Every crisis brings opportunity
Due to the economic impact of COVID-19, the Department of Education and the Hawaiian Tourism Authority face enormous budget cuts, and the consequences of inadequately funding them threatens our collective future as a productive community. Budget cuts result from panic, and if our state government reacts to these challenges with panic then we will drown. We need to step up and screw our courage to the sticking place and ride this rogue wave the pandemic wake created. We require an educated residential population to sustain our tourist industry. What if we combine education and tourism to reform Hawaii as the “education state” — the state that tourists come to for educational courses and enrichment activities that support both public education and tourism?
World wide students have fallen behind in their academic and social skills as a result of distance learning, so if Hawaii develops programs that fill in those gaps then Hawaii will become an even more attractive vacation destination. Families have choices when determining their vacation destination, but what if one destination offered classes and courses designed to improve their academic and social skills, or provide educational and cultural enrichment? Classes and courses could be developed for all ages, and held during the most dangerous sun hours (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.). Each county could have an area of specialization that would bring in experts from all over the globe for conferences, conventions, and elite classes. Everyone wants to come to Hawaii, and specialized education and enrichment programs can provide the extra incentive to choose Hawaii.
All classes and courses should be made available for resident public school students on a sliding scale. Residents should be encouraged to participate in all facets of the development, administration, management, and teaching of these programs, as well as to engage as students themselves.
Every crisis brings opportunity for the community to redefine its purpose based upon its strengths. If we panic within the grip of this big wave we will drown. However, if we ride it, allow it to take us, even though we find ourselves on a foreign shore, opportunity exists there for us, but only if we allow ourselves to see it and don’t waste time and energy on what used to be. Now is not the time to cut budgets. Now is the time to invest in creative solutions for a sustainable future led by an educated and productive residential population.
Charla Larrimore
Milolii
Can’t blame it all on COVID-19
The article printed on the bottom of West Hawaii Today’s Dec. 16 edition titled: “A pretty noticeable uptick” contained some expected statistics but I have a hard time believing that the increase in crime is totally the result of COVID-19. Some of us read every criminal case that your paper prints with its court’s conclusion. And yes, the crooks have it easier as the years go by because more and more, crime pays!
Example, a few weeks ago WHT printed the story about the “one man crime spree” that began in Hilo, continued in Ka‘u, and ended in Kona. That guy had a ball victimizing citizen after citizen and upon getting caught, he was given a free attorney who argued his innocence and got half the charges dropped. The judge then sentenced him to jail, serving his sentence concurrently. Big deal, that really hurts. With good behavior, he will spend less than half the time confined in jail, then be released. On his release, he will make contact with the group who received $172,000 from our council members, (our money) to help him adjust to “life after jail.” After that, he will be a potential repeat offender and just another statistic.
In the process, he gets a free lawyer that we pay for, a court trial that we pay for, a jail term that we pay for, and rehabilitation that we pay for. The victims will wait in vain for recompense and suffer the most from the ordeal. Ask yourself, why is the “repeat offender” a “repeat offender”? The answer is, because it pays just like: Why is a public defender defending crooks: because it pays! (really good).
Change our system and pay for the accused attorney only if he is found not guilty. Refuse to pay for the attorney who takes a client that is found guilty and instead reimburse the victim. Make the punishment for the crime not worth the effort and then we can expect the crime rate to decrease and maybe cut down on repeat offenders.
To blame the coronavirus justifies the criminal doing the crime.
Leningrad Elarionoff
Waimea
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