I watch with interest the discussions regarding the acquisition of Hawaiian Electric Industries by NextEra Energy. I see a lot of passion but few facts in the discussion.

I am a simple farmer trying to survive in an adverse environment for agriculture. The costs of inputs make food production extremely difficult. Energy is one of these. What will happen to our rates if the Florida Power & Light people take over our grid?

I just read that they will lower electrical rates for 2016 in that state. If the governor and the state Public Utilities Commission have clear alternatives, we should hear them, just as we should understand NextEra’s plans for our energy future.

There are lots of reasons the public may be huhu with our local power company. Let’s not let that keep us from understanding the financial and technical issues this proposed sale means for our community.

David Wong
Waianae

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All-day bus pass won’t cost more

I get the feeling Ken White missed the part about the proposal for an all-day pass (“Don’t eliminate bus transfer system,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 29).

If you take the bus from Makiki to Kahala, how do you get back home to Makiki? If your answer is the bus, then it works out to the same fare you are currently paying.

An all-day pass at $5 x two adults = $10. Two fares with a transfer at the current rate of $2.50 each x 2 adults = $10.

Frankie Ruggles
Makiki

Congress asleep at the wheel?

An example of why Congress is unserious occurred this week, when U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz sent an email bragging about federal legislation to raise the smoking age to 21.

On the same day, Russia surprised U.S. leadership by bombing Syria with only a one-hour notice by a Russian general in Baghdad.

Was the senator unaware of events in Kunduz, Afganistan? Did he not notice the report that the U.S. failed to halt ISIS extremists entering Syria? Was he unaware of the failure of the U.S. training Syrian fighters at a cost of $500 million?

The U.S. has been unaware, unprepared and outmaneuvered by Russia and Vladimir Putin. The situation is serious, with our air crews in danger. The only intelligent, accurate and detailed assessment of events came from an interview with our own U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard on CNN.

I urge all to watch it. She summarized the situation better than the president, the secretary of state and the secretary of defense. Gabbard gets it while our other congressional representatives are AWOL.

Jim McDiarmid
Mililani

‘Popular will’ always relevant

Thomas Davies apparently believes that his role as a citizen ends after voting (“Senator’s job not about popular will,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 24).

If the majority of our population believes that our elected officials are omnipotent and by right of election know what’s “best” for us, then George Orwell’s “1984” will be a reality.

Elected officials are absolutely not supposed to follow their conscience, but the conscience of the people who elected them. Our roles as citizens do not end at the voting booth but continue throughout our lifetimes to ensure that our government is “of the people, by the people and for the people,” and certainly not “of the politician, by the politician and for the politician.”

Edward Irvine
Hawaii Kai

Performance was brilliant

We are blessed to have based in our islands a superb symphony orchestra — and to have as its artistic director JoAnn Falletta, a widely acclaimed symphonic conductor.

Last Sunday my wife Margie and I attended the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra’s season-opening concert at Blaisdell Concert Hall, conducted by Falletta. The first half featured as soloist Iggy Jang, the symphony’s superb concertmaster.

I loved the entire concert, but what I had looked forward to most was “Pines of Rome,” by Ottorino Respighi. The program notes call the composition’s gradual build-up to its rousing conclusion “one of music’s great crescendos, suggesting the approach of Roman legions that tramped those stones two millennia earlier.”

The Hawaii Symphony Orchestra performed brilliantly, and I have never before observed a more instant standing ovation.

Kit Smith
Hawaii Kai