EDITORIAL
Direct 'Jasmania' toward a better Hawai'i

No offense to Jasmine Trias, whose youthful exuberance and sweet smile took her to a spectacular finish in the "American Idol" competition.

Jasmine Trias

"Jasmine, you're a lovely girl but the reality is, the fact that you're so young and so sweet and you have this unbelievable sort of support in Hawai'i is why you're still in the competition," said blunt-spoken judge Simon Cowell after Trias' performance Tuesday.

He's right. Last week in Hawai'i, 1.32 million toll-free calls out of 5 million attempts to the AT&T network actually got through during the two-hour "Idol" voting window. During a typical non-"Idol" evening, the network received a little more than 70,000 calls.

Another way to vote

Which just goes to show that when Hawai'i wants to vote, get out of the way.

Contrast that with the 2002 state election in which only 385,462 people voted out of 676,242 registered voters. That's 57 percent.

So the question is, why do so many Islanders mobilize like crazy to elevate Jasmine Trias to an American Idol yet hold back on election day?

Should politicians perhaps struggle through weekly TV talent contests — balancing a budget, statesmanship, speechmaking, creating legislation — to get voters involved and make us believe we have a stake in who wins? Hey, our voting record is so poor that anything's worth trying.

Harness Jasmania

More to the point, how can we harness Jasmania and make it work for a better Hawai'i?

Granted, "American Idol" isn't the only example of "people power" in the Islands. The van cam system to nab speeders and red-light runners drew such widespread furor in 2002 that the program was shut down.

But there are so many other worthy causes that deserve the focus and determination that Jasmine Trias has attracted, such as:

• Parental involvement in public education. Imagine the strides public schools would make if more parents galvanized to ensure that there were enough textbooks, that facilities were up to par and that their children were receiving the necessary attention.

• Recycling. The City Council is still throwing obstacles in the way of an islandwide curbside recycling on O'ahu.

We have made it clear that such a program is necessary because of our limited landfill space. But as the city works out the details, we can all do our part by separating our trash and bringing it to recycling drop-off centers at schools and other venues. We can become a state that recycles regardless of politics at City Hall.

• Homelessness. Families with children, the mentally ill, laid-off workers, drug addicts, alcoholics, hardened drifters, indigent elderly men and women — they're out there living in parks and on beaches.

While many feign concern for the homeless, few want them in their homes or backyards.

We have to demand that there be affordable housing and related services to accommodate this burgeoning population before it's right on our doorstep.

• Mentoring. Time was when kids were everyone's business. When they messed up, a neighbor let them and their parents know about it. The cliché is, it takes a village to raise a child, and we've lost that sense of communal responsibility for our children. Many roam around unsupervised, and adults think to themselves, "not my problem."

Well it is our problem if they create havoc and no one sets them straight.

Granted, it can be dangerous to confront volatile youths. But if you catch them before they turn into monsters and let them know what's acceptable behavior in public, you're enforcing good behavior. As a community, we owe that to our children.

• Voting. We have this incredible gift in the United States. If we don't like our representatives in government, we can vote out the rascals and replace them. And if we think they're doing a good job, we can keep them in office. Plus, compared to most of the world's nations, our elections are relatively fraud-free.

"American Idol" has proven that Islanders do care enough to vote. So let's direct Jasmania into missions that will really make a difference in Hawai'i.

Meanwhile, Jas, you thrilled us all.