Mayor’s defense makes blood boil
Mayor’s defense makes blood boil
I decided to save last Thursday’s WHT and reread the headline article on Kenoi’s upcoming hearings and trial. Each time I reread that article, my blood decided to boil a little more.
I like Mr. Kenoi. He’s very personable and a pretty good mayor — for the most part. But I didn’t vote for him because of his reported acquaintance and financial ties to large developers, both on and off the island. Yes, he has done a tremendous amount of good for this island, getting many things done that no other recent mayor has been able to accomplish. But, his attorneys’ statement to the “fact” that good business agreements require a sharing of alcohol as common practice is just absolute nonsense.
That has rarely been the case, since alcohol clouds not only the mind but good judgment as well. And many governments based on religious practices absolutely ban the consumption of alcohol, for good reason. Yes, a sweet glass of wine might be nice, but not absolutely necessary. Business has been conducted successfully for thousands of years without it.
And the over-drinking that Mr. Kenoi has demonstrated in public is destructive behavior. (I have noticed that those bar altercations were never reported in WHT, at least not any I have read about.)
I also disagree strongly with the attorneys’ statement that the mayor had “bigger things to do.” What’s “bigger” than having an honest, forthright county administrator who, along with his/her appointees to administrative positions, can be trusted to do the right thing?
Carol Buck
Waimea
Imagine this Hawaii Trump world
The visionary, prophet, great leader of business Donald John Trump has a plan that’s ahead of its time when it comes to illegal immigration with building a wall on the southern border of the US mainland. After the election we here in Hawaii will be in a position to assist our president with the goal of stopping immigrants from entering illegally. We can do this by stationing guards at the airports to identify and arrest and deport illegal immigrants.
It could be Hawaii’s invisible wall, a force field so to speak. After word gets out that Hawaii is off limits to the illegal immigrant community, these guards can be pulled away from airports and stage raids on coffee farms, construction sites and massage parlors until all illegal immigrants have been deported.
Hawaii would be illegal immigrant free and make our new president proud. This will create job openings for people on welfare and food stamps and they should be required to fill these positions or lose their government handouts.
With this everybody wins.
James Duke
Honaunau
2 candidates not in the same world
As if you have to be a Democrat in order to oppose Trump. As if his antics didn’t split the Republican Party in half, as if there aren’t prominent Republicans across the country denouncing Trump and refusing to support him.
Or do they not count?
This is a man who wants to be unpredictable with nuclear weapons. When the US bombed Japan in 1945, it killed an estimated 200,000 people, plus all who died from related injuries and illnesses in the years to follow. The gravity of using nuclear bombs is no joke. But Trump says he won’t rule out using them, even in allied countries.
This is a man who doesn’t think of consequences, doesn’t think about how his words and actions harm others. A man who insults reporters for fact-checking him, who says he’ll deport 11 million people, and register all Muslims. A man who says running a business is the same kind of sacrifice as losing a son to the war, a man who has repeatedly said that he would date his own daughter Ivanka were he not her father. A man that sowed conspiracy seeds for years that Obama wasn’t American-born, and then blamed it on Hillary. A man who constantly courts the Alt-Right, an openly racist/white supremacist political faction, even hiring Stephen Bannon to lead his campaign. This is the man who represents you and what you want?
Trump and his supporters seem to believe that if they lie long enough, people will lose sight of reality. We won’t. This isn’t a contest between two equally flawed candidates. This is between an experienced candidate and a pathological sociopath. Doesn’t matter how fair the media tries to be — horsepoo is horsepoo. And if Trump wins, it will rain down on us all.
Jade Smith
Kailua-Kona