VOLCANIC ASH
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By David Shapiro
Our Legislature is focused on bread-and-butter issues such as affordable housing and traffic flow as its 2005 session opens today.
Both are worthy concerns, and Hawai'i's quality of life will improve immensely if lawmakers and Gov. Linda Lingle can work together to find elusive solutions to these longstanding problems.
But legislators should also show the vision and courage to finally do the right thing on heart-and-soul issues they have ducked for years.
Prominent among these are cleaning up our elections, ending chronic homelessness and giving terminally ill patients the right to leave this life on their own terms.
• Campaign finance reform
Weak laws regulating political money have given us elections often lacking in fair competition and produced elected officials more beholden to special interests that fund their campaigns than the public interest.
A former speaker of the House, two former state senators and former City Council member have been sentenced to prison for campaign finance abuses.
Dozens of city contractors have been convicted of attempting to buy influence with illegal donations in the 2000 mayoral campaign.
Voters are tired of this corrupt system, turning out Sens. Cal Kawamoto and Melodie Aduja last year after they were fined for political spending violations. Kawamoto was an intransigent opponent of meaningful reform.
Lawmakers who profit from the system must put the public interest first and enact the recommendations of Bob Watada, retiring executive director of the Campaign Spending Commission, who has done a remarkable job of enforcement within the limits of existing law.
Watada wants tougher penalties, more transparent reports from candidates on where they get their money, and controls on contributions from corporations, unions, banks, government contractors and out-of-state donors.
• Homelessness
Hawai'i was named the third meanest state in America for treatment of the homeless after the 2004 Legislature imposed severe penalties on homeless people who live on public property — without giving them anyplace else to go.
Lawmakers can atone for the disgrace when they consider Lingle's call to end chronic homelessness in 10 years through a partnership of government and the private sector.
The governor hasn't released details yet, but it's a sound concept that has worked in other cities.
Addressing the needs of the homeless is not only the moral thing to do, but cheaper in the long run than paying the ongoing public and private costs of homelessness.
It's an issue where Republican practicality can converge with Democratic social consciousness to end the cycle of playing politics on the backs of the most unfortunate among us.
• Death with dignity
Bills to allow terminally ill patients the right to physician-assisted suicide failed in the past two Legislatures out of ethical concerns and fear of how the issue might play in tight House and Senate races.
Oregon, the only state to sanction lethal prescriptions for end-of-life patients, has not reported abuse after several years of experience with the law, which few people have actually used.
Mostly, it has served to comfort patients that the option is there if they reach the point where unbearable pain and disability rob their lives of all quality.
With political divisions in the Legislature decisively settled in favor of the Democrats in the 2004 election, there will never be a less politically charged time to pass this compassionate legislation.
Overriding other considerations is that it's a choice most of us would want for ourselves when our time comes. We can no longer justify denying the comfort to those who need it now.
With no universal right answer on a matter so personal, the decision rightfully belongs to the individual, not the government.
David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net.
