Letters To The Editor
May 23, 2007 - MidWeek
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Del.icio.usLaughing out loud
I was laughing so hard at Bruce Cameron’s article, “Hanging Out At The Airport” (May 2) that my 5-year-old grandson kept asking me, “What’s the matter, Grandma?” He even stopped playing his computer game to come over to see what I was laughing at.
Thanks for a good laugh and for all the others you’ve provided in your past articles.
M. Chang
Mililani
Bush fails military
Re: Jerry Coffee’s “Honoring The Few Who Defend Us” (May 18)
It goes without saying we owe a lot to our men and women in military service. The most important thing we can do for them is to assure we only send them to defend us from clear and present dangers, not imaginary threats of WMDs. And when we do send them into harm, we must properly equip them with armor, vehicles and weapons. Finally, when they return home, we must guarantee they receive good veterans’ care.
Unfortunately, President Bush failed miserably in all three areas, and now he wants to send 25,000 more troops into a dangerous mess he created that fuels more terrorism. Why doesn’t Bush honor and support our troops? Whereas Jerry Coffee touts dinner shows, free gas, parades and retail discounts for our military servicemen and women, which are fine, I prefer to bring them home safe and sound.
Adam Lee
Honolulu
Gambling revenues
Regarding Grace Furukawa’s long letter about the maladies of gambling (May16), our city is now faced with funding a rapid transit and sewer pipe upgrades, along with fixing the roads. For most people (and only 4 percent are compulsive gamblers), gambling is voluntary.
After visiting the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas recently, I was not fascinated by the casinos, but I enjoyed the shows and food. I think it is nice to have places which are away from the gambling and bright lights.
If a lottery, shipboard gambling or some other sort of thing would help pay for rapid transit, sewer repairs, better roads and schools, along with better pay for the teachers, then maybe we cannot all afford to live in a glass bubble and see no wrong, hear no wrong and say no wrong.
Phil Robertson
Honolulu
Science vs. culture
I belatedly read Bob Jones column dated April 11 and was struck by the bombastic tone of his writing.
His support for “State Rep. Clinton Tsuji’s decision to pigeonhole that bad proposal to halt UH genetic research disease-free taro” was followed by his derogative remarks at persons who testified for the ban on genetic manipulation of native taro plant strains.
The first testifier he charged as an ignorant biology class absentee. And then, that Tricia Watson must have also “skipped her science classes.” If only life’s educational-political topics were as plain and tidy judgments in modern day scientism with only either-or verities.
Life would be blessedly blissful in a worldview that basks in the sacral light of modern science with only black and white contours. Such poetical vision creates an American Assimilation Soup Model where all ethnicities subordinate their cultural identities to become a “common American citizen.”
The testimonies, which he criticized as nothing more than from “the under-educated, fearful and superstitious” people, were cultural visions given by authentic protagonists in Hawaiian cultural sovereignty. The testifiers were sharing the traditional poetic visions drawn from the anthologies created by their forebears summarizing their biological technologies and preserved in the memorable symbols of poetic stories.
However, this is the real world here in Hawaii nei like every authentic cultural place on Earth! Our home of Hawaii is the leading sample of the cultural salad bowl of multiculturalism where a social contact in cultural tolerance exists among most of its grateful citizens who enjoy a legacy of tolerance shaped by survivors from the racist-business crucible of sugar plantation history.
Mr. Jones is a seasoned journalist and war correspondent, but he has yet to mix with and, thereby, begin to understand this tolerance for other peoples in Hawaii who belong to real cultural ethnicities without being wraiths of an American apparition.
I guess it must be true, as the saying goes, that “The last expert on water will be the fish.”
Come on out, Mr. Jones, and join us real cultural fish. You and your ilk are far too comfortable in your own oppression.
Emil Wolfgramm
Kaneohe
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