Waves upon waves of the newspaper’s editorial writers/interns provide a very disturbing picture of what this publication/organization thinks is its purpose/prerogative in the great scheme of information processing and distribution. Last week, one editorial writer was trying to convince us there is no difference between “the foulest vulgarity in bold letters” and “Honk If You Love America.”
This week’s offering, at: https://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Mar/23/op/op11a.html
proclaims that even if it were true that Hawaii is a safer place than most of the rest of the country/world, we should not make that information be widely known. The convoluted thinking is that if it is widely known that Hawaii is in fact a safer place than most, rather than people being attracted here and its residents feeling justifiably less anxious and fearful, that information might lead to Hawaii becoming an even greater/more tempting target for terrorists — and on and on we plummet further into this writer’s paranoia, reverse-thinking, triple-second guessing, endless speculations, etc. — of people with too much time on their hands and no idea of purpose anymore other than to create another needless controversy and argument.
The reason we have competent and responsible people at the leadership of government is to make these judgments — so as to allay the need for every person to make these assessments for themselves, usually with a lot less information, often in fact, with no other information but in reading op-ed pieces and then rewriting them with a minor variation on the theme and buzzwords of the day. A fact is a fact — and that some self-appointed dictator of the information channels feels/is apprehensive that it could be used in the sick ways sick minds can conceive, undermines the whole integrity of information in the first place. We have to start off with just the facts — and not with all the manipulations and distortions of edited/suppressed information.
Although frequent mention is made of Hawaii’s vulnerability because of its dependence on tourism as its leading industry, almost no mention is made that international, national and local security and defense is probably a close second. Because of its truly unique strategic location and position, we really are an exceptional place — well justified by the facts. The criminal/terrorist mind is not entirely stupid; they look for the situation of greatest opportunity and ease of attack. Why pick on a place that is synonymous with military presence and preparedness? — and where the citizenry overwhelmingly supports and respects these workers.
The peculiarity of a predominantly service oriented economy/society is that the people are attentive, friendly, trusting and cooperative. That is the very nature of their business and therefore, personalities and culture. That is who we are and what we share openly and willingly with all the people of the world. Now for this editorial writer to say we should be more anxious, more fearful, less informed so that they can sell more newspapers, giving him more job security, influence over elected leaders, etc., one must ask, is the work of such individuals, productive or counterproductive? And is any of the other information similarly edited/suppressed by such “well-intentioned” oligarchs? — or are we seeing everything there is?
Isn’t that the conflict at this time?
”’Mike Hu is a resident of Honolulu and can be reached at:”’ mailto:humikhu@aol.com