Police are doing their jobs;
but is everyone else?

This is in response to Vernon Okamura's letter to the editor published Nov. 15 suggesting that Police Chief Michael Nakamura be replaced.

He has misdirected the blame for today's out-of-control crime on the wrong public agency. Our police chief and officers are human beings doing the best they can under the unrealistic, frustrating conditions they endure daily with the judicial system, airheaded judges and all the others responsible for letting these hoodlums loose.

After umpteen arrests, filing countless sheets of police reports , hundreds of hours doing investigations, they also must show up at court appearances, even on their days off and during vacations - all this for the same hoodlum's 42nd time and counting.

Whom should we be looking at? What about the judges, lawyers, public defenders, legislators? Where are their report cards? Let's punish their past performance record, hold them accountable for their decisions.

Stephanie M. Kawasaki

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Urge smokers to quit
- for at least a day

Tobacco. It comes in cigarettes, cigars and chewing forms. About every one-and-a-half minutes, it kills an American. Tobacco is one of the few addicting drugs that is sold legally. When used as intended, it causes addiction, acute and chronic diseases and death.

Be sympathetic to a tobacco user and encourage her/him to quit, at least on Thursday, the day of the Great American Smokeout. It just might help make that one-and-a-half minute interval a little longer.

Walter Young, M.D.

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Same-sex issue didn’t play
big role in election results

The media seem to have fallen for the spin campaign which anti-gay groups have put on the recent election. I keep reading and hearing about those politicians who believed in equal rights for gays and lesbians who were not re-elected. This is untrue.

During the months prior to the election several anti-gay groups, the most notorious being the Alliance for Traditional Marriage, purchased an abundance of full-page newspaper advertisements and radio time. Their extremely well-financed media campaign pinpointed those state senators who were unwilling to discriminate against gays and lesbians and urged voters not to re-elect them.

But only one of the senators they targeted was not re-elected. Conversely, three of the incumbent senators that the Alliance endorsed, funded and vigorously campaigned for won't be going back to the Senate this year.

In the House, those PACs opposed to recognizing same-gender marriages got mixed results. Most of those state House races were very close - so with what rationale can the media keep harping on the same-gender marriage issue? A little sensational, perhaps?

Let's face it, the majority of voters do not consider the recognition of same-gender marriages an issue that's going to determine their vote.

Todd Fukuda

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Maybe some Republicans
really are mean-spirited

In his Nov. 13 column, "TV never apologizes to conservatives," Cal Thomas lashes out at the press, claiming that Republicans are painted as "mean, harsh and nasty." Reality check: Many of them are.

If I recall correctly, the main source of frustration on the Dole campaign trail was his inability to smile. Newt Gingrich, judging by his actions, wanted nothing more than the total elimination of all clean environment laws. We are clearly not talking about a party of misunderstood Santa Clauses.

While it is true that the media have, of late, leaned toward the Democratic version of the truth, anyone who has listened to Rush Limbaugh knows that Republicans have places where they can get their news, presented in a conservative format. There is no ground for complaint on either party's part.

Bret Heilig
Kailua