UH FOOTBALL

POOR FACILITIES ARE MOST EMBARRASSING TO ISLES

Hearty congratulations to June Jones and his talented band of players — and a rousing "boo" to the UH administration and state politicos responsible for maintenance of all facilities. It should be most embarrassing for those responsible to have it mentioned on national TV that the practice field and locker rooms are in deplorable condition.

Colt brought this matter up some time ago, and in traditional Hawaiian fashion there was a lot of fanfare and then change died a natural death. Good thing the announcer did not know the stadium is held together by baling wire and rust. We have a first-class team. Any chance we could have a first-class stadium, locker room and practice facility as well?

WARRIORS HAVE SHOWN THEIR RESOURCEFULNESS

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. Those are the familiar words from the popular children's book. All of the talk about the Hawai'i football team's accomplishments have focused on whether Hawai'i is good enough and deserving to be in a BCS Bowl. What has been sorely missing from the national conversation is how well Hawai'i has done with so little.

Making the most of your resources is a key to effective management in any realm. Hawai'i football is earning less and spending less than every one of the other BCS ranked teams. BCS heavyweights, such as Ohio State, generate as much as 10 times the revenue, and budget as much as five times the expenses as Hawai'i.

Of course, if Hawai'i wishes to sustain its presence in national polls and BCS conversation in future years, it should look closely at finding additional funds for these essential budget items.

But let's be careful about what we wish for. The football programs at schools like Ohio State and Georgia are more about business than about amateur college athletics. There is something lost in the sport when you turn it into a business.

Coach Jones and his staff are to be commended for achieving unthinkable results this year in the face of limited resources. That has required a superhuman effort, on which we can build.

More than the actual results they achieve this year, I believe that the resourcefulness of this year's team will be their legacy. They are the Little Engine That Could.

PLAY HOME GAMES ON SATURDAY MORNINGS

We whine about the lack of exposure and respect for the UH Warrior football program. We also complain about rising electricity costs and evening traffic jams. We can solve all of these by playing Saturday morning UH football home games at Aloha Stadium.

Playing home games on a Saturday morning assures Hawai'i a national audience among the sportswriters and critics alike. Our box scores would appear the next morning on the East Coast instead of as an afterthought lost among Monday's NFL box scores. Playing at 9 a.m. means every fan has the afternoon to burn thereafter, be it to celebrate or otherwise. It would save the Aloha Stadium Authority and the university thousands in electricity costs per game.

Finally, the pre-game traffic jam would end before most of those sleeping in hit the roads.

Hopefully the high schools would follow by playing only daytime games, further saving the state perhaps a million dollars annually in energy costs. And our sporting events would be immune to rising copper thefts, too.

WARRIORS REPRESENT THE WAC IN STYLE

I want to congratulate the Warriors for a great game. They were truly the dominant team this year. We wish the Warriors a great and successful game against Washington and hope they get the BCS bid. We went to the Fiesta Bowl last year and it was unbelievable. I hope that the Warriors will have the same success.

The Bronco Nation will be rooting and cheering for the Warriors. Please represent the WAC in style. Again, excellent game.

Go Warriors! Go Broncos!

ECONOMY

STATE LEADERS SHOULD SEEK HIGH BANDWIDTH

Hawai'i's government, regardless of which party is in power, does not and never has understood the basics of paradigmatic economic development in the real world where time waits for no one.

Economic development for the state of Hawai'i, if it had a focus: Put a fire under developing a high-bandwidth environment for the entire state, on par with Korea and Japan (100 megabytes per second), then step out of the way. Hawai'i would become the real-world test lab for the rest of the country. Researchers in Japan are already working with quadrature amplitude modulation using standard fiber optic cable. They are talking 100 terabytes per second.

Create the operational environment that attracts companies (no, I don't mean donkey thinking that begins and ends with tax incentives tossed about indiscriminately). If there is proof needed for state development officials to then step out of the way, I simply ask this: How many of them, if they read this, would understand what is stated in these three short paragraphs?

Sad, isn't it?

COPPER THEFT

HPD RESOURCES BETTER SPENT ON SERIOUS CRIME

The recent conviction of a Hawai'i man, who now faces up to five years in prison, for stealing a pound or so of copper is absurd.

Police wasted precious time and resources using a stakeout to catch someone stealing $5 worth of copper from a demolition site. How many police hours were used to catch this terrible person? Put police on the highways and in our suburbs to catch serious thieves who deprive us of our street lights and our precious belongings. My neighbor was robbed recently and took a terrible financial and emotional blow, yet police are yielding to the knee-jerk reaction to copper thefts. I would expect better from our government.

And who gets to house and feed this man at $50,000-plus per year? We all do. How many tens of thousands of dollars did we waste on someone who stole $5?

SUPERFERRY

NO MEDIA ATTENTION NEEDED FOR PROTESTS

When the Superferry makes its interisland return, why doesn't the news media just ignore the event on Maui and do a story about O'ahu?

With no media attention for a handful of protesters — whom the majority of us don't agree with, anyway — how long do you think they will continue their silly and often dangerous protest of this much-needed ferry?

TRASH

DON'T SHIP IT AWAY; RECYCLE IT AT HOME

The City Council's dream of shipping trash to the Mainland is a financial and environmental nightmare. Preparing and shipping the trash, plus Mainland fees, will total at least $120 a ton, while incentivizing local recycling companies to collect and process the valuables we throw out would be about $50 a ton.

The city of Seattle recycles nearly 60 percent of its "waste," while we're around 35 percent. Matching Seattle would elevate this city to championship class.

For beginners, we'd involve the 200,000 tourists who are here at any given time and who can't understand why we don't recycle. There's no reason why curbside recycling shouldn't be universal — it was universal in Sparks, Nev., 15 years ago. All schools and colleges should teach young people to care for the 'aina via very active recycling.

All stores should refund 5 cents to shoppers with cloth bags. Every shopping mall should have multiple reverse-vending machines so people could collect their 5 cents per container at their convenience. Finally, the city could urge people to put themselves on the "no junk mail" list, thereby eliminating tons of useless mailings every day. Let's raise ourselves to Seattle's level, rather than becoming the laughingstock of the nation by shipping trash for twice the price.

GOVERNMENT

HOUSING, HEALTHCARE, WAGES, TOP PRIORITIES

I am in receipt of a flier titled "Fighting for Kids," distributed by Mazie Hirono, and am disturbed by the idea that she wants to make the government take over the role of parent. You will never legislate good parenting, no matter how much you spend. It's not kids she needs to fight for — it's her constituents who have sent her to D.C.

News flash: There is no middle class in Hawai'i! If the working class was earning decent wages, had universal healthcare and affordable housing, parents would automatically be "investing in the future of our children," "providing healthcare," and "making college more affordable." These things give pride to families taking care of themselves.

In the present system, parents would continue to work multiple unfulfilling, low-paying jobs while sending their children off to the caring arms of other unfulfilled, low-paid strangers.

Fight for housing! Support unions! Universal healthcare for everyone in this rich nation! Who will stand for the people?

INVASIVE SPECIES

WHY NO UPROAR OVER CHRISTMAS TREES?

I support your reader's letter, Tom Robinson (Letter, Nov. 27) on the matter of wasps recently found on Christmas trees.

I was actually waiting for protesters to demand court clearance before the Christmas trees can be unloaded to our ports.

But it ain't happening, and I really wonder: Why the two sets of rules? Are the people on Kaua'i or Maui going to stand up or block the harbor entrance and reject the Christmas trees? We will have to wait and see.

The last time foreign wasps crept to Hawai'i, we lost the wi-liwili trees. How soon we forget.

TRANSIT

SALT LAKE ALIGNMENT IS THE SENSIBLE APPROACH

In response to your Nov. 25 Hot Seat column, I believe Salt Lake is still the best alignment for the first phase of the city's mass transit system for these reasons: