HOMELESS

TIME HAS COME FOR TRAILER PARKS IN HAWAI'I

With all the thousands of homeless people on the west shore, the time has come for an alternative — trailer parks!

I know this sounds anti-Outdoor Circle, but we're in a crisis situation and something desperately needs to be done.

For people of Hawaiian ancestry, who are a majority of the homeless, it offers a way to have affordable, decent shelter. Imagine, a well-constructed trailer home with photovoltaic panels on the roof, a small composting toilet, fold-down beds, propane stove and a small water tank with a 12-volt DC pump. The trailer homes could be put on Hawaiian Homes or Kamehameha Schools lands and you don't need millions of dollars of infrastructure to do it.

I never liked the thought of trailer parks in Hawai'i, but I realize now that sentiment is very elitist. The thousands of people living on the beach show the world that Hawai'i is not for Hawaiians anymore. Will the national flag for kanaka maoli be the blue tarp?

MASS TRANSIT

BRING BACK OLD DAYS, USE OR&L TRACK

Concerning the train system proposed by the City and County of Honolulu, it seems to me that everyone's forgotten their Hawaiian history. If this were 1906 we'd be getting around the island on the OR&L trains from downtown Honolulu to Kahuku and riding Honolulu Rapid Transit's system of electric trolley cars from Diamond Head to Kalihi Valley.

Twenty miles or so of the old OR&L track still exists between 'Ewa Beach and Nanakuli. Clean up the old track and extend the line back up the coast to Makaha as well as toward town back through Waipahu, around Pearl Harbor. The old right of way is now the bike path past Pearl City, Aloha Stadium, through the Arizona Memorial parking lot. It goes past Pearl Harbor and Hickam as well as the airport. If that line proves successful, run the line back up to Wahiawa and Schofield Barracks, maybe even Hale'iwa and North Shore.

Most tourists come to see a Hawai'i that's almost gone. Bringing back 1930s style trains and stations with modern engines, undercarriages and equipment would be historical and fun as well as practical. It worked then, it can work again.

PROPOSED SYSTEM NOT GOOD TRAFFIC SOLUTION

What made our lawmakers revive the already dead rail transit system proposal? It's clear this very costly system is not the ultimate solution to our traffic congestion.

But it will be the most expensive structure on the island if it becomes a reality. In the long run, it will not be able to provide service to all workers, students, shoppers and tourists coming from the four corners of the island.

TheBus is doing great and still is heavily favored in lieu of the proposed rail system. It is more convenient for its flexibility.

We can't force anybody to stop driving, and traffic will always be a problem. Now, can any one of us think of a better way to spend an estimated $3 billion dollars other than a derailed rail system?

LANGUAGE ACCESS

ALL OF POPULATION SHOULD LEARN ENGLISH

The language access bill that Gov. Lingle signed into law is another sign of the craziness that afflicts state government. Why does the government spend many tax dollars on programs that benefit small percentages of people?

Politicians believe they know better how to spend our money than we do. Are the politicians really serving us or are they angling for votes? Why, when our roads, sewers and infrastructure need so much improvement, does the government spend money on these programs? I hope that someday we realize these politicians are serving special interests and not the majority of those who elected them.

Quit wasting tax dollars to buy votes. Learn English.

ECOSYSTEM

TROUBLING SIGNS ABOUND IN NW ISLES

In recent articles (June 19, "Fishing debate not over in NW Isles") fishing interests and Wespac have argued that the "pristine" Northwestern Hawaiian Islands should remain open to fishing. However, they omit several important facts.

Only the NWHI's shallow coral reefs, where no fishing currently occurs, can be considered relatively pristine. Even so, several species are depleted. Spiny lobster populations collapsed from overfishing in the 1990s and have not recovered since the fishery was closed in 2000. Endangered monk seals are only a shadow of their former population abundance and continue to decline. And green sea turtles and seabirds are threatened indirectly by fishing.

Deep-water bottomfish have been on the brink of overfishing for most of the last 16 years in the Mau Zone of the NWHI, and the vast and remote Ho'omalu Zone is rapidly headed in the same direction. In just 10 years, 'opakapaka, a key species in the fishery, has declined by 80 percent in the Ho'omalu Zone. These are troubling signs for a fishery for which no biomass estimates ever have been made.

All of this has happened as the result of a handful of fishermen fishing there, attesting to the sensitivity and vulnerability of deep-water fish communities. Even if applying the label, "healthy fishery," to the NWHI bottom fishery had some merit, it is not the same as a maintaining the natural character of a healthy ecosystem, which is the goal of the newly designated Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument.

There is little, if any, reason to believe that Wespac can manage the NWHI bottom fishery in an ecologically healthy and sustainable manner. The sustainable exploitation of deep-water fish communities has rarely, if ever, been achieved anywhere in the world. Wespac's stated goal of achieving the notoriously elusive and risky management target called "maximum sustainable yield" is clearly incompatible with maintaining ecosystem integrity. Further, the record reveals little evidence that Wespac has successfully managed any fishery in the NWHI.

UH FOOTBALL

'PREMIUM' PRICING SYSTEM DEFIES LOGIC

Amongst all the multitude of reasons for the decline in University of Hawai'i football season ticket sales, the most illogical is athletic director Herman Frazier's decision to implement "premium" charges on those season- ticket holders who had been supporting the program through all the thin years: Larry Price's later years, Bob Wagner's later years and Fred Von Appen's entire career.

Where, oh where did he get the idea that when you have an excess supply of something and you want to sell all of it, you must raise the price for those currently buying the product?

150 YEARS

SPECIAL SECTION SHOULD BE PUT IN ONE VOLUME

The July 2 history of Hawai'i supplements were excellent. I will save them for future reference. I suggest you publish them in one volume, perhaps in magazine format to make it less expensive. It would be especially useful to teachers

HEALTH

SOME DRUGS CONTRIBUTE TO OBESITY CRISIS IN U.S.

Nurse Pat Kelly need not be concerned that obese children are not aware that they are fat. The relentless and merciless torment from their classmates never allows them to forget it.

The greatest irony about obesity in America is that the medical establishment unwittingly triggered the obesity epidemic in the late '60s and early '70s with the aggressive prescription of thiazide diuretics, beta blockers and more than 200 other medications that have since been shown to cause insulin resistance, metabolic disorders and type II diabetes.

Not only do these drugs block the metabolism of carbohydrates, creating fat directly, the principal side effects are chronic fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath and heaviness in the legs, which seriously impedes an active lifestyle. On top of that, numerous studies have shown that fatigue and lack of sleep causes the brain to release hunger hormones.

Worst of all, these drugs are commonly prescribed to pregnant women, cross the placenta and overdose the fetus in utero. As a result, millions of children have been born with a biochemical predisposition to obesity and diabetes.

Centers for Disease Control statistics show that obesity rates were level until about 1970, when these drugs were introduced and have been climbing at 30% per year ever since.

OFFSHORE DRILLING

NATURAL GAS KEY TO ENERGY FUTURE

I was disappointed to see the ad (July 10) by the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), League of Conservation Voters (LCV) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) attacking me for supporting the Deep Ocean Energy Resources (DOER) Act.

Given the ad's harsh tone, readers will be surprised to know that the NRDC/LCV and PIRG Web sites rate my voting record at 67 percent and 90 percent, respectively. It's puzzling to see such an abrasive attack on an ally who votes their way nine times out of 10 (or even two out of three).

As for the DOER Act itself, if the ad's sponsors really believe the bill makes it possible to drill for oil off Hawai'i, they should check the credentials of their consulting geologists. There is not a drop or cubic inch of oil or gas in Hawai'i or anywhere nearby.

In any event, DOER allows coastal states that object to drilling on the adjacent Outer Continental Shelf to maintain existing bans out to 100 miles from their coasts. That buffer is more than wide enough to protect shoreline views and coastal ecosystems. This key provision satisfied the concerns of a majority of the Florida House Delegation, originally the strongest opponents of the bill.

My support for DOER is based on the need to increase domestic production of natural gas. Unlike oil, natural gas prices vary greatly from country to country. The U.S. has the highest natural gas prices in the industrial world, and they've risen more than 1,100 percent since 1990 (versus 154 percent for gasoline). That crunch drives up the costs of electricity generation and home heating in wide areas of the country. The most worrisome effect of skyrocketing natural gas prices in the U.S., however, is the impact on manufacturing. Natural gas is used in a wide variety of manufacturing processes for products ranging from cosmetics to fertilizer. High natural gas prices have cost the U.S. 2.8 million manufacturing jobs (net) since year 2000 — well-paying jobs that have gone overseas and diminished American competitiveness.

Natural gas is a key ingredient in producing hydrogen fuel cells. I am committed to developing hydrogen and other renewable energy sources. I secured congressional authorization for projects like photovoltaic at Pearl Harbor, wave-energy generators in Kane'ohe Bay, and the manufacture of ethanol from Hawai'i sugar lands.

No single technology provides the entire answer to our energy needs, but natural gas is the bridge to our alternative-energy future.

MORE RESEARCH NEEDED FOR ADVERTISEMENT

I'm not a big fan of Neil Abercrombie so a recent advertisement from the League of Conservation Voters caught my eye.

Words cannot express my surprise in learning that our representative voted to allow Big Oil to "drill along the entire length of Hawai'i's coast." Heavens! We could be exposed to "devastating spills."

I wonder what it is the Big Oil companies seek? Perhaps they need some better educated geologists. Or maybe the League of Conservation Voters should do a little bit more research before spending their money on "targeted" advertising.