Regarding Harbaugh and Michigan’s win
(On Jan. 8), the University of Michigan won the NCAA football crown. It may have been, without debate, one of the best teams in 30 years.
The championship contest with the University of Washington, however, was fraught with viewer outcry that the referees were favoring Michigan and ignoring obvious penalties being committed by the Wolverine offense.
This strikes a darker blemish on the recently uncovered scandal of “sign stealing” by one of the Michigan team staff. The epicenter of the unresolved controversy remains coach James Harbaugh, who while under investigation dismissed the identified staff member for his “longitudinal ” spying activity.
College football traditionally upholds the banner of pure amateur sport. To profane it, like the frequent controversy in commercial sport, is reprehensible!
What personal factors drove Harbaugh to take such a Machiavellian course — in spite of crafting a champion-quality team — can only belong on a therapist’s couch. Already, NFL sources are considering job offers, in spite of the integrity stain cast over the Michigan coaching staff.
What does this portend for America’s contemporary generation, where entitlement, moral emptiness and confusion about culture and values lead to the detriment of deep philosophical and spiritual inquiry?
The voice of clergy and a sensitive community can challenge these prevailing tendencies — even the willful cheating in amateur sports! As a famous physician once echoed, “Whatever became of sin?”
Ironically, the Michigan football team may not have required a shadowy stairway to reach college football’s summit.
Jim Barker Keaau
Bullets, bombs are sometimes necessary
I was very disappointed to read the editorial on Dec. 5 using a discussion of humanitarian aid to promote antisemitism. “Israel’s war on Gaza” it claimed. What are they talking about?
This is an act of self-defense against the Hamas terrorist organization that has vowed Israel’s extermination and carried out a shocking attack on its civilians. Hamas has further shot thousands of rockets at Israel for years, and is still doing so. Israel’s response is intended to never let its people be attacked like this again.
And should Israel not have responded? Remember that in 1941, Japan carried out a sneak attack right here in Hawaii, killing over 2,400 men and women outright.
The U.S. responded with a full scale war that in the end killed 3,000,000 Japanese and occupied their nation for years. Should we have just waved a limp hand and said, “Don’t do that,” as the Japanese proceeded to brutalize and occupy all of Southeast Asia? I don’t think so.
No one I know wants suffering or killing, much less something unjustified. But as I have traveled around the world, I have found that different people have different ideas, and different ideas produce different results.
Congressman Michael Waltz of Florida said it best recently: “I have sat across the table, whether it’s the Taliban, ISIS, Al-Qaida, or Hamas, they all see the world one way. And what they understand are bullets and bombs on foreheads, period.”
These are not people with Christianity or the Renaissance in their background. They are not trained in independent thought or analytical thinking. This is radical Islam of a kind that that even the other Arab nations want nothing to do with.
We need to understand this and respond accordingly. Failure to do so would be disastrous.
Chuck Jonas
Kailua-Kona