Church and state must be separate

As a social studies teacher, I cover the concept of separation of church and state every year with my students, and it is amazing to me how quickly they catch on to the violation of this principle by the religious zealots who organize their parishioners every year to go down and “;pray”; against allowing civil unions.

It is time for the Hawaii Legislature to stand up to these religious extremists (however loud this vocal minority can be) and insist that all people understand whatever they want to do on their Sundays or in their churches is their business—but when it comes to government laws, a clear line needs to be drawn.

Aloha spirit still alive at airport

In these days of homelessness, looming budget deficits and Furlough Friday, I was thoroughly surprised by a day filled with the true aloha spirit. As a resident here for years, I have seen very little of it portrayed lately until the other day, when I had to clear a handmade lamp that we had bought on our 30th wedding anniversary in Marrakech.

The U.S. Customs agents were cheery and beyond professional at Honolulu Airport. After clearing it at Customs, I had another great experience at Delta/American air cargo, where the aloha spirit was abundantly alive. After seeing that the lamp would not fit in my car, I offered one of the staff $50 to drop it off at our home after work. Well, a gentleman named Stuart did that with a smile, and when offered the money, he refused and said it was his pleasure.

Thanks to all of you for putting a new meaning to the word “;aloha.”;

White Shirts can have marriage

White Shirts, let's make a deal: You can have marriage. As a member of the gay and lesbian community, I really do not want much to do with an institution with a 50 percent failure rate. I do, however, want civil unions.

Certainly, I can accept your view that marriage is a religious institution. I can even understand that the same arguments used against civil unions were used to persecute other groups. At least we are in good company.

I just don't understand how a set of rights and privileges ordained by the government can be usurped for a group because of religious views. This is inconsistent with the separation of church and state.

What will you lose if civil unions were permitted? You might gain a lot. When France instituted civil unions several years ago, many heterosexuals went with civil unions instead of marriage. It is a lot easier to get out of a civil union. Remember our marriage failure rate.

OK, White Shirts, are we clear? You have marriage. I have civil unions.

Bishop has right to address flock

It always amusing me to see how irrational activists for civil unions/same-sex marriage get when anyone challenges their attempts to destroy traditional marriage. They always fail to correctly read the words and assume something else is being said.

Alan Spector took out of context Catholic Bishop Larry Silva's letter opposing civil unions (”;Bishop's call to block civil unions offends bill advocates,”; Star-Bulletin, Jan. 13).

Mr. Spector said : “;So why is Bishop Silva trying to impose his Catholic faith, which I very much respect, upon all of Hawaii's residents? We are a diverse state of many different faith traditions that have differing opinions on this issue.”; Bishop Silva's letter was clearly addressed to the “;faithful”; which I took to mean “;faithful Christians,”; especially Catholics and not all of Hawaii's residents. Bishop Silva has the right and responsibility lead the Catholic faithful, period.

We live in a democracy, and Christians have every right and duty to lobby our legislators on any issue they consider important (just as the activists do). What Bishop Silva did was justified and courageous because it is an unpopular position. All the bishops across the nation are taking this same position.

Is Bishop aware of own theology?

Bishop Larry Silva has asked Catholics to urge their legislators to defeat the civil unions bill.

Catholic theology holds that “;All men are created in the image and likeness of God.”;

What part of that does Bishop Silva not understand?

Special election could be cheaper

The special election in the 1st Congressional District would be six times larger than the City Council special election in Kailua. That mail-out election cost $225,000, and times six is more than $1.35 million. Not a big savings from an regular election at $2 million. A mail-out ballot is just old tech and open to mail fraud.

The Kailua mailing turnout was, what, 15 percent? This election will have more attention, so a better, less expensive and innovative solution is needed to be effective.

Use the Internet in conjunction with a walk-in site at the state Capitol for a week of voting. All of urban Honolulu is within the 1st District, from Mililani to Hawaii Kai. Internet availability is even in libraries. Imagine those 60 percent of voters who do not turn out regularly having more access and participating.

Each vote would be more secure than any shopping site or state business registry online. Secure servers can hold only the tally for immediate printout. No waiting until the final ballots trickle in. Printed copy ballots from the server could be used for back-up in archives.

All your information is kept at the Office of Elections now, so that could be used to have your ID verified. The cost would be around $300,000, maybe less. Save a million dollars for the students to have one more day of instruction.