First you are clearly mistaking satire for journalistic integrity. Never the less, I took the time to publish the links to the actual quotes that appeared in real newspapers in real stories covering “District Voting” written by real reporters. You were even given an opportunity in print to provide a rebuttal, in this very local community satire news paper, despite the fact that your not even very funny at all.

The same invitation that was extended to you, is extended as a matter of course to the Chairman of the Maui Democratic Party, the Maui Republican Party or any other public figure that would like to be interviewed by the journalism students at Maui Media Lab’s public access community television station. Please call or email to set up a date and time. As far as I know neither you nor anyone else from your organization has afforded themselves of this opportunity.

Similar to the Constitution of the United States, the Maui County Charter provides the basis in Law that guarantees the rights and defines the civil liberties and limitations for Maui County’s residents, including how we are all afforded representation in our County Council. And the Maui County Charter clearly states that the Island of Lanai shall be represented on the Maui County Council by a Council Member from Lanai. And that a Maui County Council member shall also be elected from the Island of Molokai, along with Council Members from the Island of Maui’s distinct geographic districts.

This foundational law is in our County Charter, our Constitution, and intentionally guarantees the rights of the residents of districts and islands with disproportionally small populations from having their right to vote, their legacy and their land voted away from them in elections based on a pretense of “equal and fair representation” by Maui’s increasingly over populated urban centers which are starting to run out of local resources to exploit, and even a place to put the garbage.

“District Voting” is the name of the local effort to change the Maui County Charter to strike the existing right of the people of the Hawaiian Islands of Lanai and Molokai to vote for a Maui County Council Member from their own island.

Why would the Chairman of the Maui Democratic Party refuse to take a position on whether the rights of the residents of Lanai and Molokai to represent themselves on the Maui County Council should be struck from the Maui County Charter?

Many Maui residents think that our County would be better served by local political “leaders” that can agree from the start that their first and foremost responsibility is to represent and fight for the basic civil rights of all of the members of our Maui community. Even the residents of Lanai and Molokai.

It can hardly be considered an attack, nor petty for a satirist to attempt to get a politician to clarify whether or not they intend to stand up for their constituents right to vote.

Politicians of both parties made their preference perfectly clear with regard to “District Voting” during the last election cycle. It will be a long time coming before the residents of Molokai and Lanai forget who stood up for their right to vote, and who stood idly by, while their associates tried to take their right to vote away, but in a quite legal, equal and fair manner.

My comments are now part of the permanent record, as are yours. And the record shows that neither myself nor Maui Media Lab’s teachers, students or parents are pro or against Democrat or Republican. Consistently, from Hana to Kaunakakai and for more than a decade, Maui Media Lab has taught Maui’s young women and men about the importance of civility in the local political process. Fabricating falsehoods as a basis for your mistaken judgements will not make you any less wrong.

I understand your wonder at why the Moon Over Haleakala continues to print my column. It must be similar to all of our wonder as to why you are still reading it. But since you are, here are a couple of words of advice: try toning down the personal attacks and consider forming a reasoned response. In any case, I certainly think it would make you a better Vice President of Information for the Maui County Democratic Party.

The record stands.
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Sam Epstein is Executive Director of the Maui Media Lab Foundation, a 501(c)3 non profit organization in the State of Hawaii, and teaches Constitutional Law to Hawaii’s Jr. High and High School Students.

Maui County Democratic Party Vice President of Information, Karen Chun, responded to my recent column on District Voting to clarify that “District Voting is no way being advocated by the Maui County Democratic Party.”

Thank you for your reply, Karen. I think you will agree that given the amount of documented reporting (a sample of which I have included here for your benefit,) illustrating the amount of effort expended by individuals, including the Chairman of the Maui County Democratic Party to have District Voting put in place, warranted the publication of “District Voting, Restrict Voting.” Well, that and the Moon Over Haleakala is focusing a bit less on irony this time around, and a little more on satire.

In any case, thank you for making it clear that the Maui County Democrat Party rejects the view of its Chairman and in no way advocates District Voting.

As far as leadership goes, I think it needs to be defined by two things: courage and knowledge. Courage without knowledge is stupidity, and we have seen as a country how well that has worked out, militarily and economically. Nationally and locally. For example, its not that 60% of Maui’s Democrat Voters are anti-caribou or unconcerned about the tundra, its just that as far as I know there are no caribou on Maui, and most of Maui’s voters would prefer “leadership” that spent a bit more time on solving the problems of our local economy and environment, standing up for our individual rights and civil liberties, disavowing politically motivated, frivolous lawsuits filed against Maui’s real community leaders by paid party apparatchiks, and a bit less time (not to mention jet fuel,) flying to Alaska to see the pretty reindeer.

On another note, I really like to encourage Maui’s Jr. High and High School students the importance of civility; especially when you are trying to make a point. Ad hominem attacks, really tend to undermine your ability to make your case, no matter how clever you may think you are. Especially, when you are wrong.

In any case, thank you for not being any anonymous coward, having the courage to post using your real name, taking responsibility for your opinion, encouraging a fact base discussion and taking the time to clarify that “District Voting is no way being advocated by the Maui County Democratic Party.”

I would like to extend an invitation to you to be interviewed by our journalism students at Maui Media Lab’s public access community television station at your convenience. Please call or email to set up a date and time.

Aloha,

Sam Epstein is Executive Director of the Maui Media Lab Foundation, a 501(c)3 non profit organization in the State of Hawaii, and teaches Constitutional Law to Hawaii’s Jr. High and High School Students.

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9 May 2010, Maui News

http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/531349.html
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Council Member Jo Anne Johnson has introduced the West Maui Charter Working Group’s proposal to the council, and the bill has been referred to the council’s Committee of the Whole. If approved by the council, the charter amendment would be placed on the ballot in November to be decided by voters. Under the proposal, voters would be asked if the county should abolish at-large elections for the council and instead establish nine election districts. The boundaries of those new districts would be drawn by a County Reapportionment Commission, whose members would be nominated by the mayor and confirmed by the council.

Under the law, the county’s population would need to be divided equally between the nine districts. That means smaller regions, like Lanai and Molokai, could not each have a district to themselves, but would need to be grouped with larger populations.
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Lance Holter, chairman of the Democratic Party of Maui, agrees that change is needed.
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22 July, 2010, Maui Weekly

http://www.mauiweekly.com/page/content.detail/id/501771/Council-Considers-Voting-Districts.html?nav=13
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With four of their colleagues conspicuously absent, the remaining five council members met early Thursday morning to review a draft resolution for a proposed charter amendment that, if it had gone to and was approved by the full council next month, would have been a question placed on the 2010 General Election ballots this fall. Introduced by West Maui Council member Jo Anne Johnson in April, the proposed amendment seeks to establish nine equally sized voting districts and “replace at-large elections for Maui County Council Members with elections for members from each of the nine election districts, with the district boundaries to be determined by a County Reapportionment Commission according to established criteria.” Simply stated, the proposed amendment called for a revised elections system in which only residents of a particular district would be allowed to vote for a council member from that same district.
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7 August, 2010, Maui News
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Council members Jo Anne Johnson, Gladys Baisa and Joe Pontanilla on Friday tried unsuccessfully to bypass the Charter Commission and get district voting placed on the ballot in this election cycle. Under the failed proposal, a Reapportionment Commission would decide the boundaries of the new districts, if they were created.
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20 October, 2010, The Molokai Dispatch

http://www.themolokaidispatch.com/candidates-weigh-district-voting-part-i
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Elle Cochran: I am for district voting…
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said attorney Lance Collins, West Maui Charter Working Group secretary. “I think that it would improve confidence in our local decision making body. And according to our poll
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Gladys Baisa (Incumbent): … MAYBE