Whoever pays our taxes should have a say as to how they are spent. Instead of sending our money to foreign countries in dire need, I suggest we first address our needs here at home. We are surrounded by the homeless: whether they be drug- addicted or innocently poverty- stricken, they have succeeded in wrecking the beauty, safety and comfort for which Hawaii is famous.

Our families leave for the mainland because of the cost of living. Meanwhile, the mainland has (at least in the past) been sending their mentally/economically challenged folks to live here because the climate makes it possible to live outside, on beaches, in beautiful parks.

Meanwhile, we look like a Third World country as we try to avoid tripping over people, dead or alive, lying on urine-soaked sidewalks for lack of decent shelter. Hardly paradise, or just a very ugly version.

Penelope Cardoza

Kahala

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