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LETTERS for the August 2 issue

By Staff | Aug 2, 2018

Why expect change when electing the same people?

It is with continued dismay and alarm that I read in a recent HuffPost article that Hawaii has the dubious distinction of also being the 50th in voter turnout in the 2016 election! Why this appalling apathy? Non-voters cynically say their votes will make no difference in the outcomes of elections nor in the overall conditions of our state.

Isn’t this shameful situation because we have a very lopsided government with one party domination: the Democratic Party? Akamai voters realize that without balance and a different common sense perspective in policies, the status quo continues.

How can we expect any change when we keep voting the same people into office? Gov. Ige and Colleen Hanabusa have been lawmakers for over 70 years combined! What do we call it when we keep doing the same things over and over and expect different results? Auwe! Are we lolo or what?

How very boring to watch Ige and Hanabusa vow to keep fighting to solve problems. Every election, we hear the same promises! Most residents are complaining about the excessive taxes, skyrocketing rents, dire lack of affordable housing and ominous out-migration of our doctors, teachers and families. Will your children and grandchildren be able to afford to live here?

IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE! Vote Andria Tupola for governor! See VoteTupola.com.

Vote Jeremy Low for lieutenant governor. Platform: government transparency, reducing waste and fiscal accountability.

Vote Robert Helsham for U.S. Senate. See HNN story of his compassion in the 2014 campaign.

SUSAN M. LUSSIER, Kahului

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County should crack down on cosmetics stores

Why is the city allowing its visitors and locals to be accosted by aggressive and extremely rude cosmetics store workers? ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

It is in the county’s best interest to encourage return tourism, which these makeup stores have proven to discourage. Since the first makeup store opened, I’ve received numerous complaints about these stores’ employees and owners, ranging from badgering to outright fraud.

Who owns these stores? Are the employees legally allowed to work here? They seem to rotate every three months. Interestingly, this is the same length of time for a visitor’s visa in this country.

Go ahead – research them and their practices. Where are their General Excise Tax licenses and employee tax records? Are they paying taxes on the money they are making, or is it going straight off island and overseas?

These stores have desecrated Santa Barbara. They lie to customers, saying they can return the products. When the customers try to make a return, they are promptly shown the fine print at the bottom of the receipt reading “no returns.”

If you are going to live and work here, then get some aloha and pono – or go home! Come on, city enforcement, do your job. Pass a law that employees cannot engage a person until the customer walks into the store. WE NEED ENFORCEMENT!!!

NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST

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Hanabusa understands Hawaiian land issues

This is an update on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands’ attempt to end-run our rights. In 2014 and 2015, DHHL facilitated an amendment to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) to give itself the ability to issue no-bid leases of our lands to the general public under Section 204.

Current HHCA law states that DHHL must bid our lands if they want to issue it to non-beneficiaries. Only HHCA beneficiaries are eligible for no-bid transactions under Section 207.

DHHL got an unsuspecting legislature to pass the HHCA amendment without telling any of us; without consultation with us. Frankly, it was done very secretively. That’s not hyperbole.

Then DHHL advocated the federal government to approve it! Three federal laws require that any amendment at the state level must be reviewed by the federal government to ascertain if the change would decrease the rights or benefits of us, HHCA beneficiaries. That’s the only reason we were notified.

Gov. Ige did not tell us – the Federal Government did, as the three federal laws (1921 HHCA, 1959 Admissions Act and 1995 Hawaiian Home Land Recovery Act) required them to the Sovereign Councils of the Hawaiian Homeland Assembly, then coordinated a national consultation with HHCA beneficiaries to inform and compile manao about Act 173.

We then communicated our opposition to Act 173, because it decreases our access to our own assets by allowing DHHL to do backroom deals with non-beneficiaries without public bid! In addition, DHHL has no business issuing our land to anyone when 27,000 of us wait for land to live, to farm, to ranch, to do mercantile.

In January of this year, the federal government made a determination that Act 173, secretly put through by DHHL, which would allow DHHL to issue no-bid lands to the general public while 27,000 of us sit on the deathlist (waitlist), cannot become law without congressional consent. Yay!

Policy matters. HHCA beneficiaries matter. Three federal laws matter. SCHHA’s work matters. We want a governor that has read all three laws; that understands that Prince Kuhio wanted HHCA lands to be in HHCA beneficiary hands. We can build rentals, businesses, homes and an incredible farming/ranching economy. We can build our churches, community facilities, drug rehab and the like. Mahalo, Ke Akua.

On July 15, the SCHHA deliberated and formally endorsed Colleen Hanabusa for governor. We know she has read the HHCA; we know she is not afraid to hear from and work with HHCA beneficiaries. We know this, because the SCHHA some 31 years ago taught her about the HHCA, and every year since.

Colleen is an HHCA expert, as we are. She knows HHCA beneficiaries are the solution to the deplorable administration of DHHL over the last 59 years. We are the answer everyone has been scratching their heads about. Hawaiians can – Kanaka Forward.

ROBIN PUANANI DANNER, SCHHA Chair