On Food and Politics

For Kaua‘i staff at a recent party at Bobby V’s in the Coconut Marketplace in Kapa‘a.

It’s not always that we link pizza and politics, but it does happen quite often. And sadly, this presidential election has been the biggest, most shameless pizza party I can remember.

Presidential hopefuls are merely job applicants seeking to win over the hearts and votes of the United States electorate. It is the constituents who get to hire who is going to get the job of leading the country for the next four years. It’s a pretty important job, not just for us here on domestic soil, but for much of the world.

Yet, it was disheartening to see how much racism, sexism, xenophobia, chauvinism, secrecy, lying (or perhaps sheer ignorance) and the list goes on, was spread by candidates going back way before the primaries. The only thing more depressing and scarier than presidential candidates showing their true colors was seeing how many people were willing to vote for them.

The good news is it’s all over. We now have a new president, and we can finally focus on healing and building a better country. When I say this, I don’t mean economically, I mean socially. It’s time to renounce prejudice and help to rebuild a nation where everyone is born equal, just like the U.S. constitution states. Without prejudice, we all win.

Speaking of pizza, almost this entire issue of For Kaua‘i is dedicated to food. Eating good food is a catalyst for human relations all over the globe, and especially here in Hawai‘i. Food, more precisely food supply, is vital to any civilization; and again, especially here in Hawai‘i because it’s one of the most geographically isolated places in the world.

Early Hawaiians did a pretty good job of ensuring their people wouldn’t go hungry. They planned meticulously how to ensure reliable food resources, from the early days of Polynesian seafaring voyagers to well into the 1800s.

Today, close to 90 percent of our food supply is imported. In case a global conflict arises, we will be in great danger of famine — and subsequent chaos — regardless of who wins or loses.

Which reminds me how utterly important it is to keep lunatics off the oval office in Washington D.C.