Posted on: Sunday, October 6, 2002

Letters to the Editor

Plate commentary was sophomoric prattling

Tom Plate's Sept. 29 column was pathetic. China was nice to the U.S., but for comparison, the U.S. was not nice to Germany? The U.S. approach to Iraq is bad because China could use the same rationale against Taiwan? These are sophomoric prattlings, not serious analysis.

Germany's chancellor was re-elected by unremitting U.S. bashing (including comparing Bush to Hitler) and then only by the smallest of margins. The U.S. does not have a right to be upset at this behavior?

And if Plate cannot distinguish the situation of Taiwan from Iraq in terms of the justification for intervention, then he must be seriously cut off from reality (like many university professors). Moreover, he seems to have selectively forgotten certain fairly recent Chinese activities such as the forced landing of a U.S. plane and bellicose statements toward Taiwan.

This would not be so bad if his views were balanced somewhere else by perhaps a Safire, Will or Krauthammer arguing a different viewpoint.ÊUnfortunately, The Advertiser apparently does not see the need for balance, which is a disservice to its readers and frankly reflects badly on the paper.

Jonathan Becker

Don't remember her in the voting booth

I will probably get it from my Democratic friends and family, but our gubernatorial candidates, both Republican and Democrat, have been promising change in the way we do government — then Congresswoman Patsy Mink passes away.

Call it fate, call it coincidence, but our state of Hawai'i was in major need of change (a nonpartisan election issue) and we got it in a sad way. Patsy Mink's legacy was revealed in our newspapers on what she stood for even when most of us didn't know. Vietnam vets decried Jane Fonda for her antiwar statements, but we end up voting for Patsy Mink to represent us anyway, despite her record on the Vietnam War.

Time for change? This November, vote for representation, not remembrance. The $2 million could be used as an endowment for the betterment of our schoolchildren or maybe to fund the Spark Matsunaga Veterans Hospital to honor and help those true American heroes who could really appreciate the support that was painfully denied them when powerful voices spoke against their actions in a war that everyone wanted to forget. That could be Patsy Mink's final legacy, one of virtue, not waste.

There are many ways to remember her, but it's not in a voting booth.

Please, we are reminded to do our patriotic duty and vote for representation. Patsy Mink cannot represent us anymore. This is the reality; this is the change. We got it; let's not waste it again.

Craig Watanabe

Fold special election into the Nov. 5 voting

Governor Cayetano has, by far, the most reasonable solution for the special election problem. Include the special election question on the day of the general election, Nov. 5, thus solving the problem of excessive costs and taking the wind out of the critics' sails.

The inclusion of John Mink as a candidate, if he is willing, would also make very good sense. John Mink has spent many years with Patsy in Washington and knows the issues and the drill.

John would be a most effective representative of and for Hawai'i.

Norman Hallett

Public figures have no right to privacy

With the passing of Rep. Patsy Mink, I could not help but reflect on the primary election of Sept. 21. Her illness was kept from the public under the guise of personal privacy, which does apply to the basic citizen.

Rep. Mink was not a basic citizen; she was a public servant, and however unfortunate it may be, those who choose public life cannot expect the voting public to look the other way when illness presents itself. Those who choose public life have a responsibility to be up-front and honest about their ability to serve.

Now I sit and listen to Sen. Inouye on the evening news speaking about the upcoming election. The idea of keeping Rep. Mink on the ballot is another ploy from the Democratic Party to take votes away from others who do have the ability to serve.

One way to pay tribute to Patsy Mink is by supporting the charities she supported, not by tainting a general election with partisan politics.

To top it off, Sen. Inouye is more than willing to spend "our" tax dollars to hold a special election after the general in case Rep. Mink wins the seat.

Time for a change.

Scott Glasgow
Kane'ohe

Those who voted are true patriots

Two comments on recent events:

• The 41 percent of registered voters who took the time to vote are the most patriotic of Americans and should be recognized as such.

• If Linda Lingle's "new beginning" plan for Hawai'i is so great, why isn't she using her TV ads to promote it in detail, instead of an ad denigrating Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono?

Jessica A. Baang
Wai'anae

Where's the outrage at losing God's name?

Let's see ... the name of God has been systematically removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, a wall at McKinley High School, the police oath and most school books; yet, when rocks fall at Sacred Falls, it's called an act of God?

How intelligent we've become.

I don't know which is more disgusting, the voice of this effort or the silence of the churches.

Dave Verret

Sacred Falls should have been shut down

After reading a letter about the closing of Sacred Falls, I want that letter writer and others who don't believe that closing the park was right to realize something. It may not have affected you, so of course you would want the park to stay open.

I came very close to losing two members of my family in that rockslide that day because of the ignorance of park officials in not closing the park after rocks fell in preceding days.

People need to open their eyes and be less selfish. If it were you mourning the loss of a family member, you wouldn't be saying the things that have been said.

Erin Newman
Deerfield Beach, Fla.

Helen Thomas talks needed challenging

What a shame most of the public didn't get to see and hear the arrogance of Helen Thomas, the self-appointed, unelected leader of the liberal media.

In her local lectures, she gave her personal instructions to elected people, who are a lot smarter than she is, on what to do and how to do it. Her personal motto apparently seems to be, "I never met a conservative I didn't hate."

And that, of course, explains her complete lack of normal, balanced newswriting and facts and the overload of extreme left-wing propaganda she pumps out.

Her McCarthyism is no longer to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, our local budding young journalists, impressed by the adoration of their teachers, reportedly hung on every liberal left-wing word. Had there been real budding journalists in their midst, they would have questioned every statement she made, as would a good journalist.

The answer to Helen Thomas is the old tried and true saying, "Don't believe everything you read in the newspapers."

Don McDiarmid Jr.
Kailua