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Letters

March 06, 2008

HATES PIGNATARO, GOLF DIGEST

“It’s times like this that I think back to that great, sober expose of American hypocrisy known as Office Space, and the scene where the Ron Livingston character tells the Jennifer Aniston character, ‘You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair that they made the Jews wear’” (Coconut Wireless, Feb. 28, 2008).

I am a die-hard fan of OS but still cringe when he (RL-Peter) says this quote. You know why? Because even in its attempt to bring levity, the images of Jews wearing Star of David Patches being loaded into trains at gunpoint, most likely to their deaths, ruins it for me.

For you to use this quote by proxy as a lame attempt at humor to support Obama’s choice not to wear a lapel pin shows some of your character. And I am quite sure I don’t care for it.

Your choice also mirrors Golf Digest’s [sic] lame attempt to ride the publicity garnered by Kelly Tilghman of Golf Channel by printing the Noose on its cover. Not Funny.

I am not even Jewish. I would guess that you are not Jewish Mr. Pignataro as well. Nor have you had your race/religion put on the blocks for extinction. Because your use of a religions horrific endurance’s at the hands of a Nazi regime shows very poor taste.

-Grayson Sheridan, Lahaina

Anthony Pignataro responds: Humor is subjective, but it’s precisely because the Office Space joke about Nazis and flair is in such poor taste that I quoted it for my column. See, not to get too technical or anything, the thrust of the humor, if you will, of the joke in question is against the Nazis, not the Jews. When a person laughs, he or she is laughing at the Nazis, not the Jews. And to laugh at the Nazis—be it during Office Space, Hogan’s Heroes, The Producers or Top Secret! (though that film was, now that I think about it, actually not all that funny)–is to belittle one of the most racist, murderous gang of thugs in history. Oh, and it was Golfweek—not Golf Digest—which did the stupid noose thing on the cover.

MORE ON BRAGG

Thank you for showing that greed is not only a good old boys club (“In the Name of the ‘Father,’” Feb. 28, 2008). Patricia Bragg is just another greedy mainlander promising to preserve land and then developing it. I’ve seen her on Oahu loudly boasting about her accomplishments and all the land she owns on several continents.

All I know is the stories I hear from people who have worked for her without being paid. Perhaps she has never heard the wisdom of not telling lies on an island where things are not so easily hidden.

-Harold Kyoki, via email

Patricia is an Inspiration. Patricia recently told me that she purchased this tract of land to protect the trees and give the farmers the opportunity to continue their organic faming. This is in line with her mission and character.

-Dr. John F. Demartini, via Mauitime.com

Just read the letter from Bragg’s attorney (Letters, Feb. 21, 2008) and noticed something strange moving behind the curtain. I don’t know anything about water rights but it looked like [he] is trying to do some kind of fancy shell trick. Keep us looking over here to keep us from looking at the hanky panky over there. Isn’t it obvious to everyone that you would not need to preserve water rights on separate parcels that, according to him in the same letter, will never be separate parcels again?

He also states that this water issue excuse only applies to SOME parcels, why then would they need to get separate lot determinations on all of them? Just put the whole thing into a protective trust and make your actions match your words already.

-Ka‘ohi Johnson, Kahului

CORRECTION

In our Feb. 28, 2008 story “In the Name of the ‘Father,’” we failed to make clear that it was Bragg’s website (www.bragg.com) that contains the modified version of freelance writer Vicky Uhland’s profile of Patricia Bragg.