Let’s return to an election day
Our Attorney General Eric Holder — the first attorney general in history to be held in contempt by Congress — has pronounced that “voter fraud simply does not exist.” I beg to differ.
According to an article published by The Washington Post earlier this week, there are 20 states requiring no identification to vote. I didn’t say no photo ID, I said no ID is required. This means anyone — registered voters or not, citizens or not, virtually anyone can cast a ballot for their favorite candidates. Remember no ID required means they could even do it several times in several locations. It means deceased individuals whose names still appear on voter rolls could have proxy voters.
How can we not have voter fraud when 40 percent of the states do not require verification of who is voting? How can we not have voter fraud when La Raza (translated as ‘The Race”), the biggest pro-amnesty organization in the country is promoting The Washington Post’s article including handy maps of those no-ID required states? How can we not have voter fraud when we have open borders? Simple answer: You can’t. Pardon the double negative, but you get my point.
We need to go back to an election day. No early voting. No early walk-in voting. No absentee ballots. No online voting. No voting by mail. No Sunday voting and certainly no same-day voter registration voting as was passed by the 2014 Hawaii Legislature to take effect in 2018. And for election integrity, we must have photo ID-required voting in every state.
The longer you stretch out the voting process, the more opportunity for malfeasance. Politicians and their henchmen will stop at nothing to secure an election win. An extended voting period also favors incumbents because it require more staying power and money to keep in front of the voters for an extended time.
This is not racist as some insist. There is no one who cannot acquire a photo ID with minimal effort. Most people already have them and if not, the states will provide them for free.
Call me practical for wanting one of the most basic, fundamental liberties we once had to be restored by requiring photo identification for all voters.
Michelle Kerr
Waikoloa
Noise and GMOs both bad for Hawaii
One would never believe Hawaii to be a tourist attraction considering the noise level to which we are exposed.
The weed wackers and blowers, even some of the landscapers’ mowers, are so loud they drown out my music in my living room. Some motorcycles are allowed to drive without any mufflers, creating a terrible racket. Then the many helicopters, which fly directly overhead of our residential area, mostly the ones that fly to the Army base back and forth. With all that big ocean, why can they not fly a route over water instead of disturbing the tranquility of this beautiful island for which we humans came here for in the first place? Is nobody aware of the fact that these noises are very detrimental to our neurological and cardiovascular health?
The heavy advertising on Maui to repeal the ban on GMOs is another instance of profit over our health. Prince Charles has a huge agricultural estate and was very wise years ago to totally go organic and is more successful than any of the other landowners in England. Germany a country that is very protective of its citizens with stringent rules about medications as well as foods, doesn’t allow GMOs at all. Maybe there are a few other European nations as well that don’t succumb to the GMO hoopla. Are we supposed to believe that the scientists of those countries are less qualified in their research? Or is the well-being of their people more important to them? With the multitude of diseases becoming rampant in this country, and the longterm effects of GMOs by no means being proven, I definitely feel that people have the right to know what they put into their mouth.
Ursula R. Ekern
Kailua-Kona
Does government shutdown save money?
Ho, hum. Another hurricane, another canceled government. In today’s world, you never can be too careful. So once again, our friendly state government decided that we had a real state of emergency on our hands — days in advance of any such situation, when the state of the art in forecasting such events does not allow for days in advance accuracy. But forget that, our friendly government took the opportunity to have another day off at the taxpayer’s expense.
All of this has gotten me to thinking. We should evaluate whether the taxpayer saves money by having the government shut down. I believe the answer is yes, although we do wind up paying a bunch of government workers to sit at home and have a nice day. If the bottom line is fewer overall expenditures, maybe we should institute a system of government only on the odd months. What a concept.
The government we have is fairly incompetent, so why not eliminate it half the time? It would give them less time to spend our money.
James A. Monk
Captain Cook
Get the facts about GMOs first
All of you advocates for or against genetically modified organisms should do yourselves a favor by reading the October 2014 National Geographic article “The Truth About GMOs” before going after what you know so little about.
Hugo von Platen Luder
Holualoa
Better spent — showing they care
For those who remember: What a great day it would have been if, rather than trying to manipulate home rule, those super PACs and their corporate backers would have donated those millions to school and health programs for the children, and themselves held a bake sale to introduce their favorite candidates.
Mike Reimer
Kailua-Kona
Open up area so many can view lava
Many tourists come to Hawaii to see the volcano. Then they get here and discover that the closest they can get to lava is an expensive helicopter tour 400 feet up, or a video at the visitor center.
Yellowstone National Park has geothermal features galore, most equipped with a safe viewing walkway. They have done this for almost 100 years so it’s past controversial.
Why can’t the national park, Hawaii County or a private landowner follow the Yellowstone example?
Maybe someone’s existing cash flow would be impacted negatively.
Ken Obenski
Kaohe, South Kona
Taxpayer wages down the drain
If you owe money and must borrow to pay your bills you are broke. This government has brought this nation into bankruptcy. You can only borrow so much before a crash. And if the House has passed 300 bills that are yet to be voted on by the Senate then the Senate is broken and all their taxpayer wages are down the drain for the past six years.
It is time for “we the people” to take a good logical look before a socialistic dictator takes over and we all end up in economic slavery or fed to the lions. This did happen to Rome.
Ken Smith
Kailua-Kona
Support proposed motorsports park
I was so excited when I read the Oct. 24 West Hawaii Today article on the proposed motorsports park for Kona.
Hilo is way too far to drive to watch the races and I believe it would be a fabulously fun addition to the west side of our island.
We’re all about family. This is a sport that the whole family can enjoy. It will create many jobs, be far enough away from anyone’s homes so there won’t be a problem with noise and no doubt will also attract a lot of our visitors.
My husband and I are in our 50s and 60s and cannot wait until “their dream” becomes “our reality.”
Joani Duncan
Kona