The people have spoken

CNN Quick Vote of the day:

Related article here.

Losing faith in politics

When it’s time to vote, I think almost everyone can agree that it brings to light just how flawed the system is. I’m not necessarily talking about voting nominees either, but voting on amendments as well.  The wording is so tricky that most of the time, voters don’t even know what they are really voting for.

Here in Florida for example, we have a proposed constitutional Amendment, No. 2 Florida Marriage Protection Amendment.  It reads as follows:

The amendment protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.  The direct financial impact of this amendment will have on state and local government revenues and expenditures cannot be determined, but is expected to be minor.

What is tricky about this, is that many people voting No on this amendment, think that by doing so, it legalized gay marriage. A statute is already in place which provides for a single form of marriage in Florida, so voting NO on this does not legalize gay marriage. However, voting yes on this, may impact health care coverage and benefits that cover unmarried couples who live together and will prevent the recognition of some types of out-of-state marriages.

Its not just this amendment, other as well seem to affect so much more then the issue they claim to represent. Just look at the bail out bill! It seems like only 10% of that bill actually discussed how to handle the bank! What use was the other 90% ?

What happend to the days when a bill only discussed one topic?

Candidate laws should not discriminate by age

Repost of a Letter-to-the-Editor as it appears in today’s Honolulu Advertiser:

Age-requirement editorial was off base

In response to your editorial on lowering the age to run for governor, I disagree with your conclusion.

You argue that “it makes sense for the bar to be set higher for the chief executive post,” but I have to wonder how living to see the age of 30 qualifies one to be governor.

Depending on the person, one could accomplish quite a bit more by the time they are 20 or 25 than another person does by the time they reach 30 or 40. You argue, “of the 50 states, 33 have the minimum at age of 30.”

Rather than simply accepting this, shouldn’t Hawai’i be a leader in change? Why does Hawai’i have to follow the Mainland crowd?

When voters go to the polls, it should not matter if the candidates are 18, 25, 30 or 80. The people can choose whom they want to lead the state. The law should not discriminate based on age; it is that simple.

Alicia Kubert Smith
Washington, D.C.
Formerly of Kane’ohe

Alicia Kubert Smith is a former Kane’ohe resident and graduate of Hawai’i Pacific University. She is now located in Washington, DC where she is pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Public Communication at American University.

A cartoon to live by

What’s next for the media?

For the past two or so years the media has been consumed by the presidential election. Media coverage, time allocations, ratings and so forth have all hinged on every movement, event, and lingering words of the candidates. Yet, in less than a week that will all be over and it will all be in the past.

What in the world is the media going to do with all that free time? What will they cover – sports, disasters, real news (haha.. right, lets be serious here), what ever will they do? What ever will we, the population of the US and the wold do without this election?! Can our minds handle the empty void??

Well.. I know I will be very happy when the mess is over… but I still wonder, what about the rest of the addicted world, and the media specifically? What’s next…

School Choice, the right choice for Hawai’i’s keiki

It is a known fact that Hawai’i’s education system is in tragic need of assistance. The state has been unsuccessful in making any progress and the elected school board seems to bring more problems than a solutions. So, I think it is about time a new strategy; the freedom of choice, school choice that is. Shouldn’t parents and students have the ability to choose what fits their needs most? However, in Hawai’i there is currently nothing that legitimately provides parents with the freedom to make decisions based on their child’s educational needs.

The concept of school choice is not a new idea – it is an idea first introduced in 1955 by economist Milton Friedman. Friedman believed that parents should be able to send their children to any school they wished. It did not matter what their income was, what their background was or where they lived. Instead, Friedman believed that education should be based on a parent’s choice and their student’s need; nothing else.

Most of us spent our childhood attending schools based upon our geographic location; today’s students should have the opportunity to study where they will get the most out of the experience. Each of our keiki is different, they learn differently, and think differently; this must be reflected in our education system. Many students get stuck in schools where they are not receiving an educational experience that is affective for them. The keiki are our future and the quality of their education should be put before any political agenda. We must adequately educate the youth of Hawai’i or all is lost.

Every year, approximately $8,100 is spent to educate each student individually. Yet, 36 percent of our keiki never even graduate from high school (Source: Education Week, Quality Counts). This is a tragic statistic, and it can be fixed.

Every student should be able to attend the school of their choice, be it a public, private, specialty, or charter school. By adopting a voucher system, every keiki would be ‘allotted’ the same amount of funding, but it that would ‘follow’ them to the school of their choice to cover the cost of attendance at any school, up to the value allocated.

Lisa Snell, director of the Education and Child Welfare Program at the Reason Foundation states the importance of educational restructuring, “Any reform that directly attaches money to the backs of children and allows them to choose any school, without regard to residential restrictions, holds promise. The actual choice mechanism–tax credit, charter school, or voucher–is less important than a child’s having substantial purchasing power and an open system that allows many different types of schools to compete for the child’s funding”.

Ready for a statistics lesson on Hawai’i’s keiki?

• 43 percent of Hawai’i’s keiki live in poverty according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• 74 percent of 4th grade students are not ranked ‘proficient in reading and 67 percent are not ‘proficient’ in math according the National Assessment of Education Progress in 2007.
• 80 percent of 8th graders are not ranked ‘proficient’ in reading and 79 percent are not ‘proficient’ in math according the National Assessment of Education Progress in 2007.

Opponents often try to disillusion the public into believing that private school choice programs aren’t affective and that students don’t really learn more through them. To discredit these claims one need only to look to current school choice programs in other states (Florida for example). According to the Alliance for School Choice, “you will see that in every case, students who participate in these programs work hard and produce higher academic achievement. Parent satisfaction is extremely high, and students love their new schools.” In fact, parent involvement increases, educational scoring and achievement rises, and each party involved is better off.

It is time for change in Hawai’i’s education system. The status quo is failing, we must look in a new direction with promise; school choice. Our Keiki need us. They cannot change the system, but we can.

Be an advocate for Hawai’i’s keiki – make Hawai’i a leader in school choice.

Alicia Kubert Smith is a former Kane’ohe resident and graduate of Hawai’i Pacific University. She is now located in Washington, DC where she works for Student Horizons, Inc and is pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Public Communication from American University.

Some quotes to ponder

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.
- Thomas Jefferson

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.
- Thomas Jefferson

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
- Thomas Jefferson

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
- Thomas Jefferson

All men are by nature born equally free and independent.
- George Mason

We came equals into this world, and equals shall we go out of it.
- George Mason

The 21st century will require a re-affirmation and re-definition of our alliances and international organizations.
- Chuck Hagel (R-NE)

We lose credibility in the face of the world when we say things like, ‘Well, don’t forget, what happened to Iraq could happen to you, Iran,’
- Chuck Hagel (R-NE)

The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business. I don’t think it is the government’s business to tell you how to spend your leisure time.
- Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

We do not have a functioning market in the true sense of the word in health care. That’s a layer of transparency that’s sorely needed in America.
- Paul Ryan (R-WI)

The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. The ideal of democracy rests on the belief that the view which will direct government emerges from an independent and spontaneous process. It requires, therefore, the existence of a large sphere independent of majority control in which the opinions of the individuals are formed.
- F. A. Hayek

The progress of freedom depends more upon the maintenance of peace, the spread of commerce, and the diffusion of education, than upon the labors of cabinets and foreign offices.
- Richard Cobden

Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have
- Davy Crockett

I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery.
- Author Unknown

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
- 10th Amendment, US Constitution

When the Swiss are for non-intervention in war, they are called ‘neutral’; when Americans are for non-intervention, they are called ‘isolationists’.
- Thomas S. Szasz

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door
- The Statue of Liberty

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
-United States Declaration of Independence

Silly Senator, corn is for food
- reason.tv

Woman admits making up attack linked to McCain sticker, police say – CNN.com

Woman admits making up attack linked to McCain sticker, police say – CNN.com

A woman who told police she was assaulted by a man angered about a John McCain bumper sticker on her car admitted she made up the report, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, assistant police chief said Friday.

The rebirth of layaway

I personally have never used layaway before. I think I may recall my parents doing so when I was younger, but I certainly haven’t heard much about layaway in quite some time. Layaway more or less died in the 1980-90’s and nearly ceased to be in recent years. In fact Walmart eliminated their layaway system a few years back completely.  Yet with the current financial crisis it appears layaway is making a bit of a comeback.

Various department stores are beginning to advertise and focus on the use of layaway for holiday shopping. Just check out the Kmart print ad. Kmart’s website even has a special layaway page explaining the process and allowing you to search for the Kmart layaway location nearest you.

For those of you who have forgotten or never knew what layaway was, I’ll explain it a bit. Layaway is a payment system for merchandise. It was made popular primarily in the years following the great depression. Basically, layaway allows you to purchase an item without paying up front, you place a down payment on the item, the store holds the item so that you will not miss-out if it sells-out, and you can than pay the item off over time until you need it or based on a payment plan. However, the additional catch is that most layaways are not free. There are additional fees and charges incurred by the customer for the privilege and use of the layaway system. So, in the long run your layaway item is likely to cost you more money than it would have if you had saved and bough it outright.

Kmart is not the only store jumping on board. TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Burlington Coat Factory, and others have begun to amp-up or build layaway systems. Also quite interesting is the addition of layaway 2.0. That’s right, layaway has hit the web! A new online shopping site, eLayaway.com describes itself as:

A patent-pending, more responsible, alternative way to pay… that is not credit based. With eLayaway, you elect to have partial prepayments of a total product price automatically deducted from your checking account over a selected amount of months. Like traditional layaway, you receive the product once it’s paid in full.

eLayaway also advertises that there are no membership fees, no credit checks required, and no interest rates. However, like traditional layaway there are fees.

So, in a time when money is tight is this really a good thing or will it encourage people to continue to live beyond their means? Hard to say right? Well, the Wall Street Journal argues that perhaps living beyond our means is inevitable and that this system is much better than having to deal with credit card fees and interest rates. The journal also warns that many layaway systems allow you to use credit cards to pay for your layaway items, which means you are not only incurring layaway fees but also credit card debt, card fees, and interest. So think smart and don’t use both. All in all, the journal is saying, since we cannot eliminate our over-consumerism all together it is best we just find better ways to continue it.

The lesson consumers should learn – even if you continue to spend, it is best to think before you buy! Ask yourself how badly you really need the item in hand and whether or not it is better to wait and buy it in full at a later date. Maybe when that date comes around you will realize you don’t even need the item after all… imagine the savings!

You can’t be serious… we are from the same country??

How sad it is that these people have no idea what they are talking about and that what they are saying is so un-American. Yet, they strangely believe what they do and say is best for America and that they are the real and true American voice. So baffling.

Obama sign thieves caught on tape!

Sign theft is so stupid. I do not care how much you dislike a candidate… stealing signs reflects badly on you and the candidate you choose to represent (or the candidate others assume you represent). So stop it already.

Let’s lower the voting age in America!

Let’s face it, age requirements exist for various ‘rights of passage’ in the United States. Sixteen allows one to drive, twenty-one legally opens the door for alcohol, twenty-five allows one to drive a rental car with full privileges (most states), and eighteen allows you to cast your vote in national elections.

Each of the above age restrictions has changed at different points in US history, they have adapted to the whims of the times and events of the day. They have gone up and down and in and out in history. They have not always existed and are themselves, imperfect. Thus, careful attention should be given when they are established and when they are changed. In today’s society, I fully understand the argument that our voting age is in need of change, and I agree that such change should manifest itself in the form of a lower voting age.

The typical age asserted today when speaking of a new and lower voting age is sixteen. Why does sixteen make more sense than eighteen? Allow me to explain.

The Twenty-Sixth Amendment once lowered the voting age. It was lowered from twenty-one to eighteen in order to expand the right of the vote to those being considered and treated as adults in society. Those who were working, dieing in wars, paying taxes and so forth. Today you can fight and die at age seventeen, work and make a living at sixteen, drive at sixteen, be classified as an adult via a legal status change to an emancipated minor, be held accountable as an adult, and even in court be tried as an adult for crimes and other infractions, all under the age of eighteen. So, in all practical assessments, sixteen has become an age of adult responsibilities and it deserves to be recognized as such.

Today sixteen year-olds work and they pay taxes, they are forced by law to give-up part of their income to a government that they have no say in. Basically, sixteen year-old Americans are being taxed without representation. Does that sound familiar? It should. This body of individuals pays upwards of billions of dollars in taxes to state, local, and federal authorities annually. Yet they have no vote. No say in their government, no say in who passes laws, sends them to war, or impacts their daily lives. If given the right to vote, sixteen year-olds will have a voice and a say, polititians will have to pay attention to them as a voting group and their views can be represented, as they rightfully should be.

One of the key arguments against providing the right to vote to sixteen year-olds typically asserts that sixteen year olds aren’t ’smart enough’ to vote, or that they lack the information and intellect to make such decisions. However this is simply not the case. There are many sixteen and seventeen year-olds  with a greater ability to make informed decisions than many voting adults, most of which are far above and beyond eighteen years of age. We let any legal individual over eighteen vote, no matter how informed, intelligent or intellectual they are. All people are different, but to say a sixteen year old is less able to vote than an eighteen year old in today’s society is simply absurd. All people are different, and all individuals treated as and classifiable as adults in any form should be given the same rights, including the right to vote. It is time we gave that right to America’s sixteen year-olds.

In our society sixteen year-olds are, in effect, adults. They work, pay taxes, deal with the decisions made by politicians, can be legally held accountable as adults, and are given the responsibility of adults by the government; yet they are still told they have no say. It is about time this policy changed.