N-WORD

DOG WAS SPEAKING IN A PRIVATE MOMENT

Regarding Lee Cataluna's Nov. 2 column, "Sorry Dog, but this is hard to buy": I don't like the n-word, and had Dog Chapman said what he said on his TV show or in a public forum, there would be ample reason to be upset with him.

However, Dog thought he was in a private moment, and if most of us are really honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we all say things in private from time to time that we are glad are never made public.

If you listen to the audiotape or read the transcript, and by this I mean look past the words we are all trained to react in shock to and read the context of the discussion, you will see that Dog is aware that there are people trying to catch him using the n-word for personal gain, and he is justifiably concerned. And in hindsight, Dog was correct. Someone was recording him to make a fast buck: his own son.

So, before you all start kicking the Dog, ask yourself how well you would do if your son, daughter, lover, parent or friend were tape-recording all of your private conversations, just looking for that one careless comment they could sell to the scandal sheets for a few thousand dollars.

Be honest. How would you do?

FLOODING

WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THAT SEWAGE IN KAILUA?

While I appreciate the attention that the Nov. 5 editorial on the wastewater ruling brought to the island sewage problems, I am confused to then realize that in the same paper, the fact of 11,000 gallons of sewage spewing out of a manhole in Kailua was only mentioned in a graphic on Page A3, as part of an article about flooding.

The article leaves the reader only to wonder: Did that sewage end up in people's homes or Enchanted Lake, or did it flow downstream to pollute the ocean? Why is sewage still spilling out in Kailua?

Please, continue to cover our sewage problems islandwide, as that may be the only way they will ever be fixed.

GLOBAL WARMING

SUPERFERRY POLLUTION LESS THAN AIRLINE FLIGHT

The Superferry needs to be placed in a larger context. According to the carbon calculator at the British Web site co2balance.com, an interisland flight emits far more carbon per person than a ferry trip. Superferry or not, we should drastically cut the number of interisland flights and the number of visitors to Hawai'i.

Airplane pollution is a major contributor to global warming, so much so that environmental groups have occupied a section of London's Heathrow Airport to protest expansion plans.

On the other hand, we in Hawai'i encourage tourists to take long-haul flights to get here, the carbon equivalent of driving a car for an entire year, depending on the flight's point of origin. We then encourage those same tourists to take numerous short-haul flights to the Neighbor Islands. We take many of those flights ourselves.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has just warned us that the hour is very, very late: "If warming is not kept below two degrees centigrade, which will require the strongest mitigation efforts, and (that) currently looks very unlikely to be achieved, the substantial global impacts will occur, such as species extinctions, and millions of people (will be) at risk from drought, hunger, flooding."

Ultimately, there may well be less of Kaua'i and Maui to visit, whether by plane or by Superferry.

PATENTS

ISLAND ENTREPRENEURS NEED LOCAL INVESTORS

Your Nov. 3 article notes that Hawai'i is near the bottom of the pile in patent applications ("Hawai'i 49th in patent applications"). Careful reading shows that this is based on international patent applications, not domestic applications.

I have four patents pending. Just this week I received notice from my patent lawyers that it is time for me to file an international patent application on one of my patents. This will cost me $22,500 (Europe, Canada and Japan) just for filing fees. Hence you can see international filings are an expensive proposition (on top of already expensive patent attorney fees).

If Hawai'i is serious about growing its high-tech businesses, early-stage companies like mine need local investors. It takes a substantial investment to reap a substantial return.

With limited funding available in Hawai'i, it is always tempting to move the company away from the land I love in order to make my business successful.

GO! LAWSUIT

ALL THOSE INEXPENSIVE ISLE AIRFARES ARE HISTORY

Now that Hawaiian Airlines has won its legal case against go! airlines and go! has to pay Hawaiian $80 million, go! will likely leave Hawai'i.

We will have to pay unrealistic interisland airfares once again.

Say goodbye to the $9 fares or $19, $29 or $39 fares. Will Hawaiian and Aloha Airlines jack up fares like before? Only time will tell.

Let's just be thankful for Hawaii Superferry.

CROSSWALKS

PEDESTRIANS MUST ALSO EXERCISE CAUTION

Again, another pedestrian, this one walking a bike across the street at a marked crosswalk in broad daylight, was hit by a car in Kailua.

When will walkers get it into their heads that they just can't cross a busy street and ignore the traffic coming their way?

Use some common sense and wait for traffic to clear out of the way, or at least until you know all of the drivers coming your way can at least see you.

When there are two lanes of traffic moving in the same direction, you can be blocked from view of the driver in the second lane by the driver in the lane nearest the curb you are moving from. Don't ever run across a crosswalk unless you know no cars are present that might not see you.

Assume no one sees you, and have some patience for traffic to clear before using a crosswalk.

Drivers wait a lot themselves at stoplights, and so should pedestrians, too, by waiting for traffic to clear or at least thin out so that it is reasonably safe to cross the street without forcing a deadly accident to happen.

PROPER BURIAL

LET VOTERS DECIDE ON HAWAIIAN REMAINS

It is not a new story that new construction has unearthed Hawaiian burial remains. The 335 possible remains buried at the Ward Villages' Kaka'ako site is a huge number compared to the 11 remains first found, then another 29, and more after that.

The Society of Hawaiian Archaeology is pointing fingers at the state Historic Preservation Division, which in turn adheres to an outdated state law concerning what we do with rightfully buried Hawaiians.

Although the archaeological survey is wrong, halting further construction on the $100 million Ward Villages until decisions can be made on what to do with all of the remains seems out of the question.

What is interesting is that although several remains were found on several different occasions, Historic Preservation Division Administrator Melanie Chinen had the contractors build around them.

I believe the citizens of the state should have the right to vote on what to do with these remains.

I believe these remains deserve a proper burial, just as you and I would want.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

CURRENT PANEL BETTER REPRESENTS COMMUNITY

I am writing as one of the new "stacked" majority members of the Hawaii State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, which Amy Agbayani and Linda Colburn objected to so strongly in the Nov. 4 Focus section.

Strangely, they had no problem with "stacking" when the earlier HISAC was "stacked" with Akaka bill supporters, such as themselves.

On more substantive matters, Ms. Agbayani and Ms. Colburn are unhappy that their 2001 pro-Akaka bill recommendations to the commission were ignored when the commission went on record opposing the Akaka bill in 2006.

After reviewing the 2001 HISAC's rather extreme recommendations, however, I don't think any reasonable person would fault the commission for ignoring them. Their recommendations included the rather drastic step of having Hawai'i added to the United Nations' list of "non-self governing territories" and other "international solutions."

The 2001 HISAC stated that it was "fully cognizant of the concern expressed by some that international resolution would necessarily involve secession, a drastic endeavor over which this nation purportedly fought a civil war...(but) the principle of self-determination necessarily contemplates the potential choice of forms of governance that may not be authorized by existing domestic law. Whether such a structure is politically or legally possible under the law is secondary, however, to the expression of one's desire for self-determination."

So Hawai'i's secession from the United States is OK as long as it expresses the "desire for self-determination"!

And since secession from the United States might not be legal and might have unpleasant consequences, the 2001 HISAC said "the process should allow for international oversight by nonaligned observers of international repute," presumably to protect Native Hawaiians from the United States.

This is pretty extreme stuff coming from an official state government committee supposedly representing our community. I submit that the current more-balanced HISAC is much more representative of current community opinion than the prior "stacked" HISAC ever was.