Views on
cemetery vandalism

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Forgiveness is the best
revenge against vandals

To the people who desecrated our cemeteries:

My father's gravesite was one of the places you so angrily vandalized. I just wanted to tell you that I have asked and will continue to ask God to bless you. I know that this probably doesn't mean anything to you now but it does mean a lot to me.

I was fortunate enough to meet a wonderful woman who put everything into focus for me. My sister and I bought flowers from her to put on our loved one's gravesite and she offered her words of wisdom for free. She told us that to wish bad luck on someone hurt only ourselves. To hold hate and anger in our hearts only puts poison into our body and soul. To forgive and to ask God to bless you is the best form of revenge (if one needs to think in those terms) because we refused to let your actions contaminate our love for others.

We so easily forget the good that's out there because we so often emphasize the bad. We highlight the greed, corruption and hate in the world and forget the good we encounter.

I choose to look at this as a positive thing in Hawaii's history, thanks to the hundreds of people who have volunteered to clean up our loved one's graves. They have proved once again that there are good and decent people here who will come together to help in times of trouble.

They may even come to the aid of someone you love someday.

I hope that you find the strength to let go of your anger. I hope you can find peace despite any bad things that may have happened to you. I hope that someday you realize how wrong you were to damage the cemeteries. Until that day I will ask God to bless you.

Lisa Saito
Pearl City

Focus on catching cowards
who vandalized cemeteries

The desecration of the various cemeteries on Oahu last weekend is the most recent example of cowardice that has apparently become a mainstay in today's media. I am truly appalled by the fact that these perpetrators have singled out Hawaii's dead as the victims of their ignorance and cruelty, especially since these "victims" can no longer utter the words necessary to identify them.

But now, like the eyes of Columbia, whose statue fronts the main monument of the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, the focus will be on catching the people who committed this abhorrent act.

Carina K. Tagupa
(Via the Internet)

Graffiti vandals should
clean up their own mess

I said this before, and I say it again.

About graffiti -- instead of innocent citizens and/or governmental agents cleaning or undoing the mess, let the guilty ones do the job. Supervision and teaching would entail cost but any clean-up has expenses.

Public notice of vandals undoing their own mischief could be invaluable in more ways than one.

Patsy Chun

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If Lab School is public,
why does it act private?

Hmmmm. The University Laboratory School is not a public school. So students should not be made to pay tuition.

Hmmmm. I must be living in a cocoon. After all, they play sports in the ILH, like other private schools.

Hmmmm. I live in the area. Why is it I never thought to send my children there? Oops! Because they have an admissions process.

So UH Lab School is a private school some of the time, but not all of the time. Go figure.

Carol T. Chun

House does care about
domestic abuse victims

The criticism in Dianne Pana's April 14 letter to the editor centers around the fact that I did not hear HB 652, which would raise the mandatory sentence for abuse of family and household members from two to five days, and for a repeat offense from 30 to 90 days.

The House Judiciary Committee has done much in the area of domestic violence. We passed:

HB 2128, which would authorize a police officer to issue an order of no contact in situations where the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that an individual has inflicted physical abuse or harm upon a family member. This measure will bolster the 24-hour cooling-off period by mandating no contact, by telephone or in person, between the individual and family member.

HB 510, which eased the requirements for petitions for protective orders by allowing a petitioner to allege that past acts of abuse may have occurred rather than "recent" past acts. This bill will expedite the granting of restraining orders.

HB 623, which eliminated the ability of a person convicted of domestic abuse to expunge the record of conviction. This measure will ensure that chronic abusers are subject to enhanced sentences.

Terrance W.H. Tom
Chairman
House Judiciary Committee

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Same-sex archive

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