{"id":1635,"date":"2022-02-18T23:53:21","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T09:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/countrytalkstory.com\/?p=1635"},"modified":"2022-02-19T00:20:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-19T10:20:59","slug":"silo-mentality-or-mismanagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/countrytalkstory.com\/?p=1635","title":{"rendered":"Silo Mentality or Mismanagement or Corruption?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;ve always been interested to see the functioning of the government that is supposed to serve the people of Hawaii. Like other observers, we&#8217;re frustrated by the disconnect and the mess that we&#8217;re in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recently, a former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.khon2.com\/hawaii-crime\/u-s-attorneys-office-to-announce-the-filing-of-charges-relating-to-2-hawaii-legislators\/\">State Senator<\/a> and a State Representative were caught in a corruption sting. They succumbed to the bribes so quickly and blatantly. This expose has obviously created a lot of political posturing to deflect and distract from the core problems at hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.staradvertiser.com\/2022\/02\/18\/editorial\/letters\/letters-open-up-state-capitol-for-all-citizens-to-enter\/\">Letter to the Editor<\/a> at the Honolulu Star Advertiser reinforces the ongoing disdain and distrust for our political system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>People seem surprised by the recent corruption<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>I once was at a social event with the local FBI chief and I asked him what his biggest problem was locally. I expected him to say something about drugs, the local mafia or international crime. He said it was local political corruption. This was 25 years ago.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>It\u2019s been around forever, folks.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Brent Berk<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hawaii Kai<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those are are involved in the system must have experiences with irregularities, wrongdoings, and suspicions. But sometimes a small island forces one to &#8220;go along and get along&#8221;.  The two legislators will expectedly will be punished for their small amounts, relatively speaking. Campaign donations run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. These legalized &#8220;donations&#8221; need to be reined in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It does not automatically mean that all donations are questionable. Some sincerely donate to causes and confidence that a candidate will best represent the public good. But it&#8217;s difficult to accept that hefty donations are given without any expectations of favors or attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the meanwhile, TERM LIMITS is one antidote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve always been interested to see the functioning of the government that is supposed to serve the people of Hawaii. Like other observers, we&#8217;re frustrated by the disconnect and the mess that we&#8217;re in. Recently, a former State Senator and a State Representative were caught in a corruption sting. They succumbed to the bribes so [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/countrytalkstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/countrytalkstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/countrytalkstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/countrytalkstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/countrytalkstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1635"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/countrytalkstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1638,"href":"http:\/\/countrytalkstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions\/1638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/countrytalkstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/countrytalkstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/countrytalkstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}