A member of the public witnessed a poster and City and County employees at the Windward Satellite City Hall promoting the signing of the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce's petition "Keep Hawaii's Heroes." The HCoC petition opposes the Department of Defense's proposal to downsize the Army by 19,800 on Oahu: 16,000 at Schofield Barracks and 3,800 at Fort Shafter. The HCoC is pushing the petition to keep Oahu soldiers at their present numbers primarily because they see some businesses taking a cut in revenue if the number of Oahu soldiers is reduced. They also say that it will be bad for Hawaii economically, but with little to no facts backing up that opinion.
In line with the June 2014 DoD announcement of cutting 130,000 active duty Army worldwide, the Army has also proposed downsizing the number of soldiers in 18 other states, not just on Oahu. Not affected are Oahu Marines, Navy and Air Force, which have much better support and training and considerably more efficient fighting forces.
The witness who saw the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce posters and support at the Windward Satellite City Hall alerted members of the Oahu Council for Army Downsizing (OC4AD). The OC4AD takes the opposite position of the HCoC: namely, "Better Army, Mo' Bettah Hawaii," which puts a streamlined, more efficient Army, and soldiers well-being first.
Col. (retired) AL Frenzel of OC4AD went to the Pearlridge Satellite City Hall on Thursday (yesterday) and found the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce's agenda being promoted at the city and county facility on posters and by city and county personnel.
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell (nonpartisan office, but he's a Democrat), Governor David Ige (D), Colleen Hanabusa (D) and newly elected Congressman Mark Takai (D) have publicly opposed the DoD proposal to restructure Oahu soldiers.
Would the City and County have allowed the Hawaii CoC opposition, OC4AD, to do the same gathering of support on city property with city employees on the same one-sided basis? What do you think?
See what's going on at the satellite offices for yourself.
OC4AD.com
