Yes, Virginia, there will
be a Star-Bulletin
Editor's note: This essay is printed with special acknowledgment of Francis P. Church's classic Christmas editorial from The New York Sun in 1897. Church wrote the editorial in response to a letter to the editor from 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon, whose letter asked, "Is there a Santa Claus?" This version is altered only slightly by Richard S. Miller, retired University of Hawaii professor of law and former chairman of the Honolulu Community Media Council.
We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among our friends.
Dear Editor,Dear Virginia,I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there will be no Star-Bulletin. Papa says, "If you see it in the front stoop, it's so." Please tell me the truth, will there be a Star-Bulletin?
Virginia
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there will be a Star-Bulletin. It will exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.
Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Star-Bulletin! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no cutesy Charles Memminger, no outright nasty David Shapiro, no surprisingly thoughtful and succinct John Flanagan, no Helen Altonn or Corky or Bud Smyser to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in the Sunday funnies. The light with which Diane Chang, childlike, fills our world would be extinguished.
You don't believe there will be a Star-Bulletin! You might as well not believe in fairies, or Rupert Phillips. You might get your papa to hire men to watch all the stoops on Christmas eve to catch a single kid delivering the Star-Bulletin, but even if you did not see one kid delivering them, what would that prove?
Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. And besides, they deliver them by car now. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.
Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world, and that includes a Star-Bulletin in 2001.
You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, why not even Gannett, could tear apart.
Only faith, poetry, love, romance, and some good lawyers, the Justice Department, and tough judges can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory of a living Star-Bulletin beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Star-Bulletin! Thank God! It lives and will live forever as surely as Santa Claus will deliver it. And as to Santa, a thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Quotables
"Returning to Hawaii at just the right time was always a dream of mine. I always envisioned something like this happening. I feels right to be here." June Jones
Football coach, University of Hawaii
Preparing for today's Oahu Bowl game against Oregon State
"You can only pay fines when you're guilty. Until the process determines we are wrong, we will not pay any fines." Don Clegg
Consultant to City Councilman John Henry Felix
On Felix's appealing an order from the city Planning and Permitting Department to stop wedding ceremonies at his Aina Haina estate
Bernice Pauahi Bishop can sleep soundly now
Yes, Princess, the mighty have fallen from the heights of Kapalama to the despair of Circuit Court, their integrity less than intact.
They defended every attack. Denial. Blame. Anything to conceal shame. They tried to minimize damage.
But now there is a plan, as the former trustees' uncertain futures loom out of hand. Sleep tight, Princess.
Russell Stephen Pang
Tofu study lacked control group
I believe that the research linking tofu and miso to "brain aging" is invalid. Whether brain aging means senility or Alzheimer's disease, there must be other factors involved in the process of memory loss. The study, based on research conducted only on male veterans, proves nothing.For a valid conclusion to be drawn, the study group should be randomly selected from both sexes, with the one criterion being a high consumption of tofu and miso. Then a comparison should have been made with a control group from a community where tofu is seldom eaten.
Masako Ogata
Hilo, Hawaii
Tofu doesn't deserve bad rap from study
It was irresponsible to publish the articles on the tofu study without emphasizing that the results are not conclusive. Damage to local tofu businesses should have been expected, so at least an opposing opinion should have been played up.Perhaps the men in the study who ate the most tofu may not have had the most balanced nutrition. It may not be the tofu itself as much as the lack of a vital nutrient.
Lawrence Miyake
Via the Internet
Vermont did right thing supporting gay rights
For all those grumblers who wonder where the spirit of aloha went, now we know. It went to Vermont.Richard Miles
Legislature Directory
Hawaii Revised Statutes
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Letter to the Editor
