Letters To The Editor

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August 25, 2010 - MidWeek

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Drop UH sports

Kudos to Gerhard Hamm for his right-on letter criticizing UH spending - and losing - millions of dollars, and then asking students who have no interest in sports to pay an athletics fee every semester to help balance the bottom line. I have nothing against sports, and I believe that physical activity is crucial for both mental and physical health, but who are we kidding by trying to compete with the USCs of the world? Heck, UH plays in a lousy conference (that just got even lousier last week) and is usually in the middle of the WAC pack. Let’s dump inter-collegiate sports and redirect resources to academics and a more vigorous P.E. program to educate students on the benefits of exercise.

James Harada
Makiki

Outraged, but ...

Like Jerry Coffee (“The Barbarity Of The Taliban”), I was appalled at the Time magazine cover story showing a young Afghan woman whose nose had been cut off for running away from her abusive husband and his family. Like Mr. Coffee, I am outraged at the Taliban’s vicious pattern of behavior toward women, and applaud Time editors for their bold decision to publish that photo.

But, unlike Mr. Coffee, I am not willing to lose another American life or spend another American dollar trying to prop up a corrupt Afghan government or to drag a medieval culture into the 21st century. As Roger Simon wrote in a recent issue of MidWeek, we cannot fight every noble fight, cannot right every wrong in the world.

We have plenty of problems here at home. Let’s get out of the war business and start tackling those.

Kimo Lee
Honolulu

Going Third World

At first I was offended that Arianna Huffington included Hawaii’s public school Furlough Fridays in her list of things that show America sliding backward into Third World country status (“Hawaii Schools: A Third World Sign”). But then I started thinking: Isn’t one of the first things we do when giving aid to poor countries is try to improve the education of children? Perhaps one day, instead of loaning us money, the Chinese will have to come here with foreign aid payments to keep our schools open.

One thing I do know: We already have Third World roads.

Jane Chong
Makiki

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