Money was wasted fighting gay marriage amendment

So the big election to "save traditional marriage" is over. All the hoopla and money that went into this campaign would have been better spent trying to curb the real causes of marriage breakup -- domestic violence and child abuse.

How many little Peter Boys could have been saved if the money wasted on preventing same-sex marriage had been put to use fighting child abuse and neglect? How many shelters for abused spouses could be funded with just a portion of the money thrown into that campaign?

The sad part of all of this is that not one marriage will be any "safer" after this election.

S. Girard
(Via the Internet)

Hawaii must now begin recovery from election

Thankfully, the 1998 election is over. I have never seen a more vicious, hateful campaign. The "religious right" has found victory in passing the traditional marriage amendment to Hawaii's Constitution.

But who are the winners here?

Certainly not the state. We are the first in the union to write discrimination into our Constitution. And certainly not the people, as these so-called "Christians" have spread their hate and intolerance to many unwilling or unable to think for themselves.

The proponents of "traditional marriage" have said that the only issue in passing this amendment was to define marriage as between one man and one women. Yet, they have run advertisements that contradict this "singular" thinking.

A case in point was last Sunday's full page ad by the traditionalists. In it, they quoted figures for AIDS, Hepatitis B and other diseases, stating that the primary carriers of these diseases are gay men. They quote words out of context and turn it into "an agenda," which doesn't exist.

Please tell me what any of this has to do with the issue of same-sex marriage. It is sad that these people have so much fear and hate, that they cannot accept others who are different.

It is certainly not my God that would inspire such hatefulness. May God forgive them, and may Hawaii begin its recovery.

Douglas Hammett
Pukalani, Maui
(Via the Internet)

Media should lighten up on scandal coverage

After having been on a two-month holiday, I return to find our election news and commentary to be as dull and boring as usual.

It was my privilege to read of President Clinton's creative use of a cigar in the New Straits Times, the party organ of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A letter to the editors from one of its readers stated that a really fine cigar should never be dipped in anything -- not even fine cognac or brandy. To do so would sully the flavor and aroma of the precious stogie.

Would that our local correspondents could lighten up in a similar fashion, but they are too into making their own comedy.

Beverly Kai

(Via the Internet)

A riddle on the downfall of the Republican Party

Given enough rope, how many Republicans does it take to hang the GOP? Three: Newt Gingrich, Kenneth Starr and Rush Limbaugh.

Juan Rivero
(Via the Internet)

Civilization won't end when millennium turns

Kevin Poulsen's inflammatory Oct. 10 Insight article, "Doomsday 2000," made no attempt to survey the software industry to find what most software engineers think. He ran straight to the survivalists and repeated their claims almost uncritically. Only in his closing paragraphs did he give any time to other views.

Poulsen refers to Gary North as "a historian and early leader in the Y2K preparedness movement." Perhaps true, but North is also a fundamentalist Christian theologian who seized on the Y2K problem as yet more grist for his millennialist fantasies.

While claiming that software programmers are anxious, Poulsen quotes only two, although there are hundreds of thousands of software professionals in the U.S. alone. And those two he quoted are buddies of Gary North.

As a 20-year software professional, I don't know for sure what will happen on Jan. 1. of the new millennium, and I do worry about it. But I suspect everyone in Hawaii with a hurricane kit has everything they'll need.

I'm not investing in remote ranches, barbed wire or large stocks of food. Poulsen's implication that we should is unfounded at best and irresponsible at worst.

Mike Morton
Mililani
(Via the Internet)

Justices don't know what they are doing

Supreme Court justices, you've shirked your duty as assigned by our princess' wishes regarding Bishop Estate. If you had made the decision of terminating all five trustees, you would have been all pau.

Furthermore, you have the nerve to deny those candidates a recount. Let's get with it, judges. The political bug really zapped you.

Ruth Kahaawinui MacDonald
Pearl City

Ethics group couldn't comment on appointment

Star-Bulletin columnist David Shapiro, in his Nov. 7 Volcanic Ash column on UPW head Gary Rodrigues, takes the state Ethics Commission to task for declining "to rule" on Rodrigues' appointment to the Judicial Selection Commission despite, as Shapiro sees it, Rodrigues' numerous ethical deficiencies.

The state Ethics Commission does not have the authority "to rule" on appointments to state office, including appointments to the Judicial Selection Commission. In accordance with our Constitution, the president of the Senate has the authority to appoint one member to the nine-member Judicial Selection Commission. Senate President Mizuguchi appointed Rodrigues.

If Shapiro finds the appointment offensive, he should be writing about Mizuguchi, not the state Ethics Commission.

Daniel J. Mollway
Executive Director
Hawaii State Ethics Commission

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