Letters to the editor – 2/4/15
Pedestrian peril
Regarding your feature story on the new electric skateboards: Oh, great, as if I don’t have enough to worry about to avoid the old skateboards from barreling into me, and bicycles silently swooshing by me as I scramble to jump out of the way. Pedestrians just don’t have a chance.
Judy Stevens
Kakaako
Polarizing
While I respect Jerry Coffee’s past service, I take exception to his attempt to politicize everything as Left/Right, Bad/Good, Evil/Righteous.
There is plenty of space in America for many opinions, and that should be celebrated. Mr. Coffee seems unable to avoid injecting political polarization into even the funeral of a Navy hero such as Chris Kyle. This is unfortunate for everyone. While I don’t share many, if any, of Mr. Coffee’s views on politics, having served in the U.S. Navy for 30 years I too believe Mr. Kyle is a real-world hero.
To imply as Mr. Coffee does that anyone to the left of the GOP is unpatriotic and unappreciative of our military and “just doesn’t get it” is unhelpful and, most importantly, untrue.
Let us celebrate our heroes without recourse to creating more divisiveness.
Peter Daspit
Kailua
We broke Iraq
Re: Susan Page’s column “Why They Hate Us? They Just Do” — the answer is quite simple. I go back to the days leading up to the Iraq war, and Secretary of State (and retired general) Colin Powell’s cautionary reference to the “Pottery Barn” rule — you break it, you buy it. We needlessly broke open a religious war in Iraq between Sunni and Shia, and it has spread throughout the region. And we just keep paying and paying, with American lives, our diminished economy and even our security.
I’d wager that were Ms. Page a Muslim in the Middle East, she too would hate America.
John Lee
Honolulu
It’s all lifestyle
David Chang’s personal finance columns are very practical, and I’ve learned a lot from him. As a personal trainer, though, his colum “Weight Loss About Lifestyle, Not Diets” really caught my eye — because he is 100 percent correct. It’s the process, and learning to enjoy it, that really makes the difference.
Paula Bishop
Honolulu
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