Letter to the Editor – 10/2/13

Pope, bishop OK

Bob Jones tries to undermine the Catholic Church in his rant on “Pope, Bishop Silva At Odds On Gays.” Mr. Jones portrays Pope Francis as soft on abortion, homosexual sex and contraceptives. But he fails in trying to divide and conquer. The Catholic Church supports life from conception till natural death, believes that marriage is between one man and one woman, and believes in couples determining how many children they will have (using natural methods of family planning). The Pope and bishops in union with him are called the Magisterium. Dissidents such as Pelosi, Biden and others who call themselves Catholic are in reality not Catholics at all. The Catholic Church is the oldest living institution in the world. Good try, Mr. Jones – not.

Teresa Fredericks
Kapolei

Israel’s no friend

The comments about Israel in last week’s edition were long overdue. Both the letter “Warmongers” and Patrick Buchanan’s “war party” article point out the strange entanglement of our country with Israel. It seems we are so anxious to please the Israelis that we will consider removing any threat they perceive. It may have backfired with the Bush-Cheney Iraq war, which effectively removed the balance of hatred between Saddam Hussein and the Ayatollah. Now, some feel we must deal with Iran, now dominant in the region because of our Iraq debacle – this in support of a nation that in 1967 intentionally attacked our spy ship the USS Liberty in international waters, killing dozens of our sailors. The Israelis later paid compensation, effectively from money provided by U.S. aid. A strange alliance indeed.

Andrew Henry
Mililani

Give kids AC

Larry Price is sounding more and more like a cranky old man – who gets his facts mixed up. His tirade about air-conditioning in classrooms – they didn’t have AC in his day! – ignores the fact that our weather is changing. The trade winds blow on fewer days. The temperature is going up. Are Hawaii students’ test scores historically low because kids are cooking in their classrooms?

And Mr. Price’s latest rant about not using experts from outside Hawaii is nothing but cheap chauvinism.

Allen McRae
Honolulu

Obama basher

Jerry Coffee apparently missed the recent S. Kelly editorial cartoon in MidWeek, showing a guy on the side of the road, his truck suffering a flat tire, and he’s blaming Obama and cussing him out. Thus Mr. Coffee ruined an otherwise fine column on the state’s catchment tank policy hurting veterans’ efforts to buy homes because he couldn’t resist taking a last-paragraph jab at Obama – just as he did in another recent column on a change-of-command ceremony. Talk about a one-trick pony going lame.

Eric White
Honolulu

Monsanto’s side

We’d like to clarify some inaccurate statements made in a recent letter (Valentine, Sept. 18).

Of all foods, none undergo as much review as biotech crops (aka GMOs), which are governed by the FDA, EPA and USDA. Despite undocumented accusations about GM foods, more than 20 years of science-based evidence, hundreds of studies and assessments by organizations such as the World Health Organization and American Medical Association support the consensus that biotech crops are as safe as conventional foods. The notion that one individual at the FDA controls all approvals and widespread acceptance of biotech crops is not reasonable.

We’d also like to clarify that all of Monsanto’s seeds are labeled. Our farmer customers know whether they are buying biotech products or not. California’s Prop 37 was a poorly conceived, mandatory labeling bill with potentially severe consequences for consumers. Instead, Monsanto supports voluntary labeling, which is allowed under current law. For consumers who prefer non-GM foods, there are literally thousands of products already labeled as “organic” or “non-GMO.”

Fred Perlak, Ph.D., Vice President, Research and Business Operations,
Monsanto Hawaii

Just a contract

In a democracy, government has no right or business in the personal marriage business. Marriage is personal. All that should be required is a legal written contract.

Government should recognize, concur and help enforce the legal contracts regarding property rights, etc. Lawyers will enforce wills or trusts, so we need only lawyers, not government or any third parties. A legal written contract between lovers would suffice.

If I decided to marry a monkey and leave all my worldly goods to him or her, that’s my business, not a church’s or the government’s.

A new law on same-sex marriage passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor shouldn’t be needed. It’s none of their business.

Chester Lau
Makiki

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