2019-12-18 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board December 18, 2019 CHR. NAMAHOE: So, all in favor of approving the minutes in totem? Any opposition? None. AYES: Board Members Chillingworth, Tam, and Chair Namahoe—3. NOES: None. ABSTAIN: Board Member Ventura— 1. ABSENT: Board Member Hughes— 1. EXCUSED: None. CHR. NAMAHOE: Thank you, Glynis. MS. YAMADA: Thank you. MR. YOSHIMOTO: So, Madam Chair, I do see, for the record, Mr. Sadegh has joined us. He has a communication, which is number 5 on the agenda. Since he is here, maybe you'd want to ask him if he wants to provide a statement—even though we passed that, he did make an effort to be here today, so— MR. SADEGH: I appreciate it. I wasn't (inaudible)this section to be on this one. I think it was originally intended for the Salary Commission, but I appreciate given the opportunity to explain because as it is written, it's really misleading. I consider our, first of all, as far as I am concerned, the Garden of Eden as such was just a metaphor. It wasn't real. It was like a story, Christ is to continuously talk about. And Garden of Eden means paradise. If you take humanity off this planet and put them somewhere else for awhile until this planet would heal itself as it is ultimate damage we have done to it. For most of the animal kingdom or all of them instinctively, this planet is a paradise. Where else would the dolphin or a shark or the bird be? But we have to make the paradise by choice. That is the— that's the difference. And we can also refer to our planet as spaceship earth. It is really a spaceship. It's travelling at 110,000 kilometers per hour in its orbit around the sun. And all of us are in there. Just imagine the movie Titanic—good and bad and every little—we are in there sharing the same destiny. So, then, when I look at our island and I believe there is a higher source—we use God for it—for me, again, believing in God is optional, because I'm a founder of a new faith or reached by the way I'm being persecuted. That they have the choice to make this a paradise, not just for the most powerful and influential at the highest level of their society but for everyone. And that's what I mean by looking at it as a family and looking at our island as a family. No one should—first of all, each child by the laws of nature has to reach its fullest potential and this is not limited only to the wealthy and the powerful—everyone. And they can create a paradise here. There should not be a man who has a woman, single mother or single parent that have to work—have two jobs just to put food on the table where they would not possibly be effective parents. Page 4