Letters To The Editor
March 29, 2006 - MidWeek
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Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy reading MidWeek every week and weekend. I enjoy it so much for so many reasons: the balance of different viewpoints, from serious to humorous tones (Bruce Cameron is my favorite, and Ron Nagasawa’s columns always bring a smile, too!)
And I like that there is an emphasis on good and positive things happening around our island. We just seem to get so much negative news from all other media sources!
Keep up the good work!
Norma Kimokeo
Kaneohe
Haole diversity
Regarding recent MidWeek letters about racial prejudice:
The state of Hawaii is officially ignorant of race and ethnicity. Just look at any state of Hawaii form that asks you to identify your ethnicity and you will see that all white people are grouped together as Caucasian. Why doesn’t the state recognize that white people here are just as ethnically diverse as Asians and Pacific Islanders?
The state should list options like Scandinavian, Anglo, Gaelic, French, Iberian, Russian, German, and Slavic if they are going to let Asians choose among Chinese, Japanese and Korean. And blacks should be able to identify whether they are African American, West Indian, West African or East African. This amounts to officially sanctioned, institutionalized ignorance and prejudice on the part of the state of Hawaii, does it not?
The inability of some locals to appreciate the diversity of ethnic backgrounds among whites becomes the justification for racist sentiments. I could be the son of Polish farmers who moved to America in the 1950s, but in the eyes of some Hawaiians, I’m still a direct descendent of the haoles who stole their land. In actuality, I’m as different from those haoles as a Marshall Islander is from a Hawaiian.
Would they blame the Chinese or Koreans for bombing Pearl Harbor?
Eric Rosenfeld
Honolulu
Arrogant idiocy
Kudos to Bob Jones for his cover story on Steve Molnar and the Honolulu Vet Center, and their good work counseling war vets.
It’s just too bad that President Bush, VP Cheney and War Secretary Rumsfeld couldn’t have injured and traumatized vets over to their houses for long-term counseling - so they could see firsthand what their arrogant idiocy in Iraq has truly wrought on this country.
Steve Higashi
Honolulu
Missing the point
Jerry Coffee, quoting Mr. Haim Harari, indulges in twisting facts and creating non-existent images. Their claim that the Arab world is fascistic reveals their ignorance: Fascism, by definition, arises in heavily industrialized countries where the military-industrial complex assumes power to crush any local opposition or resistance and starts to invade other countries to build a suppressive empire. Historical examples can be studied in the events that brought fascistic regimes to Germany, Italy and Japan in the 1930s.
None of the Arab countries would meet these definitions. On the contrary, most of the Arab countries had been, until recently, colonies that suffered under the yoke of one Western colonialist power or the other for various periods of time. Claiming that the West is engaged in “World War III” against the Muslim World is nothing but one of Israel’s veiled efforts to continue to recruit America and Europe to support its continuing gruesome measures of ethnic cleansing and outright genocide against the Palestinians whose land it stole 58 years ago - with U.N. complicity - and continues to occupy in a brutal, crimes-against-humanity frenzy.
Coffee’s and Harari’s tirades against the Arabs and their culture, and their shameless subjectivity in blaming them for anything and everything, only expose their attempt to exonerate Israel of the state terrorism it has been committing against the Christian and Muslim Palestinians. Israel has been utilizing WMDs (suspicious gases used as collective punishment; Israel has a known arsenal of 200-plus nuclear bombs), plus F-16s, helicopter gunships, etc., whereas the Palestinians have no means of defense and not even an effective police force. The Israeli arsenal is provided by blindly loyal U.S. administrations and at the expense of the American taxpayers who are kept in the dark by bribed or blackmailed mainstream media.
Mr. Coffee, you cannot fool all of the people all the time.
Ramsis Lutfy
Aiea
Send your letters to MidWeek Letters, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 500, Honolulu, HI. 96813; by fax to 585-6324, or by email to dchapman@midweek.com. Please include your name, address and daytime and evening phone numbers. We print only the letters that include this information, but only your name and area of residence will appear in print. Letters may be edited for clarity and space.
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