Letters To The Editor
September 27, 2006 - MidWeek
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Del.icio.usKeeping objectivity
Mahalo to Don Chapman for his column “Why We Don’t Endorse Political Candidates.” When a newspaper chooses sides in a campaign, I believe it loses its objectivity and will not be able to present all sides - which is not how a newspaper should operate. Keep up the good work.
Ruth Nakasone
Pearl City
Neutral is best
Kudos to editor Don Chapman and MidWeek for not endorsing candidates. For years when I’ve seen newspapers endorsing candidates, I always wondered “How can I trust your reporting if you’re taking sides?”
With both daily papers taking sides, it’s no wonder that MidWeek has more readers than either of them.
Mike Yamada
Honolulu
Endorsement value
While I agree with most of Don Chapman’s comments in his column “Why We Don’t Endorse Candidates,” I must admit that these newspaper endorsements in certain limited circumstances can be quite useful. For example, when I was plowing through the long list of candidates for the BOE, it was handy and time-saving to immediately cross off everyone endorsed by the Honolulu Advertiser, knowing that anyone endorsed by the radicals running that paper is likely to be painfully liberal.
But I did uncross one of those candidates later, when I found their opponent was endorsed by the Hawaii State Teachers Association. I would like to thank the HSTA for their valuable public service of running an expensive ad pointing out the BOE candidates most likely to destroy our republic and mire our children in illiteracy and McJobs. But perhaps next time they could be more explicit about how ruinously bad their candidates are - no doubt just an oversight on their part, yeah?
Jim Henshaw
Kailua
Tucker: role model
Your cover story on Keahi Tucker was greatly appreciated and well-deserved. I commend you for identifying an extremely positive role model in our local community. Keahi has served as a supportive pillar for my son, who is now a freshman at Saint Louis High School, for many years, going back to when Keahi was a struggling student at UH.
If for a second you believe he is a “total kook” when it comes to surfing, you have not seen him at Ehukai and Rocky Rights. I wish I could surf as bad as that kook.
Scott Nelson
Waimanalo
Bush and jihadists
In her column “The Lefties Are Gunning For Bush,” Michelle Malkin blames the Left for stirring up hatred of President Bush when jihadists are the real enemy. Yes, the jihadists are the real enemy. But some of us (not just “The Left”) think Bush has played, and continues to play, into the jihadists’ hands. That makes him part and parcel of the problem.
Here are just a few ways I think Bush has aided and abetted the jihadists.
1) He diverted attention and resources to a war in Iraq, instead of remaining focused on capturing Osama bin Ladin after the 9/11 attacks.
2) He created a fertile environment for terrorism by not providing a realistic plan and resources for stabilizing Iraq after the removal of Saddam Hussein.
3) He made us weaker at home by massively deploying our defense forces - even the National Guard - to Iraq.
4) His “lone ranger” style furthered bin Ladin’s objective of separating the U.S. from its former allies.
5) His “stay the course” approach plays into bin Ladin’s strategy of “bleeding” the U.S. into bankruptcy.
Some people say that a sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. By that definition, we are truly nuts. The world is in a terrible mess, and Bush has helped to make it that way. We need some fresh thinking. Bush will be with us for another two years, but we can try to hold him in check through the people we send to Congress.
J.B.Young
Honolulu
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