Don’t mow the trash
Note to Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth: Please instruct your road crews to pick up the roadside trash before mowing the roadside. That way, the roadside trash doesn’t become confetti that is impossible to pick up. Pretty basic don’t you think?
James Penny
Big Island
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The Low Road
The pre-election cynicism and lack of humanity displayed by the Republican political stunts that sent immigrants to Massachusetts and New York are stunning and depressing. Forever claiming the Christian, moral high ground, top Republican leaders of the party that doesn’t exist in its formerly recognizable, decent form, had the indecency of playing with the lives of already traumatized, displaced human beings, including children, who’d traveled thousands of perilous miles to escape violence, poverty and other serious threats to their lives. Those desperate souls held out hope that the United States is still the beacon of freedom — a place where, if they worked hard enough, they could make better lives for themselves and their families in a nation (formerly) known for helping to lift all boats.
But that beacon is quickly fading under the MAGA meanness that’s infected a large swathe of American thinking, and especially that of political manipulator and presidential hopeful, Ron DeSantis and his sidekick Texas governor, Greg Abbott. Meanwhile the rest of us await an action-backed sign of “moderate” Republican outrage that might help stop the bleeding.
To be anything but a mongrel mob requires heart and empathy. Loving thy neighbor as thyself isn’t just a matter of being friendly to the guy next door.
Not when, but will, the Republican Party ever pull itself back from the brink of racism, narcissism, and lack of humanity that’s core to its current leadership’s mindset and playbook? Or will heartless, corporate-dominated Republican leadership — hellbent on capturing more power even if it takes our nation and democracy down with it — continue to be given free reign by its silent members?
Janice Palma-Glennie
Kailua-Kona
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