Letters 3-15-2013

Hanohano

A call for intelligence testing of prospective elected officials

“I am an honest and straight-forward woman whom (sic) descends from a long line of proud leaders and warriors from Puna of Hawaii Island,” boasts Rep. Faye Hanohano in her approximation of an apology. An apology, that is, to everybody not of “sacred” Hawaiian blood who may have taken umbrage at her racist rant upon her receipt of racially impure paintings hung in her office, no doubt at taxpayer expense.

One can easily imagine Hitler throwing such a tantrum at discovering paintings by a non-Aryan hanging on the walls of the Reichstag. But Faye, like her blood-cousin Emily “Bloody Mary” Naeole when she was in office, will not be censured, will not be found in violation of the county charter, and will indeed be re-elected to her office because she, like her cousin when on the County Council and their supporters, fails to discern that condescension is not a compliment.

Yes, Faye, you’re only in office because of that condescension, not the acci- dent of birth that you’re so mindlessly proud of.

That’s why you can speak such absurdity that would send any other officeholder in America to the locker room.

In truth, Faye, nobody is really offended by your well-known racism. Anybody living on this island for than more than a few years knows the score. How many normal, intelligent citizens value your opinion, anyway? You and your constituency are the proverbial squeaky wheel that gets the oil, and the island’s adult population just heaves a collective shrug and sighs in relief that it isn’t any worse than it is.

This is, mind you, about hanging pictures on a wall. What would you do if there was a serious issue facing the island, call for a pogrom? Order crosses burnt on dissenters’ lawns?

Meanwhile, Native Hawaiians in every state of The Union face little or no discrimination as they seek jobs and opportunities like everybody else. Or at least they did until you let your pie hole be the author of your words. Every time you stray from that which your speechwriters craft, you say exactly the sort of thing we would expect you to say. No, Faye, I’m not accepting your pretentious apology. Neither should anybody else.

It has been many years since voters were faced with literacy or intelligence tests before enjoying their guaranteed right to vote but shouldn’t there be some sort of intelligence test for those who seek to achieve office? A starting intelligence quotient of 100 might be a sensible level to begin with.

Would art critic and political scientist Faye Hanohano continue to promote her one dimensional agendum should that be the requirement? And why do we even need a “State Foundation on Culture and the Arts” in the current economic climate? More free paintings for unabashed racists?

One is compelled to ponder.

Tom Munden

Kapaau

Motorcycles

Startling interruptions

Why don’t the police do something about the motorcyclists who gun their machines at high levels while traveling in bunches along Alii Drive so often? It startles one so badly, and we cannot hear our TVs or the telephone. This island has so many roads with no residences to annoy — lava fields where they can take out their noise they love so much. I have heard they do charity for the children. So what? This does not excuse their disorderly behavior to the rest of us.

And while I am complaining, why can’t the county pave the 11⁄2-mile road to the most beautiful beach just north of the airport — where they keep changing the name — and let us on the western side of the island enjoy a great beach with nice trees for those who do not want to sunbathe. It has a building with picnic tables already there.

We have many roads that need fixing and yet money is spent for a walking light in front of the Banyan Mart that could be spent to fix roads. The traffic I have seen has been very alert to those in crosswalks.

Barbara Lee

Kailua-Kona