01-04-2009, 09:42 AM
Agree completely with Oink on this, disagree with those who think civic involvment is pointless. We have reached a kind of breaking point here --literally, where homes and businesses are being threatened by a few at will. Hawaii's budgetary problems are not an issue for me, because the first task of the Government is to preserve a civil society (you may wish to rent "High Noon"). Everything else is secondary and so, as Oink says, resources can be temporarily reallocated to knock the problem back down to background noise level.
We may get knocked back on occasion and there is no question we will have to be persistent, consistent and united to get something done about the problem. I think we can prepare for a total collapse of society while still trying to stitch that society together. The only way to hold things together is to create better Government...otherwise it is every man for himself. It is fascinating to see what one man can do, but one man cannot create a public school system, or send a man to the moon. Together we can create a better Government. On Hawaii island its starts with raising hell with out elected representatives and those in charge of our neighborhoods (e.g., Hawaiian Paradise Park has a Board of Directors).
At some point, we can sue to demand that they due what they were elected to do. That would be a challenging suit indeed, but attention would be paid.
We may get knocked back on occasion and there is no question we will have to be persistent, consistent and united to get something done about the problem. I think we can prepare for a total collapse of society while still trying to stitch that society together. The only way to hold things together is to create better Government...otherwise it is every man for himself. It is fascinating to see what one man can do, but one man cannot create a public school system, or send a man to the moon. Together we can create a better Government. On Hawaii island its starts with raising hell with out elected representatives and those in charge of our neighborhoods (e.g., Hawaiian Paradise Park has a Board of Directors).
At some point, we can sue to demand that they due what they were elected to do. That would be a challenging suit indeed, but attention would be paid.