Letters To The Editor
November 10, 2010 - MidWeek
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Del.icio.usTax churches
I was so incensed reading the excellent Star-Advertiser story about New Hope Chapel pastors preaching about who church members should vote for. I hope someone in the Legislature or state tax office looks into this.
By turning a so-called worship service into a political rally, New Hope should automatically forfeit its tax-free status. Yes, my fellow citizens, we don’t charge even property taxes on churches. Which means non-religious people are paying to support churches. In these times, those property tax revenues would help the state’s bottom line.
The pastors quoted in the story certainly have the rights of any American citizen to speak their opinions, but when they do so on church property, and especially in a worship service, they have stepped over the line, and should be taxed accordingly like the rest of us. If you want to play in politics, you have to pay taxes. Otherwise, stick to the spiritual stuff.
Larry Nagamine
Honolulu
Love is all
Thank you for the wonderful cover story on American Idol Adam Lambert and his interview with Jade Moon. I also thank Adam Lambert for his message about loving yourself and others. Nothing else matters but love.
Joyce Choy
Honolulu
It’s not wrong
If MidWeek was wrong to publish the cover story on Adam Lambert, as Margaret Mills wrote in a letter, what’s considered “right”? Just because someone doesn’t fit your standards of “normalcy” (which is nonexistent), it doesn’t mean you have to ridicule them. I’m a junior in high school and I know that expression overrules religion, sexuality, political preference, etc. If you’re so ignorant to accept individual acts of expression, then what are your morals? If you don’t want “young people” to look up to Adam, then who should they look up to? A trendy teenybopper named Justin Bieber? I think not. Adam has lyrics that matter, and Justin Bieber will be forgotten within the next trend.
Marissa Potts
Kailua High School
A role model
Just because a person is gay doesn’t mean they can’t be a role model. Are we that selfish that we don’t want gays to be happy? Just because Adam Lambert went public with his personal life doesn’t give anyone the right to judge him and those who share the same beliefs. Ms. Mills must be a very narrow-minded person for pointing out the fact that just because a person is gay they can’t be a role model to anyone (no offense). I am not gay, but I believe that it is wrong to say such things and sound like you are the most righteous person in the world. Our nation did not become so great because people’s beliefs were shunned; our nation is great because of our freedom - freedom to become who we want to be, freedom to believe in what we want to believe in, and freedom to take a stand for our beliefs.
Alanna Matavao
Waianae
He gives hope
First, let me make clear the fact that I am not necessarily an Adam Lambert fan. That said, I respect him for his honest expression of himself and appreciate his considerable talent. In a society that still makes many celebrities fearful of coming out, Adam Lambert was forthcoming early in his career about his sexuality, a tremendous risk.
It is people like Margaret Mills and the Arkansas school board member Clint McCance, who judge and stereotype gays, who cause fear in young gay and lesbian or transgender people, even to the point of suicide!
Recent cases of this have come to light, but it is impossible to know how many suicides and murders have occurred for the same reasons but were never made public.
Adam Lambert is absolutely a role model! He is a young man who follows his dreams and expresses himself honestly. He did not deny himself his right to do so because bigoted, homo-phobic people such as Ms. Mills might not understand that his gayness was not a choice! He not only gives of himself musically, he gives young gay people hope that they, too, can be successful and be comfortable with and honest about who they are!
Thank you to MidWeek for the cover story on Adam Lambert and thank you for printing letters from Ms. Mills and her ilk. If it evokes discourse on this topic, then you have done your job. How fortunate that we do live in a society in which we can all express ourselves freely, despite the efforts of people like Ms. Mills, who would limit that expression to that with which she and her friends are “comfortable”!
Lisa Wiley
Ewa Beach
Stop hating
I know we have freedom of speech here, but is hate mail really necessary to print? So what if Adam Lambert is gay, that does-‘t make him any less of a great entertainer, or a person, for that matter. We need to stop hating other people and putting them down for their genetic differences. People should be teaching their kids tolerance and acceptance instead of blaming entertainers for the way their kids dress. Take responsibility for yourself and your kids and let people be who they are.
Tara Humphreys
Kailua
Editor’s note: This is a sampling of letters received in support of Adam Lambert and his cover story. MidWeek received no letters in support of Ms. Mills’ point of view.
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