Letters 8-31-2012

FROM THE MIDDLE

A Middle Class Take

Just when you think the electorate is beginning to see and understand the hard right turn of the Republican (tea) Party, we see the recent letter to the editor from Frank Dickinson.

While Mr. Dickinson attacks the “usual Democrat garbage,” the radical right has now seized control of the Republican Party and has nominated its front man, Mitt Romney, to dispense its own waste on America. For the record, it is not the Democrats who:

c Brought us the current recession, courtesy of the prior administration.

c Got us into two wars that served not to make us safer, but to get us deeper into debt.

c Plan to cut taxes even further for the super rich (plunging us deeper into debt) while shrugging its shoulders at the middle class.

c Are happy to receive the benefits of government (roads, bridges, tax loopholes, plentiful government contracts) while hypocritically proclaiming their opposition to “big government.”

c Push for huge increases in military spending (can you say big government?) but would deny unemployment insurance and food stamps to the victims of the recession the Republicans created.

c Opposed rescuing the U.S. auto industry and protecting U.S. jobs and sought to block consumer protection laws and reasonable regulations on Wall Street.

c Want to end Medicare and Social Security as we know it.

c Have no plan to fix the health care crisis in this country except to attack “Obamacare.”

c Want to gut environmental regulation and hasten global warming by doubling down on fossil fuels.

c Extol the virtues of individualism while criminalizing a woman’s right to choose (under any circumstances) and pushing for a constitutional amendment banning gays and lesbians from exercising their personal choice to get married.

c Are more concerned about protecting a person’s right to bear arms than passing reasonable gun control legislation to protect the victims of senseless mass murders.

c Support a presidential candidate whose “core convictions” change with the political winds and covers up his tax returns while questioning the patriotism and very citizenship of our first African American president;

c Put tea party first and the country second by refusing to compromise and legislate from the middle.

Democrats have plenty of issues of their own, but they far better represent the interests of the middle class and mainstream America than the Republicans.

Ted Herhold

Waimea

Access complaint

Fitzgerald and the old airport walking path

Many of us take our morning walks at the Old Kona Airport Park. Since I must be at work by 7:30 a.m., I leave my house around 5:30 every morning to get down there by 6. The gate to get into the actual walking path area is never open and I must leave my car, along with any valuables that I might unfortunately have to leave in it, parked way, way down by the locked gate and then hoof it in on foot to the actual walking path. Many of us have experienced our cars being broken into and have had valuables taken. It’s impossible to keep an eye on your car while walking the path because the car is parked too far away, beyond the locked gate, to keep a close eye on. This to me is very unsettling.

This morning, while “waiting” at least 12 minutes for a county employee to drive a truck in and open the gate, I could feel my frustration growing because every wasted minute in the morning is extremely valuable to me. I decided I would turn my car around and go back to the building where the public shower is and where all of our county employees like to hang out with their trucks while sipping their morning coffee. (Coffee is a luxury that I, as a taxpaying property owner here in Kona, have no time for if I want to take a morning walk at Old Kona Airport Park). I very, very politely asked if one of them could manage to give me a free minute of their valuable coffee-klatch time and open the gate for us. I was laughed at mightily and told to “call the big boss, Bob Fitzgerald” and do my complaining with him. How rude is this?

Well, here I am, Mr. Fitzgerald, and I am here to complain loudly.

Perhaps Mr. Fitzgerald does not realize there are many seniors who walk this path faithfully every single morning? Just the other day, a senior fell down while walking the path. Yes, there was blood. While many of us rushed to his rescue, the poor thing told us he just wanted to “get back to his car,” which, of course, was parked way down past the locked gate, causing even more drama. Earlier in the year, another walker had a seizure on the path. In our nervous frenzy, we all managed to find his wife’s cellphone number and called her in a panic to come pick him up — but guess what? The damn gate was locked. And we practically had to carry this person a mile back beyond the locked gate in order to get him to his wife, so she could get him in the car and drive him to the Kona Hospital. She was hysterical — and I can’t say I blame her.

The county needs to be aware of things like this because I am sure the county doesn’t want to open itself up to lawsuits. After all, not everyone who walks down there at Old Kona Airport Park in the mornings is young, healthy and of vibrant Olympian status. Many of us walk because our doctors ask us to, or simply because we enjoy the feeling of good health, which Mr. Fitzgerald, as our head of Parks and Recreation, must surely agree with and encourage.

I fully understand and appreciate Mr. Fitzgerald’s enthusiasm for athletic programs on the island and can see why he was appointed by Mayor Billy Kenoi. However, could he please explain what sense it makes to have a sign at the “always-locked entry gate” to the old runway and path that says, “park open at 6 a.m., gate open at 7 a.m?” What sense does this make to anyone? I read this silly sign every morning since I have plenty of time while waiting and waiting for some county employee to finish his coffee and then, ever so slowly, sashay down in his county truck to open the gate — while displaying a major attitude because he has to do so. I am really sick of their damn attitudes. All I want to do is take a morning walk for my health. My time is just as limited and just as valuable as his or Mr. Fitzgerald’s. Is it asking too much to open a gate at 6 a.m. at a park that says it opens at 6 a.m. so the people of Kona can take a walk for their health? I’d like to believe Mr. Fitzgerald would encourage this. It’s simply not safe to park so far away from the walking path, especially for seniors or others with health issues, not to mention the criminal activity taking place in this town because of a lousy economy.

I invite Mr. Fitzgerald to come on down himself to see what I am talking about. In fact, I will pick him up at 6 a.m. so he can experience with me the full-blown attitude of his employees.

I’m sure he won’t enjoy being laughed at, either, for asking such a simplistic question like, “can you please open the gate?” And let us not forget about some of the older people needing to park their cars closer to the walking path for health issues. This is so important. I’m sure he realizes this. He should call me to can discuss this. I’ll even buy Mr. Fitzgerald lunch.

Sheila Mason

Kailua-Kona