President’s advisers mostly white males

During the presidential campaign, the president, vice president and the media mocked Mitt Romney for his comments about using binders to select qualified women for his staff appointees in Massachusetts.

The president and vice president forgot to tell supporters that Romney’s lieutenant governor, chief of staff and half of his Cabinet were women. Romney did not need a nudge from liberal media or interest groups to make those decisions.

A picture used to be worth a thousand words, so the photo of the president surrounded by a dozen or so white male advisers in the White House says everything you need to know about this president’s core belief in diversity. Once media cried tears of diversity, the White House rushed out Valerie Jarrett, again, for another picture to show how diverse this administration is.

Do you really believe there were no qualified women for State, Defense or Treasury?

I don’t care who the president selects for his Cabinet, but I do enjoy watching the hypocrisy of this administration, and the media turning itself inside out to defend the administration.

Jim McDiarmid
Mililani

Hirono and Schatz not elected for life

Cynthia Oi’s excellent column reminded us once again, and still, that Mufi Hannemann one more time patiently waits in the wings for a change in the lay of the political land to return to the thing he most enjoys — a free space to resume feeding at the public trough ("Abercrombie takes charge as political dust settles," Star-Advertiser, Under the Sun, Jan. 10).

Is the time not also ripe for him to take a shot at a real job in the private sector?

In all of this atmosphere of political flux, it would be wise for all concerned to remind both U.S. Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatzthat the Senate seats they now occupy were confirmed with their oaths. Those ceremonies were not a coronation.

Some, including Schatz, are already beginning to subtly treat their positions as lifetime appointments.We do not need to get into a repeat of the situation where, without warning, we are left with a sudden death, putting us back on square one, as so recently happened.

J. Ford Murray
Hawaii Kai

Obama visits worth the inconvenience

Some Kailua residents have ruffled feathers due to the road closures to accommodate President Barack Obama’s motorcade. This is regrettable.

What if Obama is considering Hawaii as the home of his presidential library? I hope this is the case. It would be a great honor if he would decide to house his library here.

But if some of the residents of Kailua are going to be mean and petty, I wouldn’t blame him if he decided to go elsewhere. We’re not the only show in town.

Hawaii should be giving Obama the honor he deserves. Instead, we have persnickety people in Kailua complaining becausethe leader of the free world has inconvenienced them for a few minutes. The privileges he enjoys come with the office.

Maggie O’Brien
Kaneohe

Hawaii golfers in Robin Nelson’s debt

I was saddened by the news that Robin Nelson, Hawaii’s most prolific golf course architect, had passed away.

His being, as the headline in the Jan. 3 sports section read, "Hawaii’s most prolific course architect" should earn him recognition by way of induction to the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame.

It only seems right Robin Nelson should be properly recognized for creating such wonderfully appropriate and thoughtful layouts that have been enjoyed by millions of both local and visiting golfers throughout Hawaii over the years. His designs had owners’ budgets in mind as well as the joy of the game for the paying customer.

Robin created Hawaii golf courses of high quality — and more of them — than anyone else. He never sought accolades. He took a quiet pride in his work.

Hawaii’s golf community should thank him for it and honor his legacy.

Tom Haynes
Kaneohe

Trained volunteers could guard schools

We’re not going to prevent killing events like the Newtown, Conn., shootings from happening again, but we must try.

To put armed guards into every school is maybe helpful but, as we know, devious killers can figure out when the guards are on the other side of a campus and then make their moves.

To reduce the availability of weapons may help but, as the NRA says, it takes a good gunman to put down a bad one. Having guards in all schools sounds really unaffordable unless the guards will be volunteers with backgroundschecked.

Frank Luke
Makiki

Hanabusa guilty of stereotyping, too

I was personally flattered that Bill O’Reilly considered Americans of Asian ancestry "more industrious and hard-working." Since I do not consider myself a liberal, I was not offended by his remarks.

U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa’s demand for an apology was not on my behalf. In fact, it’s ironic that by claiming to speak for 1.3 million people, she is engaging in exactly the same kind of stereotyping of which she accuses O’Reilly.

Philip Yasui
Kapolei