Hawaiian Electric Industries failed to muster enough supporting votes for their merger with NextEra on their initial mailing, so what do they do?

Resend out proxy ballots to the entire shareholder community.

Even though I voted and returned the first mailed ballot the day after receiving it, HEI mailed me another proxy ballot via USPS Priority Mail at a rate of $5.75.

This is another example of abuse of position, as in the Hawaii State Teachers Association union vote and the Christopher Deedy trial-retrial-retrial.

Why is it that we do not have enough time to get it right the first time, but plenty of time to do it again?

R. "Ronnie" Goo
Mililani

Road repaving not being prioritized

Whoever directs the city’s road maintenance division is either incompetent or takes marching orders from someone higher.

Makuahine Place is a cul de sac, does not have much vehicular traffic and was smooth with no potholes.

But recently a contractor began stripping the almost-perfect pavement to repave again.

In contrast, School Street is in terrible condition and has been that way for years.

Methinks our tax dollars could better be spent to benefit the thousands of taxpayers who commute from the westto the east.

Glen S. Arakaki
Kamehameha Heights

Times were simpler and we did just fine

We rode our bikes with baseball caps,not helmets, on our heads.

We rode in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck was always a special treat.

We drank Kool-Aid made with white sugar, but we weren’t overweight.

We didn’t have cellphones.

There was no Internet.

We played outside all day.

We fell out of trees and broke bones, but there were no lawsuitsfrom those accidents.

Little League had tryoutsand those who didn’t make the team learned to deal with disappointment.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

James Arcate
Manoa

Lung association ignores Maui issue

The American Lung Association in Hawaii recently commended the director of the Hawaii Department of Health.

Many of us here on Maui consider this a sick joke.

The DOH is charged with enforcing the terms of an agricultural burn permit issued yearly without significant public input to the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., which burns a canefield or two six days each week for about 10 months each year.

The result is air and water pollution, filth and sickness.

This has been going on for years, and the DOH does nothing effective to regulate it.

The DOH has miserably failed the people of Maui.

It is long past time for the American Lung Association in Hawaii to get involved and help us in this fight for change.

Meaningless awards don’t help. It needs to be part of the solution and not a part of the problem.

Chris Profio
Kahului, Maui

What’s next excuse for tax refund delay?

I am wondering what the next excuse will be from the state’s tax office as to why income tax returns are again being delayed.

The initial timetable given by the agency called for a processing period of four to six weeks for electronically filed returns. That was amended to 16 weeks as the agency continues to scrutinize each return for fraud.

Our return, filed electronically, is now into the 18th week with no new explanations being given to the general public.

Trying to talk to a live body at the agency is impossible, for this taxpayer anyway, as I’m greeted with a scripted reply of, "All agents are busy assisting other callers; please call back."

The delays would be more palatable if the agency were to give the taxpayer some kind of accounting of its findings.

I wonder if any of the personnel in the tax office are still waiting for their returns.

Wayne Sterling
Kailua

TMT supporter was unfair to protesters

Ty Pak’s accusation that Mauna Kea protesters are seeking a payout really takes the cake ("TMT protesters seek big payoff," Star-Advertiser, Letters, May 29).

Will the supporters of the Thirty Meter Telescope please offer substantive arguments to a very serious and complex issue?

So far, all they’ve offered aretangential speculation and petty sniping at the character of Native Hawaiians.

Pak’s statements, if not outright slanderous, are either highly spurious or just plain ridiculous.

Who exactly would be the legal payee on Pak’s imaginary settlement check? Or, would it just be: Pay to the order of cash?

Hawaii can do better than this. The current level of discourse is headed below ground level to the sewers.

Raplee Nobori
Waikiki

‘Hempcrete’ home prompts sarcasm

I read with shock and dismay your front-page story about building hemp homes ("The house that hemp built," Star-Advertiser, June 4).

Don’t people realize that hemp is a dangerous "gateway plant" that invariably leads users down a slippery slope of botanical addiction?

It’s high time we nipped this nefarious practice in the bud — before people begin making bricks from peyote cacti and poppy plant stems.

John Wythe White
Haleiwa