When a highly intelligent young female veteran has the courage not only to run for president but to challenge the military-industrial establishment and its wars of regime change, while advocating for urgently needed single-payer health care, she should be praised and supported, not denigrated by our local media. It was disappointing and frustrating to see the Star-Advertiser targeting Gabbard on its editorial page immediately after she announced her candidacy (“Gabbard should focus on her job,” Star-Advertiser, Our View, Jan. 22).

For the sake of our planet, our fragile environment and all of humanity, we must turn the corner on global warming and related environmental devastation. The oil multinationals, arms manufacturers and their political operatives, which profit from endless wars and the fomenting of fear, prejudice and violence, can only be reined in by leadership willing to buck the status quo.

Gabbard’s honesty and bravery should be applauded and supported, not demeaned and attacked.

Ellen Sofio

Manoa

Click here to read more Letters to the Editor.