Let’s be positive about Warriors

I find it disconcerting that there are those in our community who have been quick to abandon our University of Hawaii football team and its new coach, Norm Chow.

What I have recently heard and seen suggests we are a community who will only support a team when it wins every week.

The truth is, our football team faced a rebuilding process due to graduation, as well as the implementation of a new offensive scheme with the hiring of Chow. In addition, nobody could deny that the many injuries suffered by key players have contributed heavily to our slow start. Despite that, Chow and the players have remained positive and continue to try their best.

We can’t let the negativity add to the frustration that our team and coaches already feel. Now is time for us to be there for them — when they need our support the most.

Randy Perreira
Executive director, HGEA/AFSCME Local 152

Victors must fulfill promises

Now that Mazie Hirono, Colleen Hanabusa, Tulsi Gabbard and Dan Inouye are in, we, the people of Hawaii, need them to deliver on their promises.

Our Democratic congressional representatives need to get Hawaii reimbursed for the Compact of Free Association to cover medical care and social welfare needs of migrants promised by the federal government. Hawaii taxpayers should no longer bear the burden of these costs.

Next, we need to revisit the Jones Act and how it affects our costs of living. Our representation cannot staunchly support it while allowing exemptions to occur that clearly demonstrate the need for reform.

We, the people of Hawaii, deserve fair representation in Congress. Serving only the needs of powerful special interests does not help us anymore, even if they bought all the campaigns. They must do as they promised and truly make our Hawaii a better place for all.

Joni Kamiya
Kaneohe

Suicide hotline poorly managed

As a former hotline volunteer, I am saddened but not surprised by your article "Crisis hotline hang-up" (Star-Advertiser, Nov. 11).

I’m afraid this is all too typical and will only get worse as the government takes more control of our health care. The front lines are manned by volunteers who are well-trained and committed, yet the management is run by paid employees with academic creden- tials devoid of any business acumen.

Incredibly, we were forced to ask each caller to identify their race. We were told it’s mandatory and for "funding." Despite the fact that 90 percent of callers were on some type of prescription medication, that’s not worth documenting, but their race was.

Volunteers were treated like replaceable labor, and those of us in the private sector were a minority. Most were college kids earning credit and lacked the gravitas to relate to callers quickly.

Without accountability, these public sector employees will continue to blame "funding."

Frank DeSimone
Kaunakakai, Molokai

Coulter ignored Nate Silver blog

Ann Coulter’s column was dismissed by me right after her first 40 words when she stated, "every election predictor was wrong" ("Romney’s run for president derailed by purist showoffs," Star-Advertiser, Nov. 14).

As a matter of well-documented and published fact, Nate Silver’s blog in The has been near perfect now for both the 2008 and 2012 presidential cycles.

He predicted the electoral college numbers:313 for President Barack Obama, 225 for Mitt Romney (actual: 332 for Obama, 206 for Romney) and he predicted the popular vote at 50.8 percent for Obama, 48.3 percent for Romney(actual 51 percent Obama, 48 percent Romney). He called all 50 states correctly.

So, actually, it is the political pundits who have been derailed — by the truth of realnumbers.

Jim Wolfe
Nuuanu

Voting doesn’t have to be hard

I am quite puzzled not only by the lack of ballots or staff at polling stations from Hawaii to New Jersey to Florida, but by the fact that people actually bothered to stand in line for a whole day, weather permitting or not, to vote.

All they have to do is submit a permanent absentee ballot application.

I’ve been voting via absentee ballot for years. Not only do you not have to drive or stand in line, but you are given the opportunity to thoroughly think of whom you want to vote for right in the comfort of your own home.

It boggles my mind why citizens choose the hard way to vote and criticize the system when it fails them.

Han Song
Kaneohe