Brown bag it
If public school lunches are bad (“Bad lunches,” Your Views, March 20), then bring your own from home.
And if the potatoes taste like wood, enjoy it anyway. Billions of termites can’t be wrong. End of subject.
Rick LaMontagne
Volcano
Keep pharmacy school
Here we go again. Just when we’re ready to break ground on the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy, state Rep. Richard Creagan says he wants to move it to the already crowded Oahu.
We can swap it for the College of Tropical Agriculture. Great, a med school for a farm one.
Don’t kid yourselves. It’s all about the money. The pharmacy college is a great anchor for the University of Hawaii at Hilo and could bring in more research and medical opportunities, let alone the revenue. With the financial and faculty issues UH-Manoa is having, the pharmacy college could be a lifesaver.
Let us keep building up UH-Hilo as a great university — not just a hand-me-down to UH-Manoa. The Big Island is growing, and its people deserve and expect the same care and attention that the people on Oahu do.
The last time I looked, the Hawaiian Islands were the 50th state, not just Oahu. Instead of introducing a bill into your already crowded agenda, let’s work on the ones that help fix our roads, keep our power lines clear, etc.
You think a representative from the Big Island would fight to keep it here. Mr. Creagan, you say you helped get the funding for the school. Now is the time to push it forward, not pull the plug.
This should be a happy and exciting time for the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy. People worked long and hard on this project. Let’s finish this thing and make him proud.
Jeffrey Pietrzak
Pahoa
Honest discourse
The very provocative letter by Dennis Chaquette of Keaau (Your Views, March 18) cries out for a civil response.
Chaquette, in his rant against conservatives, ironically never identifies himself as a “liberal.” For it is clear that he is not.
Most “liberals” with which I have associated are more tolerant and respectful of those with differing political views. I have identified as a conservative for more than 40 years, ever since I abandoned, ironically, a moderate liberal vision.
To me, conservatism is a philosophy that promotes the freedom of individuals to seek prosperity and happiness without undue government interference or coercion. I have no idea why Chaquette would think that conservatism has anything to do with the Islamo-fascist ayatollahs, or with communist North Korea. Liberals would no more want to be associated with communism than conservatives with fascism.
But let’s specifically examine Chaquette’s claim that “the countries in the world with the most issues” are governed by conservatives. The obvious counterpoint is liberal Europe, which is now an economic and social “basket case” because of decades of mostly progressive rule. Let’s not forget that governments based on liberal ideas, such as the role of government as a coercive agent to effect economic and social progress, often end up being quite “uncivil,” the obvious examples being the 20th century totalitarian regimes in Russia and China.
Despite this, I personally think many moderate liberals have a lot to offer through their ideas, but they also can do great harm, as Obama’s policies have so clearly demonstrated.
The “progress toward civility for all,” for which Chaquette yearns, will best be attained through an honest discourse wherein liberals, conservatives and libertarians work together to develop the best ideas among them, and cease this incessant demonization of their rivals.
Curtis Beck
Hilo
