Word: honolulu
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Hawaii approaches Nov. 4 with great anticipation. After all, the Honolulu-born Barack Obama may just become the next President of the United States. But there is something else on the ballot that makes a lot of locals uneasy: the chance to rewrite the state's charter by starting up a constitutional convention. Hawaii is one of three states (the others being Illinois and Connecticut) with the issue of rewriting its constitution on the ballot. And it is also the object lesson for all who'd like to do so. Hawaii has convened what locals call "ConCons" twice since...
...time. After she retired in the mid-1980s, she has mainly kept to herself in the Beretania apartment, cared for mostly by Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. Soetoro-Ng does appear on her brother's campaign; she and her husband are prized guests at dinner parties in Honolulu social circles. But she tends to keep the press at arms length, trying to lead the life of a teacher at one of Honolulu's private schools, La-Pietra-Hawaii School for Girls on the slopes of Diamond Head...
...young Maya along when she went to Indonesia and Africa to pursue her master's and doctoral degrees studying and helping village craftsmen (Barack was left behind to be raised by Madelyn Dunham and her late husband Stanley in the 10th story Beretania duplex in the Makiki area of Honolulu). Nevertheless, cautioned by her brother's campaign advisers, Soetoro-Ng always watches her words, knowing how easily the words of a relative can reflect in unintended ways on the candidate...
...Although Honolulu is the 14th largest city in America, the chain of islands in the most isolated, populated spot on the planet makes Hawaii a small-town kind of place to live. The place reacts with a kind of star-struck energy whenever an islander makes it big. Friends and families, for example, organized call-in centers to flood votes for Hawaii-born contestants on "American Idol." This year's Little League World Series champions from the Oahu community of Waipio were given a parade by the city that ran straight through Waikiki. But Obama's candidacy...
Already, local anticipation is brimming over. It wasn't just the press crowding to see the candidate outside his grandmother's apartment. "I appreciate him visiting his grandmother," says Arthur Witherspoon of Honolulu, who stood outside Dunham's apartment on Friday within the crowd of about 100 people. "It shows character," says Norma Parado, who lives half of each year in Honolulu, "I'm so glad he's here doing this. He's paused his campaigning for family. That's the kind of person you want leading our country...