Join petition to make politics better
There were so many disappointments at the state Legislature last session. Legislators largely ignored several dozen good, solid bills to resolve some of the many problems that Hawaii faces. Many didn’t even get the decency of one committee hearing. We have been told that leadership made their decisions about bills before the session even opened.
The problems seem endless: hearings set at the last minute; too many “excused” from even voting; testimony ignored or never heard.
This isn’t democracy. Voters need to have some balance to the outsized influence of big money and lobbyists. It’s hard to understand what happens to the good legislators we sent to the Capitol. Is it something in the water? Our group, Direct Democracy-Hawaii is proposing that Direct Citizen Initiative statewide would give voters a voice.
A petition could circulate about any issue among voters, collect the required number of signatures and meet all the criteria and, bingo, the matter goes straight to the ballot for voters to say yes or no without interference.
First, our state constitution needs to be amended to allow voters this basic right. Twenty four other states already have these rights. Our legislators need to allow this question to go to the voters in 2018.
Sen. Russell Ruderman will be offering a bill in 2018. Follow our progress and efforts to support this bill. Sign and share our petition at https://www.directdemocracyhawaii.org/petition.
While you are on our website, check out who we are. We are ordinary working folks who are fed up with the status quo. We can do better.
Karen Cobeen
Kamuela
Draft-dodging president doesn’t sit well with this vet
As a veteran, my skin crawls every time I see our military personal saluting their now-commander-in-chief.
In a normal world our commander in chief is a leader of our country who earned his position by serving our country for years either by serving his country in politics, military or both. What we have now is a rich, spoiled person who used his wealth to dodge the draft. Being that he is my age, that makes it even more personal, myself and my fellow soldiers had no choice but to serve and many of us are still paying the cost of freedom both physically and mentally.
And now we have to accept this moron as commander in chief. I can understand why some supported Trump, it was the same reason I voted for Bernie Sanders — we were fed up with politics as usual and wanted change. I also realize that losing the election was the Democrats own fault and now both parties have their heads in the sand pretending all is well.
What I can’t understand is how after all this time you Trumpies still can support and defend this mentally unstable person who is a real danger — yes, I said danger — to our country and the world.
I’m sorry but it’s past time to pull your heads out of the sand, look around and see reality. We are in trouble and it is my fault and your fault for putting us in this predicament. It is also our responsibility to end this mess we are in. The only weapon we have is the pen. We have to all flood our legislators with letters demanding that they impeach this president immediately, before it’s too late.
Paul Santos
Ocean View