It was like voting for a candidate for homeroom president.
My wife and I arrived at a jam-packed Manoa Elementary School cafeteria to a scene of chaos.
Who was in charge?
No directions.
So we asked some people who were milling about, including Mayor Kirk Caldwell.
“Report to the table with other Precinct 2 people!”
There we found a much-harassed lady with a list. Our names were supposed to be there, but weren’t. No matter. We could write our names on a piece of paper that someone was circulating, like one of those sign-up sheets for a potluck.
Then we located a young man who tore off two ballots from a pad. We selected our candidate. The ballot box? A friendly older lady took our votes somewhere. That’s the last we saw of them.
There must be a better way to nominate the leader of the free world.
C. Richard Fassler
Manoa
Superdelegates can negate popular vote
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders will receive about 17 of the 25 Hawaii Democratic Party convention delegates, which is the approximately correct percentage based on his 70 percent to 30 percent vote margin in votes cast Saturday in Hawaii (“Feelin’ the Bern,” Star-Advertiser, March 27).
That sounds OK, until you find that another nine superdelegates, most of whom are Hawaii politicians beholden to the conservative Democratic establishment and Hillary Clinton, except for the one courageous exception, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who supports U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
This will result in, probably, a margin of only 18 to 17 delegates for Sanders despite his overwhelming preference among the voters. This is democracy?
Bob Meyer
Poipu, Kauai
Isle theater groups need more positivity
I am concerned about the way some local theater productions may be suffering from some negative reviews in the Star-Advertiser’s entertainment coverage.
Since I have had the opportunity to attend many stage productions, both here and during my time living on the mainland, I feel bound to comment on what I have been seeing in your reviews.
For those of us who need these local productions as an entertainment outlet, we worry that poor ticket sales can be disastrous for companies doing the best they can with limited resources.
My experience lately has been that, despite these reviews, the audiences, including myself, have enjoyed the shows very much. Let the public that is hungry for entertainment decide.
I am quite sure that the performers and technical staff want to put out their best efforts.
Entertainment from a hand-held device cannot come close to a real live stage performance.
Patrick “pj” Silva
Makiki
‘Case for Easter’ arises in Bible often
With regard to Robert J. Hutchinson’s article, one has to take into account the entire Bible — Old Testament and New (“The case for Easter,” Star-Advertiser, March 27).
There are more than 100 prophecies in the Old Testament that foretold Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection that were fulfilled with Jesus’ death — not just the 3,100 or so words in the New Testament cited by Hutchinson. Taken together, the evidence is irrefutable that Jesus died and was resurrected.
Christians observe Easter because they have asked the question — what does Jesus’ resurrection mean for me — and they celebrate Easter because they have found the answer.
Kathy Novak
Moanalua Valley
Global warming has few overall solutions
The Star-Advertiser headlines an article on carbon emissions by human activity, repeating our self-flagellation over the use of oil, gas and coal (“Humans leaving a big, hot mark,” Star-Advertiser, March 25).
The article cites a study by professor Richard Zeebe of the University of Hawaii and his co-authors, which concludes that humans are releasing carbon into the atmosphere about 10 times faster than during any time in the past 66 million years.
OK, so we’re contributing to global warming. What’s the solution?
The numerous studies are short on solutions.
In this energy-intensive developed world, how do we make our electricity, and what do I put in my gas tank?
There are numerous partial solutions out there, but few overall, full-time, 24/7 solutions.
Jack Roney
Hilo
Cataluna took wrong approach with Kenoi
Lee Cataluna’s groupie-like tribute to career politician hopeful Billy Kenoi left me amazed — but not in a good way (“Kenoi’s scrappy nature has been key to his success,” Star-Advertiser, March 25).
She amazingly did not mention his romps at hostess bars like Club Evergreen, or the fact that his careless personal and financial actions while employed as Hawaii County mayor hurt and embarrassed his community and his state.
Rather than saying about Kenoi, “Don’t count him out,” it would have been more helpful if Cataluna encouraged Kenoi to seek possible substance abuse or mental health assessments for his “epic” behavior.
For now, I am counting Kenoi out for any future state office positions.
Nancy Manali-Leonardo
Waikiki
