Columnist Dave Shapiro severely criticized local government officials for being “half assed” in so many of their actions in past and present Hawaii (“Lahaina shows the need for fixes on many levels,” Star-Advertiser, Volcanic Ash, Sept. 3).

He believes that some of these “half assed” actions contributed to the deadly Lahaina disaster. It should be noted that not all local government officials are bad. Some are very good and dedicated servants.

But he does make good points that local government has failed Hawaii in many aspects.

We can blame the politicians all we want — but we voted for them.

The real problem is that we vote in the same people over and over and rarely hold them accountable.

We never left the plantation. We simply exchanged the plantation owners and lunas for politicians who promise, election after election, to take care of us, but do not. With Hawaii’s absolutely atrocious lack of voter participation, what kind of government did we expect?

Given how much we have let special interests own so many politicians, maybe we should really be worried if they went “full assed” on us.

Leighton Loo

Mililani

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