Trudeau no despot
Marc Thiessen’s column published in West Hawaii Today on Saturday disturbed me by its characterization of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as having “crossed the line into despotism.” Thiessen claimed Trudeau did this by invoking a Canadian law that enabled police to arrest truckers and haul away their big rigs, which they had used to blockade downtown streets in the nation’s capital for three weeks.
I lived in Canada for nine years and have friends who reside in Ottawa. Far from thinking Trudeau was a “despot” for finally restoring normal public commerce, I was, like my friends and many other Canadians, impatient with Trudeau for allowing this civic disruption to continue as long as it did.
Thiessen’s allegations made me wonder just who this writer was, so I looked him up. Here’s what I found: Thiessen served as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush from 2004 to 2009 and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld from 2001 to 2006. In 2010, Thiessen published the book “Courting Disaster: How the C.I.A. Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama is Inviting the Next Attack,” a book which defended the use of the torture technique “waterboarding” during the George W. Bush administration. In his book, Thiessen argued that waterboarding was not torture, and that the Obama administration’s rejection of torture might lead to American deaths.
This is the man who called Justin Trudeau a despot? Irony — ya gotta love it!
Joy Fisher
Waimea
^
It’s high time
Kona police are well aware of the “broken window theory.” It is the visible signs of public drug use, drinking, crime, excessive trash and abandoned vehicles in communities.
Kamakana Villages got some much needed help last week with that problem. The Kona Community Policing Division, led by Officer Dwayne Sluss, conducted a Neighborhood Beautification Project along Manawaela and Ka’eka sreets. For weeks, abandoned vehicles were tagged and towed. Then numerous police officers and county workers removed trash along those roads. We extend a big mahalo to them for caring about our community and spending hours to help clean-up our streets and sidewalks.
Lei Kupuna seniors also assisted with the cleanup. Although notified, neither the staff from Michaels Management at Kamakana Villages nor developer Stanford Carr showed up to participate.
The broken window theory is alive and well at Lei Kupuna senior housing. Our dead landscape and trash look like we don’t care and invites crime. The homeless live on the sidewalks and bushes across the street and harass our seniors. Drug dealers conduct business on property and along the streets. Residents have begged management for years to hire a security service but are constantly denied. Even the police suggested we get a security service.
We support and thank our police officers for all that they do. We also appreciate Stanford Carr’s ongoing efforts to keep our neighborhood clean. But it is high time Michaels Management consistently take part in keeping our community and neighborhood clean and safe. They’ll claim otherwise. But we know the truth.
Carrie Borge
Kailua-Kona
^
Letters policy
Letters to the editor should be 300 words or less and will be edited for style and grammar. Longer viewpoint guest columns may not exceed 800 words. Submit online at /?p=118321, via email to letters@westhawaiitoday.com or address them to:
Editor
West Hawaii Today
PO Box 789
Kailua-Kona, HI 96745