Some aren't covered by hate-crimes law

Supporters of our new hate crimes law fail to notice that only certain groups are protected, but others are left out in the cold. Gay activists are covered because they were the ones pushing the legislation.

But what about tourists? If a local person attacks and robs a tourist yelling, "You *#$!#&# tourist, I hate you," no hate crime has been committed.

If an outraged Hawaiian environmentalist attacked members of the military for desecrating the aina, screaming, "I hate you, Army scum," no hate crime has occurred.

So much for equality in Hawaii. I applaud those legislators who had the guts to vote against this stupid law. Unfortunately, they didn't prevail.

Bonita Newland
Kaneohe

First Amendment applies to ACLU, too

I promise to defend Rob Perez' First Amendment right to use tired old cliches like "politically correct" unto the death. I also promise to defend his right to carp, in his June 24 "Raising Cane" column, with the other sore losers, about the ACLU's recent lopsided vote against inviting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to our next First Amendment conference.

In exchange, it would be nice if ACLU members could exercise our First Amendment rights to determine whom to invite to a first-class winter island visit for a relaxed dialogue that isn't even a real debate.

It's one thing to defend the rights of the KKK to rally in Skokie, Ill., and quite another to pay for, arrange and promote a forum for them to express their views with nice leis around their necks.

Some of us feel it makes a mockery of our mission when Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the nation's most powerful opponents of civil liberties, has a good time in Hawaii, jokes about a road show with our national president and urges us to invite his buddy Thomas.

You don't have to agree with us, but you'd think our First Amendment rights would be respected too. Go figure.

Faye Kennedy
ACLU-Hawaii board member

[Quotables] "Dobelle comes into a mood of revival. Something is going to revive the university. He's coming at the right moment." Alexander Malahoff, President of the University of Hawaii faculty union, on feelings of optimism among many on campus about the incoming UH President Evan Dobelle. "It's just another choice." Barry Raff, Executive director of Planned Parenthood Hawaii, on medical abortions using the pill RU-486, which are now offered by the organization. "I was born singing, so they tell me. Mom would say, would you please shut up, and Dad would say, hey go out on the porch!" Della Reese, "Touched By An Angel" star, talking about her earliest urge to entertain as a gospel singer and then a big band singer. Reese is in Honolulu to tape the narration for a Hawaii Public Television production.

Distraught mother needed options

The drowning of her five children by Andrea Yates in Houston is a tragedy. She said, she was a "bad mother" and felt her children were disabled and not developing normally. It is unfortunate that she did not receive psychiatry treatment that would have prevented this tragedy. Counseling to put her children in a foster home would be an option and her children would be alive today.

Her husband should have a priest "clean" the house spiritually and her children's spirit will rest in peace.

How Tim Chang

Life, death and the liberty to purchase a gun

In January of last year, I flew to Seattle to tell Dad, in person, that I was pregnant. He was so excited that the first thing he said to a coworker the next morning, as he slid into a lecture a few minutes late, was, "Kathryn's pregnant!" He started referring to the baby as Kate or Scott, his favorite of our name options. I was already looking forward to his first visit to see the baby.

Six months later, Dad, a doctor at the University of Washington hospital, arrived home from an overseas trip. We exchanged emails on June 27. I figured I'd wait until Sunday, his regular night for family calls, to talk to him.

But the next day, June 28, 2000, Jian Chen, a Chinese-born medical resident at the university, walked into Dad's office, closed the door behind him and locked it. He pointed a newly purchased semi-automatic handgun at Dad and pulled the trigger. After the first shot, my father yelled, "Oh my God!" Chen shot my father three more times, then shot himself in the head.

What did Dad think about in those last few seconds? My wonderful stepmother and what his death would do to her? The fact that he would never see his daughter's child? His son and granddaughter in Memphis? Or was he too stunned to think about anything except what was happening to him?

It's now a year later and our family still struggles in disbelief. I still have a airline ticket that Dad bought me dated two weeks after his death. It was to have been my last plane trip before the baby arrived; he wanted to see me in all my pregnant glory. His e-mail address is still listed in my address book. I have, however, finally stopped hoping that when I come home on Sundays, I'll hear his voice on the answering machine: "Kath, it's me, Dad. Call me if you get in within the next hour."

How did this happen? Chen just walked into a store and bought a gun, then walked into Dad's office and took his life.

There was no mandatory waiting period to give him time to cool off and think about the magnitude of the murder. No mandatory psychological evaluation that would have shown he was a homicide risk.

No reaction from the university police officer who was at that gun store and saw Chen there. This was the same officer who had questioned Chen a few weeks earlier because Chen was having severe emotional problems and was seen looking for guns online.

For whatever reason, the officer didn't tell anyone at the university that he had seen Chen in the gun store. I guess that officer felt, as some do, that Chen had a right to buy that gun without anyone bothering him.

But what about my father's rights? What about his right to see my baby? What about my right to see my beautiful baby girl in my father's arms? What about my stepmother's right to grow old with her husband? Why, why, why was Chen's right to buy a gun more important than Dad's right to live?

Kathryn Haggitt Garrison

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