Author of My Turn piece should run for Lt. Gov.
Thanks to folks like Suzanne Field who have taken an interest in homeless people. (See My Turn published in Jan. 31 edition of WHT.)
Not all homeless people are worthless, some are just down on their luck or have mental problems. But then again, there are the obnoxious ones that don’t care about anyone and only want to do nothing and get a free handout.
Perhaps, Field should run for lieutenant governor on the “homeless” platform and then maybe, just maybe, something will be done about the homeless situation. Least of all, she would take an interest in it and that seems to be more than is being done now.
Teresa Tagon
Keauhou
Is Trump a tyrant?
Maybe for the first time in the more than the 200-year history of the American democracy, a tyrant is seated in the Oval Office. This is Merriam-Webster’s definition of tyrant: An absolute ruler unrestrained by law or constitution.
The laundry list is long regarding Trump’s defiance of democratic norms as he continues with his mendacity campaign of lies, mocking, bullying and self-aggrandizement. Defy, lie, belittle, obfuscate. History shows that these are the same tactics that were used by dictators to secure power. Adolf Hitler’s Germany being the best example where a democracy was undermined and caved to inhumane thinking. There are others.
American democracy was founded on the one man, one vote principal that the majority vote rules.
It is a myth to believe that in the presidential election that voters are the bastion of democracy that will check the powers of a tyrannical presidency. The Electoral College takes away majority rule. Trump received some three million less votes than Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the last election. The Electoral College voted to seat Trump. His mendacity campaign started immediately by claiming millions of Clinton votes were illegal.
Trump was not the first president in the 21st century to be seated against the will of the American electorate. The first was George W. Bush, who received some 500,000 fewer popular votes than Democratic candidate Al Gore. The Bush legacy is ugly. Bush was arrogant and surrounded himself with cynical, lying warmongers. He embraced secrecy, lying, torture, illegal war, and totally ineffective costly nation building. Tens of thousands of military men and women were killed or maimed for life. Hundreds of thousands of civilians killed or displaced. Trillions of dollars spent on wars. He started the ongoing war in Afghanistan, the longest in American history. Republicans ruled gleefully with unregulated capitalism on his watch that brought the economy to its knees in 2008. Republicans came running with paper bag in hand to the American taxpayers pleading for money so that the economy would not collapse or crash like the Great Depression.
The 2020 election should be a clear choice for moral voters. Anyone but the tyrant Trump. It remains to be seen if majority will rule.
Ray Anders
Holualoa