Honolulu Star-Bulletin Local News

We turned on our tape recorder and asked first-time voters to talk about the issues and political process; look for it every Tuesday during election season.


Voter: Gary Kawakami
Age: 24
Home: Honolulu
Background: Windward Community College student. Attended Purdue University for 31/2 years before returning to Hawaii.

Activism

To me my vote doesn't count. To me people don't understand why they're voting. Yet the candidates press issues on you that voters want to hear vs. issues that people don't want to talk about.

Politics is a lot of who likes who. A popularity contest. It often has nothing to do with right or wrong. I don't see any benefit in voting. If it could be like a computer game and you could pick the qualities you want in your candidate, hey, I'd vote.

I keep up with politics because I do some investing. I get the feeling what the economy is going to be like. To me, the Republicans and Democrats are the same. My generation as a whole votes but not nearly as much as my parents' generation. You hear all the radio stations pushing the vote. Rock the Vote. Twenty years ago we didn't need all that. People are fed up and realize that the government has to do certain things regardless who's running. Things like welfare, funding the military, cutting the deficit.

Presidential politics

I do like Clinton over Dole. Dole is trying to grab support from some of the voters swaying toward Clinton. He's nervous. He's too old. His views are old-fashioned. He's trying to push the conservative line and to me it's not the way the country's going. I don't feel it should be going that way.

Mayoral politics

I would vote for Harris if I did vote. He has a good agenda. His advertising hasn't cut down the other candidates.

Being in office for such a short time, he's done a lot. Fasi's done a lot over time but you give somebody 30 years to do something, he's going to do something. I'm looking to the future. I don't know much about Morgado. I'd vote Fasi last. His intentions are good but he's just too old.

Problems

The economy. Jobs. Crime. The educational system. The major issues have to do with money and where we're going to get it. We can't support ourselves in Hawaii. We need tourism, outside industries.

There is an increasing amount of the extremely wealthy and an increasing amount of the extremely poor. The middle class is dwindling. But its not so much politics. It's culture. We don't progress as fast here as the rest of the world. People don't realize that the globe is getting smaller. We end up shielding ourselves from that fact. But there are just too many people here with not enough dollars. There's not enough sharing of the wealth. With an increase in low incomes there's an increase in crime etcetera.

Education

Teachers should be paid more. And give students more of a choice about what courses they can take.

The way the educational system is structured is too rigid. It's not designed for the work force in the year 2,000. It's very outdated. Without education, you're going nowhere. That's the problem with a lot of people in Hawaii. Our society has created an environment where people just get by. A lot of people don't think ahead.

Abortion

I totally support abortion. Abortion is the right of the woman. If a woman doesn't have an abortion, who's going to care for the child? Without love, the child has no future. Without a mother, a child has no life. There are too many situations where females need an out. Having a child can be a beautiful thing. Having a child for a person who isn't ready or who is still a child herself is devastating to someone's future.



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