Community plan is ignored

I have to just laugh when I saw that the county is asking once again for the public’s input for a community plan. How stupid does the county think we are? They really don’t care what we want. Half the crap that is going to be built is already on the books from 20 years ago.

The county never follows through with rules and enforcement of projects already built. A prime example is Launiupoko: ag lots that have been subdivided, and 99 percent of the landowners are renting out through VRBO and Airbnb. They have been paying minimal land taxes since they are zoned ag… no enforcement.

Even when lands are zoned whatever, the landowners can always have the zoning changed, even though it was not in the “community plans” that were from 20 or 40 years ago. So, community plans are useless as far I can see.

So, County of Maui, do you really care what the working class of Maui really wants, or are you just appeasing us and pretending to listen to us?

Maybe if you had listened to us 40 years ago, Maui would not be screwed up with crazy traffic and lack of really affordable homes, etc.

SU CAMPOS, Napili

——————

Earth Day cleanup set

Our annual Earth Day cleanup at the bay will be on Saturday, April 20. Meet at Honolua Stream Bridge at 8 a.m. Many mahalos to Down the Hatch, Surfrider Foundation and the Save Honolua Coalition for all their help. Down the Hatch will be having their Earth Day Scavenger Hunt on Monday the 22nd. the observed Earth Day. Hope to see you there!

LES POTTS, Napili

——————

Doctors should follow pledge to “do no harm”

Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

A law legalizing abortion after the 24th week (six months) of pregnancy was signed by Democrat Gov. Cuomo of New York on Jan. 22. A second law made it illegal for a police officer to report the killing of even a full-term baby as homicide.

After the 24th week of life, the mother can demand an abortion even up to the moment of birth. The New York law states that a late-term abortion can be justified if the health of the mother (or fetus not viable) is stated by a healthcare professional.

“Health” can be loosely defined. Healthcare professionals include nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants who are not required to take the original Hippocratic Oath. Most MDs on Maui took this solemn oath “to do no harm and to give no poison.”

“My Choice!” is the strident scream. But aren’t 50 percent of the aborted babies females?

Psalms 139: The Lord sees our “yet unformed bodies” as we were being formed in our mothers’ wombs.”

Live aloha: “Alo” (in the presence of) “ha” (the breath of life).

SUSAN LUSSIER, Kahului

——————

The rich are no smarter than you

Nothing makes me angrier than stupid rich people getting unfair advantages. These same entitled rich people then turn around and fight against so-called “entitlement” programs and affirmative action, because they seem to think their achievements are based on merit while the rest of us who actually work for a living – or at least try to – are nothing more than lazy freeloaders or unscrupulous “welfare queens” who deserve to die if we can’t afford our hospital bill.

Now we see some “richies” arrested for lying, bribing and cheating to get unfair advantages for their offspring. May they suffer the indignity of a second-rate college or otherwise rot in a minimum-security prison.

The college bribery scandal is just the latest example of what anyone who’s been paying attention should already know: the United States is not a meritocracy. The biggest marker of success seems to be the zip code you are born into, regardless of how talented, intelligent, or charismatic you are.

The real tragedy is that many average people, whose parents cannot afford to spend millions to send them to Harvard, operate under the assumption that a person’s financial net worth is equivalent to actual worth. I blame this primarily on our education system and our mainstream media, both of which do the masses a grave injustice by shielding them from class-based analysis.

I recall learning about Helen Keller and watching “Miracle Worker” as early as elementary school. Missing from the lessons was the important detail that Keller, who joined the Socialist Party of America as an adult, acknowledged that she would not have achieved personal success – much less celebrity status – if she had not been born of wealthy parents. This would have been a far more useful classroom discussion-starter than questions about overcoming disability that omit any mention of class or other structural considerations. I was led to believe in my formative years, thanks to public schools, that every achievement, no matter how suspicious or improbable, can be attributed solely to personal ambition and talent.

The mainstream media took over where schooling left off. It’s no exaggeration to say that media personalities are obsessed with actors, athletes, monomaniacs, zealots, wealthy entrepreneurs, eccentric politicians and anyone else who can be spotlighted rather than contextualized. To put it simply, we do not celebrate team players – we celebrate ball hogs. And when I say “we,” I am talking about everyone – even those of us who stand to gain nothing from this celebrity-obsessed culture except the juvenile diversion of vicarious living.

Instead, we as Americans pretend as if every rich person is smarter, more attractive or otherwise better than we are because we didn’t win the (zip-code) lottery. We like celebrities for the sole reason that they are celebrities. We let our inadequate education and uncritical media determine how we think about those with more power and privilege. This serves the purpose of keeping us in intellectual chains so that we would never dare organize ourselves and challenge these two-bit oppressors with their baseless braggadocio and ghastly comb-overs. Most of us would rather be them than fight them.

Please. The rich are no smarter than you. But they think they are, they want you to think that, and they are pushing you around like you’re the small kid on the playground. They have been stealing your lunch money and sense of self-respect for generations.

MATT JOHNSON, PeaceVoice