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Cayetano's sentiment on feeling Hawaiian is understandable

I usually try to avoid getting into a contest of words with someone who talks like Haunani-Kay Trask. But I can't resist adding my opinion to the many who have objected to her unfair characterizations and generalizations of everyone who is not ethnic Hawaiian or who was born elsewhere.

I can appreciate that Ben Cayetano "feels" Hawaiian. I wouldn't be surprised if the governor said that he also "felt" American, or even Filipino, but not as a citizen of the Philippines does. This is his home.

I know many people who were born elsewhere and who have chosen to live here. They feel Hawaiian, think Hawaiian, speak Hawaiian, understand Hawaiian culture and values, show aloha for everyone and the land and the sea around us, and have nothing to apologize for.

After all, none is responsible for the actions of the few foreigners who aided and abetted in the overthrow of the kingdom.

I also know many people who were born here of other ethnic backgrounds and who also feel very Hawaiian. They don't love this place any less just because they happen to have ancestors from other lands.

There are ethnic Hawaiians who were born elsewhere and who have come to Hawaii, changed their names to better reflect their Hawaiian ethnicity, and who are still less Hawaiian in their thoughts, actions and values.

Our surnames often tell of our non-Hawaiian ancestry. How about Trask? Where did the Trasks come from?

If they went back to that country after several generations in the islands, would they be thought of as native to that country? Not hardly.

Keith Haugen

Editor's note: Keith Haugen is a teacher and entertainer who speaks fluent Hawaiian.

Gabbards aren't trying to protect family

Every time you write about the Gabbards, you mention their support for "family values," as if this is a phrase with a clear, universally accepted definition. It is not!

The family values my parents taught me included honor, fairness, equality, justice, tolerance and unconditional love, concepts that are noticeably absent from and foreign to the gospel, according to the Gabbards.

The thought that one of them might be elected to the school board, and their lessons of intolerance becoming standard in our schools, frightens me more than the thought of the little bit of aloha that dies each time a Gabbard achieves prominence.

In the future, your newspaper should either put quotation marks around the phrase family values or clearly define the family values that the Gabbards support: hatred, bias, prejudice, intolerance and discrimination.

Andrew Thomas

Quotables "I think he would be liberal. I think he would care. I think he would probably want to see me released." Mark David Chapman FORMER HONOLULU RESIDENT WHO KILLED JOHN LENNON Facing his first parole hearing after having served the minimum 20 years of his life sentence for slaying the former Beatle "I don't want to get on their case, but yes, we will be going over exactly what happened and make sure it doesn't happen again." Rex Quidilla SPOKESMAN FOR THE STATE OFFICE OF ELECTIONS After election officials at two Oahu polling places forgot to turn in computer cards counting votes at their precincts following Saturday's primary election

OIA is concerned with making money

Making money at football games seems more important to the OIA than the overall education of our high school students.

McKinley and Radford were scheduled to play at Aloha Stadium the same weekend as Castle and Campbell were to play elsewhere. But since the OIA felt there would be a bigger crowd at the Castle-Campbell game, it is now set for the stadium. Meanwhile, the McKinley-Radford match-up is to be played elsewhere.

McKinley did not play at the stadium last season. This would have been McKinley's only regular season game there this year, so the players, student body, relatives and McKinley fans were looking forward to this event. For some players, it would have been the highlight of their football careers.

This event is part of a student's educational experience, yet the OIA is denying each of them for the sake of money. And they consider themselves to be educators?

Richard Emerson

Best way to describe Democrats is progressive

Democrats should not be labeled as "liberals," a term that easily can be misinterpreted as having a lack of structure. They should be labeled as "progressives" for their voting record, which nearly always is much more caring and helpful than that of Republican "regressives."

Edward Arrigoni

Release of oil reserves is Democratic shibai

The tapping of the strategic petroleum Reserves is the ultimate height of hypocrisy, stupidity and arrogance. Thirty million barrels of oil is nothing, and will change the price of gas by only a few pennies per gallon. This is the start of a very slippery slope that sets a bad precedent.

This shows just how captive we are by the the oil-producing nations. Iraq and some of their neighbors stop pumping oil for a few weeks, and the economies of nations like the United States start to collapse.

This release of oil is feel-good politics. It sounds good but doesn't do anything to fix the problem. The Democrats' bull is very tiring.

Henry Pundyke
Kaneohe

Government will screw up tire regs, too

In your Sept. 18 editorial, "Tougher regulations needed on tire safety," you quote Rep. Heather Wilson, a Republican from New Mexico: "What this bill tries to do is to make sure that even if a company isn't going to do the right thing on their own, that the federal government has the tools to force them to do the right thing. And I think it's kind of sad that we've come to that point."

Be careful what you wish for. The government, in its infinite wisdom, thought that automakers were dragging their feet when it came to equipping cars with airbags, so it mandated them.

The results? More than 100 people killed by airbags. Even more were killed by defective tires.

While it's true that airbags have also saved lives, not everything the government mandates is necessarily good for you.

James Ko

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