Affirmative action
The headline to the article on affirmative action in jeopardy was misleading and wrong. The correct headline should have been, “Asians need not apply.” Because that is what these lawsuits are about. They are about Harvard and University of North Carolina using the racist stereotype of Americans of Asian ancestry being the “model minority.”
According to some vague “personality index” Harvard and UNC believe Asian students only stay in their cubicles to study and don’t add to the “diversity” of a college campus. So the admission committees automatically kicks out Asian candidates in favor of other “minorities” because of their stereotypical “personality index.”
It doesn’t matter how hard your son or daughter worked in high school to get good grades and high college board scores. It doesn’t matter what extracurricular and community activities they committed themselves to. It doesn’t matter how little money you may have to pay for college. If your last name, skin color and shape of your eyes is Asian, your children won’t qualify for admission at Harvard or UNC.
The Harvard lawsuit is being funded in part by Asian families and other Asian interest groups across the country that aren’t afraid to stand up and demand fair and equal treatment for all hard-working students, regardless of ancestry.
I’ve contributed money to the group to help this lawsuit.
According to Harvard and UNC, we as Asians are the invisible, model minority, who won’t have the backbone to complain or challenge them.
In this day and age, this kind of anti-Asian discrimination is unacceptable, and we shouldn’t have to take it anymore. Stop applying to Harvard and UNC.
Racism, no matter how diffused, is still racism.
Ted H. S. Hong
Hilo
Let there be dark
There was a time we didn’t protect our ocean and the creatures living there. Today, we protect the monk seals and we eliminated plastic bags to protect turtles who eat them thinking they were jellyfish.
We don’t know how our technology will impact the environment until it is out in the environment.
Today, we need to take action to protect our starry night skies for future generations the same way we protect the oceans. Mexico is the first country in the world to label light pollution an environmental pollutant, and Hawaii should follow suit.
People mistake preserving dark skies with not being able to use light and so object, because the myth is “light prevents crime.”
One, there are no studies anywhere in the world that support this myth. Two, if light prevented crime, there wouldn’t be crime during the day.
We can light the night and preserve our view of the stars. Isn’t that something we should give to our children’s children? Don’t they deserve to see the universe they belong to? The splendor and beauty of the Milky Way? Don’t they deserve to hear the great stories of the constellations that are of our Hawaiian culture?
Think about sitting in your yard, enjoying a star-studded sky and maybe seeing some shooting stars. Then the neighbor turns on a bright light that shines into your yard, and you can’t see the night sky the way you could before that light.
That view of the night and the stars is worth protecting. It just means better light design and the willingness to educate the public. Elected officials need to take a position and action to protect our precious and rapidly disappearing natural resource, a truly dark sky.
Contact your elected representatives and be part of this.
Michael Marlin
Pahoa
