I am curious how The Maui News decides who gets the opportunity to write a Viewpoint.
A Viewpoint that appeared on Sept. 2 left me scratching my head. The writer took issue with an Aug. 23 editorial titled "Let them stay home." Why was the Viewpoint writer given so much space to write a rebuttal when he completely missed and distorted the entire point of the editorial?
The point of the Aug. 23 editorial was, if you have to poke, prod, badger, cajole or push someone to vote then it is blatantly obvious that person is uninformed and uninterested in voting. It would be better to spend money on a get out the information campaign to educate the uninformed as opposed to dragging people to polls to simply get out the vote. Let them stay home if they are that uninterested.
The Viewpoint writer thought the editorial was all about disenfranchising people's votes if they had to be driven to the polls. He cites all these situations where people must be driven to the polls. I'm still scratching my head on that. When you miss the point so completely, how do you get that much space to expound on it?
If you read between the lines in the Sept. 2 Viewpoint, it seems it's more an issue with conservative views than about voting. The writer considers The Maui News too conservative and views that as "poisoning the minds of this community." That is absurd.
Claire Tillman
Lahaina
