LES Peetz has ended nearly every phone conversation we've ever had with a joke. The few times he forgot the joke, my phone would ring again five minutes later. "Hey, I meant to ask you, did you hear the one about... " Sense of humor missing
in Hawaii politicsIt's been a lot of jokes. Les and I have been friends since our high school days in Hilo. We were debate-team partners at Hilo College and had a fair amount of success in tournaments around the state -- mostly because Les was so good at charming judges with his literate wit.
It's not that Les' jokes are Leno material. His best joke is that he owes me lunch. But I appreciate a guy who, through all the ups and downs of life over so many years, makes such an effort to send you away feeling good.
It carries over to Les' professional life as one of Hawaii's most respected jazz musicians. He plays a melodic style of jazz piano that sets the spirit soaring from the first bar.
I bring this up because Les wrote an article in Honolulu magazine this month lamenting that Hawaii has lost its sense of humor along with its robust economy. He seems to think the sense of humor is the bigger loss. He may be right.
"Hopelessness and humor don't coexist nicely," he wrote, adding a telling quote from comedian Paul Ogata: "A person without humor is a public hazard."
It's a scary thought. Our leaders have not only stumbled in addressing our mounting problems, but they've been woefully humorless in doing it. We haven't been much better in our bitter assessment of their efforts.
Humor is important in public life. Lincoln, Kennedy and Reagan rose to the White House on the wit they brought to pressure-packed debates with their opponents.
Bob Dole is one of the funniest men in politics, using humor both for self-deprecation and as a weapon. But he rarely let his sense of humor out to play when he ran for president as a dour Midwestern scold. It cost him.
The late Gov. John Burns and Sen. Daniel Inouye could always tell a good story and laugh heartily when someone told one on them. Former Lt. Gov. Thomas Gill was a great wit. Former Kauai Mayor Tony Kunimura could be a hard man, but he could also tell stories that would leave you shaking with laughter.
The current crop? Has anybody heard Gov. Ben Cayetano laugh from the belly? Did you ever expect to see the words "Jeremy Harris" and "guffaw" in the same sentence? I've seen Maui Mayor Linda Lingle crack small jokes in private, but she projects a public persona out of American Gothic. Mufi Hannemann is a talented comic and mimic, but you could never tell it from the way he acts in public.
Our legislators? They'd make great pallbearers for a relative nobody really liked. Come to think of it, they'd make great relatives nobody really liked.
FORMER Arizona Rep. Morris Udall once lost a bid for House majority leader because members of the Democratic caucus who had promised privately to vote for him didn't. Asked to comment, Udall responded, "Do you know how to tell the difference between a caucus and a cactus? With a cactus, the pricks are on the outside."
It takes brains to come up with a line like that. People like to know their government is being run by smart, creative people.
We can't laugh our way out of the economic slump. But we sure can diminish our quality of life even further by crying ourselves into a lot of unnecessary angst.
Les Peetz ended his magazine spiel with a fart joke. Crude, perhaps, but tell the truth: Doesn't it make you smile to think of Cayetano or Lingle ending a speech that way just once?
David Shapiro is managing editor of the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at editor@starbulletin.com.
Volcanic Ash runs every Saturday in the Star-Bulletin.
Previous Volcanic Ash columns