Politicians are bad role models

Keep a tally next to the TV tonight and record how many commercials you see that put an opponent down compared to commercials that talk only about the positive traits of a candidate. It takes a town to raise a child, and we are raising our children to become bullies.

Reports came out that Waianae High School administration and staff will be retrained on sexual and racial harassment. We need to stop blaming schools for fostering bullies. This problem is bigger than what goes on between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Candidates, improve the quality of public education with the quality of your actions. Prove to our youth that you can be successful in life by having honor and showing respect to your opponent. Discrediting other individuals to get ahead in life is not the message we want our youth to grow up with.

Endorsements lack balance

Save yourself some inches on the endorsements. Just print the words, "Vote Democratic" and be done with it.

Bob Gillchrest
Honolulu

Kauaians selfish about football

I seem to remember not long ago Kauai touting itself as the "preserve the natural environment" island — expressed by blocking the Superferry. Good points were made.

What happened to this view when a few football games will be played on Saturdays instead of Friday nights because you are cruelly hurting other living species — the shearwaters and other young seabirds of your beautiful island?

Your ancestors would not approve of this selfish position and you are not teaching your children how to live in harmony with their natural surroundings. What a disappointing story to come from the Garden Isle.

Friedman just blaming victims

Thomas Friedman has a nerve using the U.N. and Israel in the same sentence when Israel has completely ignored approximately 65 U.N. sanctions against it ("At least once, Israel should heed Obama," Star-Advertiser, Oct. 22).

Israel does not want peace, as is evidenced by the endless building of settlements on occupied Palestinian land, the continuous evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, ethnic cleansing, house demolitions and the inhumane blockade of Gaza.

All this, mind you, with the compliance of the U.S.

Friedman tries to make himself sound evenhanded when, in fact, he is blaming the victims instead of the victimizers.

Travel costs not paid fast enough

I am a 77-year-old, 100- percent-disabled veteran entitled to beneficiary travel reimbursement for my trips to the Spark M. Matsunaga Veterans Administration clinic.

I must travel to the clinic at least once every month. Instead of receiving payment of travel claims on the same day as appointments, VA patients must wait seven to 10 weeks or longer to receive payment.

The reimbursement payment for my July 15 trip has not yet been received. Many patients need quick payment in order to afford their trips to the clinic.

The Pacific Islands Health Care System must change this unfair procedure to better serve its patients.

Stop punishing the homeless

Here we go again, criminalizing these very poor folks without a home to go to. Their only "crime" is being too impoverished to afford the outrageously overpriced rents. Aren’t these people being punished enough for having to live in these degrading conditions? It is not their fault that they live under this very dysfunctional free market gone wild, an economic system that has failed to include this whole segment of the population.

All it would take is a progressive tax on a tiny fraction of income at the top to enable a basic decent home for all. And the ultimate irony is that we are already spending that much, plus more on homeless shelters, emergency medical care, police enforcement, courts, prisons, etc., without solving the homeless problem. Federal studies have shown that the Housing First approach is the way to get folks back on their feet.

We can do the right thing and make sure no one goes without a place to call home, or we can continue to push these poor folks further into this homeless abyss, leaving us in disgrace with a big scar on our collective conscious.