Regarding Linda A. Revilla's article about how many young Filipinos want to bury their ethnic identity: They have no reason to feel ashamed of their Filipino background. Rather, they should be proud of what their ancestors in the Philippines achieved.
Since the early 1950s there has been a considerable amount of archaeological research done in the Philippines. Unfortunately, not much of this research has been published as the National Museum, which has done most of the research, does not have the budget to publish reports.
Very briefly, over 3,000 years ago, and possibly as early as 5,000 years ago, beautiful, well-made pottery was being made in the Philippines. From before the first millennium B.C., the Philippines was taking part in an international trade network that spanned from India to Japan, Korea and China, and east into the Pacific.
The ancestors of both the Polynesians - including the Hawaiians - and the Micronesians came from the southern Philippines.
Wilhelm G. Solheim II
Professor Emeritus
UH Department of Anthropology
The warm-hearted response of so many hundreds of people in volunteering to be checked for compatibility as potential bone-marrow donors proves there is a huge fund of altruism and aloha among the people of Hawaii.
I write as the deeply concerned grandfather of a second-grader, Brandon Emley, who is also in search of the "right" donor. Among unrelated donors a perfect match occurs in one of about every 20,000 volunteers.
Those who volunteer to be typed for bone-marrow registration are entered in an international data base, so everyone who comes forward increases the chances of sufferers from cancer worldwide.
I encourage everyone to become part of this rescue mission - for Alana, Brandon and the thousands of others who desperately need those few drops of life, so taken for granted in health, so essential to the survival of those who will not live without them.
Bill Messer
This is a popular misconception. Love has nothing to do with domestic abuse. Such violence is based on power - particularly the fear of loss of control. People who kill their spouses do not, despite their statements, love the victims of their violence.
Rather, they fear loss of control, and are jealous and afraid.
There must be some way to change the words used in reporting this type of crime so that the idea that love motivates violence is not perpetuated.
Barbara Masse
Kaneohe
Despite those characterizations, Holt continues to enjoy an enormous amount of respect and good will from his House and Senate colleagues and from just about all who come into contact with him.
There are reasons for that respect. Milton Holt does his homework and he's smart. No one in the Legislature has more courage and is more willing to step up to the plate and deal with the high, hard pitches. No one doubts the word of Milton Holt.
For the record, nearly every great legislative leader, whether here in Hawaii or elsewhere, is controversial and is vilified by the press. In that sense, Shapiro's column was in keeping with tradition.
John H. Radcliffe