By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

The debate went back and forth these past two weeks more times than the Humane Society-sponsored rescue efforts did.

Was it too much effort for just one dog? Too much money?

The heart of that sentiment was really the flip side: too little effort is made on behalf of other beings, human and otherwise. Too little money is spent rescuing people stranded in poverty, children adrift in hopeless situations, animals abandoned on dry land. That's just a fact. A sad, awful fact that would be there with or without Forgea.

Was rescuing the dog a wasted effort? Some might think so, but only if they are wholly unable to take some measure of hope from the story; some small comfort that sometimes, even when the odds are stacked against you, it all turns out in the end.

As to the money issue, we need to remind ourselves that this wasn't our money. It wasn't taxpayer money. It wasn't road or school or Sunset on the Beach in Waipahu money. It was money from people who have the money to rescue a dog at sea.

If you want to get mad at misused money, look no further than Rene Mansho. According to the city Ethics Commission, Auntie Rene blew through enough city money to rescue three dogs at sea.

The van cam fiasco went through enough money to rescue 101 dalmations, each on its own barge.

Or how about the State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism spending nine months and $90,000 to come up with a slogan to "brand" doing business in Hawai'i that is both insipid and insulting:

"Hawai'i is the one place on Earth to do business where life and aloha are part of the bottom line."

And they're supposed to be selling that to local businesses . . . like, you know, the people ALREADY doing business in Hawai'i. They could have just gone with "Thumbs Up Hawai'i 2002" and saved the money to rescue a dog-and-a-half at sea.

But I digress. The rescue of Forgea should serve as a reminder of the capacity of human caring, of our amazing ability to go to great lengths to spare another's suffering. Sure, we're inconsistent. Yeah, we're hypocritical. A lot of the time, we focus on absolutely the wrong things while the important stuff slips right by.

But sometimes, we get it right. Forgea should remind us of that.

DBEDT spent all that money, and they got it wrong. Close, but wrong.

Hawai'i is the one place on Earth where the bottom line is life and aloha.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.