6A OPINION FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2016 | WEST HAWAII TODAY Arson or ashtray-less smokers? Although multiple fires erupting within a short time span appear suspicious, I am unaware of any evidence of arson. Perhaps these fires were all accidentally started by careless smokers. Just about everyone has seen smokers who hold their lit cigarettes out the window, lest they choke their fellow passengers with the secondhand smoke. Even when they smoke inside their air conditioned cars, they flick ashes out the window, mostly harmless, but occasionally, hot and glowing. I used to be a smoker, and I have seen sparks on the highway in my rear-view mirror. I am not sure who is to blame for the fact that it is so politically incorrect to smoke nowadays that auto manufacturers are omitting ashtrays and car rental companies seem to remove those ashtrays that do exist. Is this intended as a way of enforcing their smoke-free policies? Let’s be pono and wise up to the fact that, despite a decline in smokers, smoking still exists and is legal. I believe that all cars, especially rentals, should contain ashtrays, regardless of any no-smoking terms in the underlying rental contracts. After all, if Congress passed a law stating that ants are forbidden from attending picnics, would that really solve Yosemite’s ants-in-Yogi’s-basket problem? Eliminating ash trays from cars seems to have backfired (no pun intended, merely accidental, but convenient). I believe that the elimination of ashtrays has contributed to wildfires on this windy island, rather than help prevent them. Join the “non-smokers for ashtrays” movement. Give a bean-bag ashtray to all of your friends who are smokers. James Donovan Waikoloa Clarifying the charitable donations on taxes As a member of the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide team at Hale Halawai, I would like to thank Ms. Wallis for the kind comments published in the Saturday, March 5 edition of West Hawaii Today. I would also like to clarify her statement regarding the $10,000 limit for charitable donations. What she is referring to is the point where it becomes beneficial for a taxpayer to itemize deductions instead of taking the standard deduction. In addition to the amount of charitable donations, this figure includes medical expenses, some taxes paid, mortgage interest, and other miscellaneous expenses. The figure also varies by filing status and age, and is normally between $6,300 and $15,200. Congress has enacted an extremely complicated tax code over the years but the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide volunteers are trained at an advanced level and must pass an IRS exam covering both ethics and current tax law before they prepare any tax returns. The Tax-Aide program has no age or income limits but is meant for taxpayers with low to moderate income with a focus on those over 60 years of age. Membership in the AARP is not required. On the Big Island AARP Foundation Tax-Aide sites can be found in Captain Cook, Hilo, Kailua-Kona, and Waimea. To find the site closest to your readers and the hours of operation, they can go to http://www.aarp.org/applications/ VMISLocator/searchTaxAideLocations. action or call 888-687-2277. John Gross Kailua-Kona Mad and not going to take it I had seen a recent mention of vehicle fee increases for us in West Hawaii Today (Feb. 21), but it didn’t quite ring home until I read in the Honolulu Star Advertiser (March 1) “Senate panel votes to raise vehicle taxes.” Senate Bill 2938, a proposal by Gov. Ige’s administration. It seems to me that our governor drags his feet for months in taking any action regarding our dengue fever outbreak yet is quick to increase our taxes. Now get this, based on a “think tank” research report from the mainland, Hawaii ranks as the worst state in the country for overall highway performance and cost-effectiveness, most likely from administrative costs siphoning off money for repairs. Hawaii spends $90,000 per mile in administrative costs compared to Texas at $4,000 per mile or Kentucky at less than $1,000 per mile. The irony is that Hawaii DOT has over $600 million of MY TURN | JANICE PALMA-GLENNIE Abandon the unfunny Clown Car Rolling Stone Magazine dubbed the mob of Republican presidential candidates the “Clown Car.” It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad to see our nation’s “Grand Old Party” sinking to one low after another. Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse than Trump (bankrupt six times, berating women and disabled persons, accusing MIAs of being “losers,” ad nauseam), he and the rest of the clowns think it’s OK for candidates of the Free World’s most powerful leadership position to promise they’d match the worst of terrorist actions. Ted Cruz, who seems to be vying for leader of a U.S. theocracy, promises to bring back waterboarding. Trump would go “as far as necessary” to match ISIL’s most heinous crimes. Per their consistently fact-free train of thoughts and claims, Republican candidates say that torture is consistent with Christ’s teachings and effecting in obtaining important information — science, truth, and facts be damned. With the bile, outright lies, and hypocrisy coming out of 2016’s rightwing presidential candidates and the public support its garnered, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would feel anything but hateful and afraid of where our country is heading and where it will go if one of those candidates becomes president of the United States. Dangerous neoconservative signatures like deadly, costly wars, scenes of American brutality at Abu Graib, secret U.S.-aided renditions, capture and decade-long imprisonment of untried and even innocent prisoners at Guantanamo, and promises to build walls around our nation and turn suffering refugees away from our shores based upon religious beliefs explain much about why terrorism has become a pervasive threat. To our nation’s great peril, the conservative stamp of international hostility and diplomatic ignorance has been only tenuously derailed with the more measured diplomacy of the Obama administration — a safety net that could be torn apart by a Republican president. Attacks on the scary clowns are coming from divergent corners. Notable conservative columnist David Brooks wrote in his recent piece, “I Miss Obama,” that, “Cruz is a stranger to most of what would generally be considered the Christian virtues: humility, mercy, compassion and grace.” He added, “Cruz’s speeches are marked by what you might call pagan brutalism. There is not a hint of compassion, gentleness and mercy.” A quote from People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group, further explains the candidates’ extremism: “Donald Trump courted — and received — the backing of anti-immigrant birther Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and proudly touted Sarah Palin’s endorsement. Many antigay, anti-choice Religious Right leaders have coalesced around Ted Cruz, who has shamelessly cozied up with pastors who have supported putting gay people and abortion providers to death. And while Marco Rubio might want voters to think he’s a moderate, he’s really a longtime Tea Party darling who denies climate change, opposes any increase to the minimum wage, and says Christians in America face more discrimination than Muslims.” I’d add that empty rhetoric in support of “small government” contradicts support for Big Brother deciding a woman’s reproductive destiny. And who can expect these fingers-crossed-behind-their back, blowhards to make decisions that respect our country’s diversity when they’re willing to stoop to the lowest level of attacks upon members of their own party? Acclaimed political writer Matt Tiabi wrote, “Carly Fiorina, in a nationally televised debate, claimed to have watched a nonexistent video of evil feminists harvesting fetal brains. Ben Carson has been through a half-dozen factual dustups, including furious debates over whether or not he stabbed someone and whether or not he once won $10 for being the only honest student in an (apparently nonexistent) Yale psychology class.” As Salon.com said, “Trump has decided that voters are so clueless, so deliriously angry, that feigned bigotry and empty promises to ‘make America great again’ will do — no specifics needed. And he’s obviously right.” Most recently (though it’ll get worse by the time this goes to print), Trump refused to diss Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s endorsement. What’s undeniable is that if any Republican candidate takes the helm (finger on the nuclear button), the strongarming of Congressional Republicans would insure flashback to the Cheney/ Rumsfeld, “good for business,” bad old, warloving days — or worse. Sitting around bemoaning the potential of a Trump or other iron-fisted, fear-based presidency or the potential horror of having our three branches of government hijacked by right-wing extremists is not enough. It’s time for everyone who cares about decency, freedom, democracy, and the future of their grandchildren’s children to abandon the doomed GOP and work diligently in support of candidates who stand up against the Clown Car before it, and our nation, are totally derailed. Janice Palma-Glennie is a resident of Kailua-Kona My Turn opinions are those of the writer and not of West Hawaii Today Tell us about it Do you have a story idea or news tip? Is there a community problem that has not been addressed? Do you know someone unique, whose story should be shared and enjoyed with the rest of the community? We want to know. Call the West Hawaii Today newsroom at 930- 8600 or news@westhawaiitoday.com and share the information with our readers. It’s our community — and we care. 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. Email or address letters to: EDITOR WEST HAWAII TODAY PO BOX 789 KAILUA-KONA HI 96745 EMAIL: LETTERS@WESTHAWAIITODAY.COM LETTERS | YOUR VOICE federal funds that it hasn’t spent and may lose if not used. So let me get this right, Gov. Ige, you want to raise our vehicle fees more than $85 per vehicle when your DOT has yet to spend millions that were “given” to us by the feds? I know it’s out of character for you to make tough decisions (dengue, TMT, health care exchange, etc.), but for me, it’s an easy decision when I go to my polling place this fall to “get mad and not take it any longer” and vote for new representatives who can be sensitive to the skyrocketing cost of living in this state. I wonder if Gov. Ige would ever imagine that he could be a single-term governor like the one he unseated? Paul Robinson Kailua-Kona Neighbor dispute shockingly un-aloha I know there will probably be a few letters about this, but the article on Tuesday’s front page (March 8) is just sad. I can’t believe what I was reading about the lack of aloha and respect between neighbors. We all deserve to have a view here if we are lucky and blessed enough to afford it, but when our neighbors become spiteful, hateful and have no regard for their neighbor (“I don’t give a (expletive) about your view”), well, that just makes me angry. This person with the trees, and now sounds like a building, ought to be ashamed of themselves. I would be horrified if I was quoted in an article for all the world to see (yeah, you are now online) that you did not care about your neighbor. My advise to these people — Mr. Bates and Ms. Rawsthorne — is please leave this beautiful island and move to someplace where no one cares about the view. Just my opinion. Lynn Neering Waikoloa
11
To see the actual publication please follow the link above