Sharp Scissors

If future archaeologists ever start digging through my yard-- they will have to assume that I'm a cruel sadist. There are beheaded baby chickens scattered in shallow graves all around my house. So, as a message to any future generation that goes prowling with a shovel, let me clarify that I do not take pleasure in killing chickens.

What do you do when you find an injured baby chick that has no hope of survival? Do you let it sit in the sun, trying in vain to stand up, while getting pecked at by its relatives? Or do you put it out of its misery with a quick snip of the scissors?*

And, as I've rambled about before in two earlier posts (part one and part two), there isn't a good answer. I'm faced with two options. Shitty and shittier.

Shitty is listening for hours as the chirps go from desperation to resignation to silence as the life slowly drains from the broken legged, or malnourished, or underdeveloped chick. And shittier is watching as a headless body strives in vain to stand up while the beak opens and closes gasping for air while the beady eyes stare at me in justified accusation.

To cut, or not to cut-- for me, that may be the most challenging moral question of springtime. Luckily I'm not a politician.

On that note, Civil Beat just published my first official column. It's on inequality and why the excise tax is a bad source of funds to repair our crumbling infrastructure on Kaua'i. It builds off of the article I wrote the other week on congestion and prioritizing spending.

We have $100M of necessary infrastructure repairs and a woefully inadequate public transportation system.

So let me clearly say that avoiding the problem completely is akin to the slow, cruel death of neglect.

While I'm critical of the administration's proposal to increase the excise tax-- I respect the fact that they are at least putting forth a solution. Any elected official who opposes the increased excise tax has to simultaneously put forward an idea for where the funding should come from instead. Just saying "no" is a dereliction of duty.

From my perspective, to make up the difference we need at least a 15 cent increase in the gas tax and a one cent increase in the vehicle weight tax.

Yet, making that suggestion is like picking up the scissors, looking into the chicken's eyes, and then making the bloody cut.


* Before anyone accuses me of animal cruelty-- I make sure that the wild chick has no chance of recovery before killing it. The only time I cull chicks is when they are incapacitated by either a broken leg or a broken neck.