks, many hundreds of millions of dollars. That kind of money has the potential for large-scale private and government corruption.
The Tribune-Herald has reporters, and I ask the editor to please assign a reporter to gather information on how many people were arrested for illegal fireworks this past New Year’s Eve? How many people were arrested statewide for the illegal importation of fireworks?
We have recently enacted stricter laws concerning illegal firework, and I would guess that the public would be shocked to learn that those laws are purposely being ignored, with zero arrests made.
We did, however, intercept one sacrificial lamb container this year!
Taky Tzimeas
Kailua-Kona
Time to stop fueling destruction abroad
In view of the largest (!?) wildfires in Southern California, President Biden pledged that the federal government “would throw every available resource at the blazes… .”
Really? The sad truth — and simple math — is that the U.S. government could immediately rescind the $8 billion and the latest $500-plus million that are being sent to fuel more fires and destruction in Gaza and Ukraine and use that hard-earned taxpayers’ money to fight the truly “apocalyptic” fires in California (and Maui and multiple other vulnerable places right inside the U.S.).
For that matter, the existential threat to our planet is our man-made climate catastrophe. Why can’t the deluded bipartisan Washington ruling elite see that simple truth, instead of doubling down on their typical “let them eat cake” sort of misplaced priorities?
Danny H.C. Li
Keaau