HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0212.366 1996-1998 ~Laayaaet ~lle,{zdle
72-3990 Hawaii Belt Road
KailUa-Kona, HI 96740
(8081325-7824
05/15/97
Hawaii County Council Members
Hilo, Hawaii
RE: IRRADIATOR FACILITY - NO SOLUTION
Dear Councilmembers:
My recommendation to this council before taking the final vote on Bill 62, which
appropriates 52 million dollars to subsidize a private food irradiator plant on the
Big Island of Hawaii, is to first pick up a copy of our Vice President AI Gore's book
"Earth in the Balance, Ecology and the Human Spirit" and read it cover to cover.
This book should be repuired~ for every elected official and policy maker.
In this book AI Gore states, "nuclear waste, of course, is the most dangerous of all,
since it is highly toxic and remains so for thousands of years. Basically, the
technology for disposing of waste hasn't caught up with the technology of
producing it. It's practically an American tradition: waste has long been dumped
on the cheapest least desirable land in areas surrounded by less fortunate citizens.
A major study, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, by the United Church of
Christ, came to the following conclusion: Communities with the greatest number
of commercial hazardous waste facilities had the highest composition of racial and
ethnic residents".
Vice President AI Gore continues to state, "Enlightened governments -and their
leaders -must play a major role in spreading awareness of the problems, in framing
practical solutions, in offering a vision of the future we want to create. But the
real work must be done by individuals, and politicians need to assist citizens in their
efforts to make new and necessary choices. The last point is crucial: men and
women who care must be politically empowered to demand and help effect
remedies to ecological problems wherever they live. Here in the United States, a
hugely disproportionate number of the worst hazardous waste sites are in poor
and minority communities that have relatively little political power because of race
or poverty or both. Indeed, almost wherever people at the grass-roots level are
deprived of a voice in the decisions that affect their lives, they and the
environment suffer. We need to pay close attention to the problems that currently
inhibit the proper functioning of our democracy -and remedy them. ey
strengthening our own political system, we will empower new environmental
stewards in areas where they are needed the most. This task is crucial. Because if
our basic method of making group decisions is not working properly, it is both an
important explanation for whV we have plunged headlong down a blind alley and
an obstacle to coping with the problems that have resulted. Success in changing
our destructive relationship to the global environment will depend on our ability to212~~/~
dao~m. Dia_--_.
ny x,,. AND ~ GAP
Pres,~,, l ed
-
MAY 1 5 1997
develop a keener understanding of how to make self government respond to the
environmental concerns shared by millions more people around the world each
year. In fact, the agendas Of the environmental movement and the democracy
movement must become intertwined. The future of human civilization depends on
our stewardship of the environment and - just as urgently -our stewardship of
freedom. The powerful forces working against stewardship are the same in both
cases: greed, self-involvement, and a focus on short-term exploitation at the
expense of the long-term health of the system itself. The current weakness of our
political system reflects and emphasis on expediency and a failure to nurture our
capacity for self-determination. Too many people now feel that they have no way
to exercise any real influence over the important decisions by government that
affect their lives, that large campaign contributors have access to the decision-
makersbut the average citizen does not, that powerful special interests control
the outcomes but a mere voter does not, that self-interested individuals and
groups who can benefit from the decisions find a way to hot-wire the process while
the broader public interest is ignored. When the lack of accountability is due to
corruption, the damage to democracy is especially severe. But the moral
compromises involved in corruption for personal enrichment, ugly as they are, are
not the ones that cause the most damage to our stewardship of freedom. Amore
subtle and pervasive temptation is the desire to attain and hold on to power, even
when doing so means avoiding hard choices and ignoring the truth. In this regard,
one of the most deadly threats to stewardship of democracy is a lack of leadership.
Especially in times of rapid change, the ability of leaders to provide vision and to
catalyze appropriate responses to dangers is critical".
"The future whispers while the present shouts"
"A number of specific steps can be taken to accelerate the shift toward economic
rules that promote sustainability. The first and most obvious changes involve the
elimination of those public expenditures -both national and international -that
encourage and subsidize environmentally destructive economic activity".
I urge you once again to please read our democratic leaders thoughts on the
environment examine your conscience before voting for this bill.
Sincerely,
0 a ~ ~j''l~'~~,~~
Margaret McArdle