Posted on: Friday, February 22, 2002

LEE CATALUNA
It's time to get to nitty-gritty

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

There's a saying among writers that the house is never so clean as when there's writing to do. The novel, the screenplay, the 50-page essay gather dust on a computer disk while the writer is suddenly fixated on mundane tasks like laundry, dishes, alphabetizing the canned goods. Easy, time-consuming stuff. Distractions. Excuses for not doing the real work. The hard work.

Not that there's anything wrong with having a clean house; but there is something off-balance if dusting your Precious Moments collection and folding three loads of

bebadees are keeping you from a higher purpose.

In the larger house, in our community, the people who should be taking care of their higher purposes are likewise being horribly, foolishly, wastefully distracted.

There is so much real work to do. Hard work. Crucial work.

There are thousands without jobs in Hawai'i. There are children being beaten, women living in fear, families enduring horrible poverty.

Public schools are in bad shape and desperately need leadership, attention and resources.

Businesses are struggling, the economy is bleeding, Hawai'i's future hangs in the balance.

So much work for the leaders of our community to do, but what are they focused on? What's the hot topic at the Legislature, the courthouse, the City Council, any place where people meet to shoot the breeze?

Those cursed traffic cameras.

Enough already. The idea may have started out with good intentions, but the implementation has been a nightmare. It's the worst stereotype of the problems with state government, a satire played out in real life and the kind of thing we'll joke about and roll our eyes over for years to come.

The program has sullied nearly everyone attached to its implementation, from the Department of Transportation managers who seemed to change their tune with each press conference, to lawmakers who whined that they didn't really understand the measure when they passed it, to the court system that now cannot offer equal justice to people with citations. It's incomprehensible that some people paid the fines while others got their tickets dismissed on a technicality that was a valid argument in court one day and not the next.

Enough time and money have been tossed into this deepening puka. Worst of all, more than enough energy has been sapped haggling and debating those cameras. If all this energy and attention were spent on schools or diversifying the economy, it would be worth it. But this?

The Legislature needs to stop this farce right now. Cut those guys a check and send them packing. Then sit down to the real work, the hard work, the higher purpose.

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