Your Views for September 14

Bullies, not patriots

After waiting for several weeks to see a letter condemning the horrid actions of protesters toward Lt. Gov. Josh Green, I determined it was my kuleana to write one.

People who put up flyers calling others “Jew” and “fraud” are not exercising free speech, they are demonstrating bigotry and hate. People who shine strobe lights into apartment buildings housing multiple families because they do not like an elected official are not patriots, they are bullies.

I am sick of you junior Nazis pretending that somehow you are injured parties. People like Nick Ochs of the Honolulu Proud Boys who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 are not our country’s friends. His minions who perpetuate violence and disgusting behavior hurt us all.

I carry around my own copy of the Constitution. I got it from the ACLU. So, don’t try to claim that you somehow love it or my country more than I do. We’ve all seen your prejudice and ignorance before.

Renee Rabb

Hawaii Paradise Park

Critical thinking deficit

It’s not a tremendous mystery as to why people won’t get vaccinated.

I have one friend who has said, “I have been lied to my entire life.”

From the advertising we have been exposed to on our cereal boxes as kids — that eating these sugar bombs to start the day off will make you feel great — to overzealous sales pitches from large corporations trickling down to small business, language is used to tell us lies about why we need to purchase something.

We’ve been told that these are just exaggerations; read the ingredients on the label, or do your research and find out what it is.

Lobbyists influence the government with great sums of money, not in the interest of what is right, but to sell their brand of whatever it is to make even more money. Yet, where is critical thinking taught — not until college? Who are we to believe?

Consequently, the American public was duped into thinking that a huckster salesman, who everything he says is a lie, got voted into the highest office in the land. Half of the American public cannot decipher the truth.

I am tired of trying to convince people I know, who are not unintelligent, that they should believe that this virus is real, deadly, and it doesn’t matter where it came from. Just protect yourself from being put on life support if you do.

People need the truth. They need to feel like they can believe. How is that going to be solved?

Dawn Hurwitz

Pahoa