BLACKOUTS

FIX INFRASTRUCTURE BEFORE NEW BUILDING

I see where we are facing possible blackouts this summer due to maxing out our current island's electrical resources.

I propose an immediate moratorium on all new home and commercial building construction on this island. If we have barely the capacity to provide our current needs, how can we be expected to provide for all these new lightbulbs and air conditioners?

It's about time electrical resources are considered part of the infrastructure that needs to be included in development along with the water and sewer lines. It seems we are about to handle our electrical deficiencies the same as we do our transportation issues: add the necessary roads (or wires) after everybody is in gridlock.

Plan for the future now so the electricity is there when the buildings are ready. Can't we see that playing catch-up, as we do with transportation, doesn't work?

SENIOR HOUSING

HERE'S A VISION FOR KAKA'AKO WATERFRONT

On Ala Moana boulevard: a state-owned mixed-use 45-story leasehold condominium. With a streetwide setback, and on the ground level, a Foodland market, Longs drugstore, a Spa Fitness Center and a few takeout food shops.

The next three to five levels can be doctor offices, barber or beauty shops and any other amenity that is of use to a senior citizen. The next six to 15 levels can be affordable living for senior citizens. The next 15 levels can be senior citizen middle-income living. The uppermost levels can be high-end senior citizen living. The top level can be a high-end restaurant. Separate elevators for each level of living, the restaurant and businesses.

Attached with bridges to this highrise will be a multilevel parking structure to accommodate the residents, businesses and park users. This will keep all vehicle traffic out of the park.

From the waterline to the parking structure will be a mixed-use park like Ala Moana. This park will include a 50-meter swimming pool, tennis, volleyball and basketball courts, bowling lawn, soccer field, a running circuit training course or any other sport recreation equipment, toilets, indoor showers, with outdoor showers close to the waterfront. No trash cans. All park users will be required to take their trash home for disposal. No park benches, no tables. Nowadays, these things are light and very portable.

The lease rent on the 45-story mixed-use building will pay for the maintenance of the park and all of its amenities.

CREATURES

KUDOS TO AILA FOR MIDWAY PRESERVATION

All Hawai'i residents, regardless of political party affiliation, should be very proud of William Aila for spearheading the push for preservation of Midway Atoll for our threatened avian and sea-faring friends. After all, man is not the only species on this tiny planet.

I also would like to commend him for his good works in demanding respect for ancestral remains. It is a credit to a man to revere his forefathers.

TRUE HONOR

KAMEHAMEHA WOULD FAVOR INDEPENDENCE

In response to Ken Conklin's June 14 letter "Honor the king": The only way to truly honor King Kamehameha is to return all of the crown lands, also known as ceded lands, back to his relatives and restore the Hawaiian government to its independent status.

King Kamehameha would have fought valiantly to stop the invasion of his kingdom by ethnocentric white American expansionists during the late 1800s.

The king united the Islands for his kanaka maoli, not for immigrant settlers that were expatriated from their motherland.

If King Kamehameha were alive today, he would be fighting for independence from the United States. I am very proud to be a descendant of King Kamehameha and I will always honor him and his legacy, and like a loyal Kamehameha mo'opuna, I will fight for independence from the U.S.A. until I die.

Brandish the banner of Hawaiian independence!

COMMITMENT

PRISON WILL ALLOW WATADA TO GROW UP

I have just read 1st Lt. Ehren Watada's June 18 commentary in which he attempts to explain his decision to desert his country when called to battle. He should have known when signing up in 2003 what the likely possibilities were for his future duties in the military. Or did he think he could play big-shot officer and duck the dirty duty until retirement?

There are many people smarter than he who do not believe the war in Iraq is "unlawful and immoral," as he describes it. He does not seem to comprehend the facts of this situation and the consequences of not prevailing in Iraq.

Well, it's nearing showdown time and now he's playing the victim card in his attempt to get some sympathy and a light sentence. I hope he receives a stiff sentence. It will enable him to spend the time growing up, which will include learning character-building and the need to honor commitments made.

IRAQ WAR

END THE CONFUSION

This whole war is confusing, and I hope our reasons for being there are worth fighting for. Hopefully this whole thing will blow over and the troops can come home.

TRANSIT NEEDS

STOP FOOT-DRAGGING OVER TAX COLLECTION

All of us who are caught in the horrendous commute from West and Central O'ahu are getting tired of the foot-dragging that is jeopardizing the Honolulu mass transit project.

We need action, not posturing from the governor. Perhaps the governor and lieutenant governor should spend a little more time in the real world stuck in traffic with the rest of us and out of their chauffeured cocoons.

In spite of the governor's best efforts to the contrary, the Legislature directed the state, not the city, to collect the transit tax.

And with the state guaranteed around $15 million a year to cover its cost, one has to wonder what the governor's problem really is. No money to collect the tax? You need to come up with a better excuse than that to go against the law.

Governor, we're not all Republicans, and we're not all from East O'ahu, and there is something else that we are not — expendable.

NATIONAL MONUMENT

NOW LET'S TURN OUR FOCUS TO GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

President Bush's creation of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) National Monument is a landmark (or watermark, as the case may be) in the long-term protection of these incredible islands.

National monument status is exactly what was needed to protect the NWHI. But it's not an act of "cooperative conservation," as both The Advertiser (June 18 editorial) and the president allege: it's almost the opposite.

Cooperative conservation as envisioned by this administration meant a shifting of focus away from strict rules and regulations and toward "cooperative" approaches that engaged local users, landowners, industry and government. In this model, the various parties come together amicably and agree to manage the resources, one hopes, sustainably.

But in the NWHI case, "cooperative conservation" among the state, commercial fishing interests and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council was failing. Any management that was taking place was largely at the behest of commercial interests — and at the expense of long-term sustainability.

So the president rightfully stepped in, and, with the heavy hand of the federal government, essentially banned all commercial extractive activities from the region by decree. In doing so, he decisively — albeit tacitly — acknowledged the necessary role of federal government in protecting our national treasures.

That's not to say that cooperative conservation doesn't have its place. But when those who have the most to gain from exploiting a resource are charged with managing it, cooperation trumps any conservation. In those situations, it takes real leadership to make the tough choices to protect our heritage, often for beneficiaries who are not yet born (let alone vote). In this way, the NWHI National Monument designation was a first for this president. No catchy slogans needed — just sustainable protection of our shared environment.

It's not too late for President Bush to use his position and act in the interests of science and genuine sustainability — as he did with the NWHI — and address the intractable environmental issues of our day. Global climate change comes to mind.

FOCUS ON BUSES

THERE'S A BETTER WAY FOR TRANSIT

I don't understand why it costs $5 million to collect an increase in the general excise tax. Apparently the state Legislature didn't either.

As a person who has to pay this tax periodically, and as a retired businessman, when I raised my prices, I simply changed a few items in my computer and it was done. Why does government have to make a mess out of everything it tries to do?

That $5 million could better be applied to the improvement of our sewer system — not given away to a subcontractor. And for goodness' sake, why is a subcontractor needed to collect this? I thought we already had a state tax collection agency.

This is just an example of the mess that is going to be made with the mass transit issues. The problem is so simple: realize and accept this is an island. We have limited space. Then take action based on that reality. That would suggest: