• Prayer issue does not limit belief • Leaders can still pray privately • Get to know your reps • Kaua‘i should retain football coach Prayer issue does not limit belief I am prompted to write my first letter to
• Prayer issue does not limit belief •
Leaders can still pray privately • Get to
know your reps • Kaua‘i should retain football
coach
Prayer issue does not limit belief
I am prompted to write my first letter to TGI in response to “Atheism in action”. The United States is a nation that welcomes those of all faiths. It seems to me that the Hawai‘i Senate, in voting to stop prayers at their sessions, is recognizing this fact. It in no way limits the individual’s practice of personal, silent prayer at any time. It is in no way saying that a person is not in need of help from his or her god.
Leslie Newall, Kapa‘a
Leaders can still pray privately
Mr. Beeksma, I don’t know which I find more disturbing: the fact that you are so hyper-religious that you seem to be incapable of talking about anything but your religion, or the fact that you appear to have so little concern for basic and easily understandable rights afforded to every American through the Constitution.
I want to ask you one very simple question, and respectfully ask the editors to make sure your response gets published. Is there anything, absolutely anything at all, which currently prevents individual members of any governing body in any state in this country, or groups of like-minded individuals drawn from such bodies, to engage in prayer PRIOR to meetings of the entire body?
If you don’t see where this is going, your rights as a Christian are not being infringed upon by the State Senate not having prayer during sessions. Neither are the rights of any member of the Senate.
Anyone who wishes to pray can easily do so prior to the start of Senate business. Unless your god only answers the “high theater” of group prayers, I fail to see what the problem is. However, forcing the entire Senate to engage in prayer violates the rights of those individuals — and it may be just one person — who do not share your particular religious belief.
Now, you call any such impertinence “atheism.” Your rally cry is clear, and your motives are wholly transparent. I’m not buying it, though, and feel confident many agree. No more of this nonsense, please!
Michael Mann, Lihu‘e
Get to know your reps
I read with great interest about the “bath salts” fiasco as it involved the DEA. We can’t win the “War on drugs,” that should be obvious by now. So maybe let’s educate the populace on how to moderate. Time and place is what I was taught, and that applies to everything.
Here is my question: If we dissolved our government save the supreme court, because they are the only ones who seem to know anything, how many members of congress and even our president would qualify to sit on one of the justice seats? Wouldn’t we be better off?
Then we could put people like Lee Iaccoca, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerburg in charge. Our national debt would plummet. It strikes me politicians are simply people who couldn’t make it in the business world but were slick enough to make a salary off our taxes. We wouldn’t have an unemployment rate that is quite simply unsettling.
All I want to suggest is that it seems time, we as a nation realize that “of the people, for the people” means us. Somewhere along the road we lost our way. Take the fortitude to know the candidates, not just recognize their names. There are too many Bozos in office because they have name recognition. How many of you know what your reps stand for? Time to find out, I emplore you. You only have one vote, but it could change the world.
Joseph Lavery, Kapa‘a
Kaua‘i should retain football coach
I find it difficult to understand why so little support and respect is being given to Derek and his staff in the manner in which the complaint is being handled.
Derek Borrero, being the head coach, has acknowledged the wrong doing and accepts full responsibility, and is willing to make amends to move things forward in a positive direction. More importantly, he understands that even if wide spread “cussing” exists at all levels of coaching, that does not make it right at Kaua‘i High.
Coach Borrero has assembled a dedicated staff and together they have done an excellent job. He has been with the program for 12 years, the last 4 years as head varsity coach for all the right reasons. His motivation is devoid of any self-serving interest and dedicates his “entire being” to serve the best interest of the student-athletes. Among his many attributes are his passion for excellence, forthrightness, and humility — all of which he strives to instill in his players.
Given the opportunity, he will take a proactive approach to improve the coaching culture, and in doing so, will raise the program to an exemplary level. For this to happen he needs the support and respect of the administration. Whenever a problem arises, essential to any fair resolution is effective communication.
The administration has clearly not been effective communicators given Coach Borrero’s lack of an opportunity to collaborate towards common agreements. Given all that he has put into the program, he hasn’t been afforded the chance to “make things right”, instead he hastily gets released. All parties need to come together to discuss expectations, corrections, and consequences, THEN make a decision.
Losing Coach Borrero would not only be a tremendous loss for the football program and school, but severely unfair to Derek himself. One cannot command nor buy respect. It must be earned. Derek Borrero has earned that respect and deserves to be the head football coach at Kaua‘i High School.
Malcolm Doi, former head football coach at Kaua‘i High, Kapa‘a
