https://ethicsalarms.com/2023/08/21/in-maui-dei-insanity-kills/
In Maui, DEI Insanity Kills
AUGUST 21, 2023 / JACK MARSHALL
The routine placement of DEI famatics in positions of authority around
America is a dangerous and destructive fad. Witness M. Kaleo Manuel,
former deputy director of the Hawaii Commission on Water Resource
Management, who said in a livestream debate hosted by the University of
Hawaii last year, in discussing water distribution on the island,
“Let water connect us and not divide us! We can share it, but it
requires true conversations about equity…How do we coexist with the
resources we have?”
Manuel, a former Obama Foundation leader who coached volunteers in
“practical skill building for social change,” Manuel said he considered
water “an important tool for social justice.” So it should not be
surprising that when the real estate developer that supplies water to
areas southeast of Lahaina recognized the threat posed by a dangerous
combination of high winds and drought-parched grasses in Maui and asked
Manuel for permission to fill up one of its private reservoirs in case
firefighters needed it, the Obama social justice warrior’s main concern
was equity, not preventing death and destruction from fire. Manuel told
the company that it had to consult with a local farmer about the impact
of water diversion before he would approve the request. Five hours
passed without water being added to the reservoir, and the brush fire
that had been contained that morning flared up again and swept through
Lahaina, burning everything and everyone in its path.
In the wake of the the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century,
the West Maui Land Company wrote to the state water regulator, “We
watched the devastation around us without the ability to help. We
anxiously awaited the morning knowing that we could have made more water
available to MFD [Maui Fire Department] if our request had been
immediately approved…We need to act faster in an emergency.” Ya think?
But it’s hard to act fast when bias and wokeness has made the government
stupid. Manuel, a champion of environmental groups and Indigenous
residents who want to preserve stream water for traditional uses and
limit water diversions by private companies, thus emulated the infamous
Ford Pinto lawyers who authored the “Let ’em burn” memo. Their top
priority was profits, his was “equity.” Results were similar, though by
the time all the fatalities are in, we will know that a lot more people
burned up in the Maui fire than in exploding Pintos.
Manuel has been “redeployed,” but Hawaii claims the job change “does not
suggest that First Deputy Manuel did anything wrong.” Right. Now we know
that we can’t trust the state government of Hawaii to tell the truth
either. See: 64. Yoo’s Rationalization or “It isn’t what it is.”