The dirty work of killing reform bill
It was interesting to read the story in Thursday’s paper about Senate Bill 2381, the publicly funded elections bill, being killed by Big Island Rep. David Tarnas. (“Clean elections measure dead,” West Hawaii Today, March 21).
He said “the bill was flawed,” and killed it without a vote, just as last year he killed another major reform bill without a vote.
What he didn’t say is that he profoundly failed to do his job. If the bill was flawed in his opinion, it is his job as chair of the Judiciary Committee to make an amendment to fix it. Somehow, the bill passed several senate committees and the full senate floor voted unanimously in support.
It was reviewed by senate attorneys who did not find a fatal flaw. It was the only one of the big three reforms recommended by the “ethics improvement” committee last year which still had a chance.
Tarnas said it needed funding, which was absent. In fact, funding could be provided for this bill in the years between now and its implementation, as the senators understood. Or he could amend the bill, insert the funding, and do his job honestly.
Once again, this Big Island lawmaker did the dirty work of stopping major reform, without allowing democracy to intervene.
His boss, Speaker Scott Saiki, announced that was supporting this bill. Obviously, that was a smokescreen, and we can see the hypocrisy and corruption at work here.
Russell E. Ruderman
Keaau
Punalu‘u project must be stopped
As I write this, I think back to when I first arrived in Hawaii over 50 years ago. The peaceful serenity and laid-back attitude of the local folks was a healing respite from the rush of mainland existence.
Today, Ka‘u is mostly the same as those times and holds the spirit of aloha in every breath of ocean breeze. But an ill wind blows, as the specter of “development” rears its ugly head again, shaking the community with fear. The fear of obliterating a lifestyle and character of habitation goes back not decades, but hundreds of years.
The ahupua‘a, the division of the land extending from the ocean to the mountain slopes, was the means of sustenance, life-giving pathways of self-maintenance that ensured that all would have access to the gifts of the ‘aina.
I feel that Punalu‘u is sacred. Because it is as much today as it was in the distant past.
The proposed development would forever despoil and corrupt the lovely peaceful character of Pahala, Punalu‘u, Kawa‘a, and Na‘alehu reaching both north and south into the adjacent districts as well.
It is a fact: Coastal developments have overtaken nearly every mile of Hawaii’s shores.
If we allow this project, the dirge will be sung: Ka‘u is dead. The takeover is final.
Ultimately, everything Hawaiian has been taken from Hawaiians.
I beseech all of you who call yourselves Hawaiians, or just longtime local folks: Raise your voices and be heard. No take the ‘aina from Ka‘u people!
Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ‘Aina i ka Pono: The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness!
Thomas Hilliard
Nehalem, Ore.