Every election year, as I receive my ballot in the mail, the first thing I am required to do is choose a political party. This frustrates me to no end.
I do not consider myself a member of a party, and there are people (in other than the ruling party) for whom I wish to vote. So I will vote for the person in a less-popular party, who I think will do a good job, and let the chips fall where they may for the more popular candidates (some of whom I consider competent) that I will be unable to endorse on my ballot.
This requirement of being forced to choose a party needs to be eliminated.
S. Rick Crump
Kaneohe
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Treat homeless with compassion
Where is the humanity in Diane Tippett’s letter declaring that “the streets of Honolulu have become an open asylum,” presumably for the homeless (“Homeless need to be moved off streets,” Star-Advertiser, July 22)?
The letter suggests the homeless should be treated more like caged animals. Clearly the message is Charles Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” — I have mine, and that is what matters. We agree that “sanity must prevail,” but in seeking a reasonable solution to one of society’s critical problems, how about a wee bit of compassion and understanding of the situation instead of fueling the fire?
Anthony Locascio
Waikiki
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Ige, Hanabusa scramble for credit
Sophie Cocke’s article missed an important point (“Credit for affordable housing sparks clash,” Star-Advertiser, July 24).
Neither Gov. David Ige nor U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa deserve credit for $200 million in funding from the federal government for Hawaii housing. It’s not free money. It’s not money earned by either Ige or Hanabusa.
This is taxpayer money from Hawaii and 49 other states that comes to us to fix one of our local issues. Then politicians put their name on the effort/project in order to try to get credit and re-elected.
Is this inventive, creative production, or even hard work? Not really. And to add insult to injury, the taxpayer gets no credit nor thank you from politicians or the press. Maybe that’s another reason the rail project is way late and over budget. Politicians forget where the money really comes from and why they should be thankful and accountable for its use.
Maybe the press should occasionally remind them.
Joel Brilliant
Hawaii Kai
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Housing article biased against Ige
Your front-page headline, “Ige’s figures don’t add up” (Star-Advertiser, July 26), and the ensuing article read more like a Colleen Hanabusa campaign ad that I just saw on TV than a news article.
The article itself makes clear that Gov. David Ige is talking about units that were completed during his term, not necessarily units that originated because of him. Your own story contradicts itself.
Editorials belong on the editorial page, not the front page, and campaign ads must be identified as such.
Bob Gould
Kaneohe
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Masculinity, gun violence intersect
To George Young Jr., and the growing number of men with “citizen protector” fantasies: Thanks, but no thanks (“Hilo veteran has pushed for gun rights for 6 years,” Star-Advertiser, July 25).
Their vocal commitment to “defending” Hawaii — an intention many of them feel the need to announce on bumper stickers — does nothing to make us feel safer. In Young’s talk of undocumented immigrants and legal marijuana, all we hear is fear: fear of change, fear of difference.
It is fear that makes the image of a “good guy with a gun” particularly appealing to men, and the National Rifle Association has consequently done its level best to amplify these and other anxieties.
Meanwhile, our national debate about guns often ignores the intersection of masculinity and gun violence.
Why is it that men make up a disproportionate percentage of both the perpetrators and the victims of violent crimes involving firearms? In addition to strengthening our gun control laws, we also need to take a long look at our ideas of masculinity and their role in our gun- obsessed culture.
Marcy Wilhelm Lindsay Wilhelm
Waipahu
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War exercises not right for Hawaii
Here is my RIMPAC rant: Why come here to practice war making? We already have a war you can go to. It’s in Afghanistan.
Instead of practicing, you can work on the real thing. See if you can come up with the plans, skills, ideas to end that war instead of a pretend war of your own imagination. Are you afraid of the real thing?
Or, choose instead Syria. Go ahead. Sink a ship in the Mediterranean Sea. Pollute the land. Make the air toxic. Make very loud noises that scare humans and animals alike. Tear up the beaches, mountains, lakes and rivers. Use thousands of gallons of fuel.
What you are doing in Hawaii makes none of us safer. It makes us a target. It makes us sick. It makes our animals, our oceans and our land and air sick. It leads us to value the wrong things.
Where is the PEACEPAC?
Gerry James
Makiki
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Republicans, Trump have failed to govern
President Donald Trump and the Republican Party had 1 1/2 years to get acquainted and get on the same page.
They have failed miserably to get along and the country has been without a working government. It has been pretty much all heat and no light.
The president has attempted to run the country, by himself, and the party has failed to provide adequate oversight and guidance. Do your job and defend and preserve the Constitution and the nation. Stop pointing fingers and blaming former President Barack Obama. You control the main variables.
Richard Y. Will
Waikiki
