KATRINA GRANTS

ALL SCHOOLS SHOULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR RELIEF AID

I concur wholeheartedly with Brother W. Gregory O'Donnell in his Oct. 2 Focus commentary "Relief aid handled poorly." In particular, the government should be impartial in grants to nonpublic schools that take on the displaced students from Hurricane Katrina.

I'm dumbfounded as to why politicians are quibbling about money going to independent, private and religious schools. Why aren't all the displaced students back in school already? It's been more than a month since the hurricane's destruction.

Kudos to the charitable schools for taking care of some of the displaced students, even at the risk of getting into the "red." I commend Brother O'Donnell for telling it like it is.

UH VOLLEYBALL

WHY IS WINNING TEAM SNUBBED OVER FOOTBALL?

By what possible logic does a losing football team deserve more coverage than a winning volleyball team?

The University of Hawai'i is proud to have one of the nation's best volleyball teams and, clearly, Dave Shoji is one of the finest coaches in the country. Our women's volleyball team brings victory after victory, week after week throughout the season and, always, they run a weak second to our losing football team.

Could sexism be a factor in all this? How about a bit of "fair and balanced coverage"?

HAWAI'I HISTORY

KAMEHAMEHA, NOT U.S., OVERTHREW GOVERNMENT

Finally, someone speaks the unspeakable! Al Gonzales of Kailua (Letters, Oct. 4) dares to point out that the real outside overthrow of government in the Hawaiian Islands was perpetrated by Kamehameha I. Yet for some reason we venerate him as the great leader who "unified" the Islands.

I take issue, however, with one statement in his letter: "When the U.S. overthrew the monarchy ..." The U.S. did not overthrow the monarchy. This is an even more specious rewriting of history by Hawaiian activists in their efforts to make demands for undeserved reparations of one kind or another.

PRISON OVERFLOW

ISLE PENAL COLONIES COULD BE THE ANSWER

There is a solution to our prison dilemma. How about a couple of penal colonies, one for men and one for women? Use our existing heavy-duty prison facilities for dangerous prisoners and give those who have been incarcerated for social problems and a variety of other nonviolent crimes the option (no complaints later) of going to a penal colony.

There are many islands in the Hawaiian archipelago. If we can get the environmentalists to loosen up a bit, maybe a couple of suitable islands can be found. If not, there's always the Big Island. It doesn't have to be a country club; think a single barbed-wire fence, surplus Army tents and bunks, very little heavy security. "Escape" if you choose, but when you're caught, there will be a few years behind real bars added to your sentence, which is not very smart.

Grow some vegetables and raise a few animals for food. Keep the parks, roadways and streambeds sparkling clean. Run these facilities sort of like military basic training instead of prison. Annual costs per inmate would be sharply reduced, and capital costs to get set up would be substantially less than what new heavy-duty prisons or continuing the practice of shipping inmates to the Mainland will cost. We need to keep our inmates close to home for family support.

HOUSING NEEDS

KUDOS TO ABERCROMBIE FOR REFINING HABITAT LAW

I would like to thank Congressman Neil Abercrombie for voting in support of the Threatened Endangered Species Recovery Act (TESRA). The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was poor legislation that was increasing the cost of affordable housing and not doing a good job of protecting endangered species.

Critical habitat designations were overly broad, lacked a sound scientific basis and encompassed areas that endangered species did not occupy. Furthermore, the government failed to consider economic consequences when it designated such expansive areas as critical habitat.

Abercrombie has paid attention to the details that make TESRA better (not perfect) legislation for endangered species and for the affordable-housing needs of our communities.

CALIFORNIA INITIATIVE

HAWAI'I SHOULD LEAD IN HYDROGEN ENERGY

From Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Hydrogen Highway Network Action Plan (www.hydrogenhighway.ca.gov/vision/vision.pdf):

"The goal of the California Hydrogen Highway Network initiative is to support and catalyze a rapid transition to a clean, hydrogen transportation economy in California, thereby reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and protecting our citizens from health harms related to vehicle emissions. We have an opportunity to deal with these problems by investing in California's ability to innovate our way to a clean hydrogen future, thus bringing jobs, investment, and continued economic prosperity to California. We have an opportunity to prove to the world that a thriving environment and economy can co-exist."

What are we doing? Hawai'i should lead the nation in energy awareness, health and environmental protections; our Sen. Spark Matsunaga was one of the earliest proponents of hydrogen. This is not the stuff of science fiction anymore; it is here and now.

MICHELLE WIE

ONE IS NEVER TOO YOUNG TO HELP OUT COMMUNITY

Carlino Giampolo's extremely narrow and "cup-is-half-empty" view of Michelle Wie's first professional news conference (Letters, Oct. 7) features numerous statements to dispute, but what is most alarming is his assertion that "15-year-olds normally don't give back to the community, for that is something more meaningfully reserved for adults."

How terribly sad that he assumes teenagers, only a few short years away from official "adulthood," cannot understand the benefit of providing some sort of service to the people in their community or the area in which they live.

Any gesture of good will to benefit others is meaningful, whether it be in the form of a monetary contribution or simply picking up trash.

Does Giampolo think that a switch is automatically flipped upon adulthood that makes people suddenly understand the impact of their actions?

Attitudes like his discount the ability of children and teenagers to have a positive influence on others, which then prevents them from recognizing the good they can do in the world. Without that message they will grow up to be selfish adults who have never been expected to think of anyone else but themselves.

EVENT PLANNERS SHOULD GET PUBLIC CONSENT FOR PARK USE

I read Linda Kaiser's letter ("Publicity missing for triathlon this Sunday," Oct. 7) regarding the closure of Kapi'olani Park with great interest. She showed great restraint in not putting heavy blame on the city for disrespecting the rights of its citizens during the event.

The JAL triathlon is a for-profit commercial event. She is right to point out that the downside of events like these is that it deprives residents and even tourists of enjoying anything east of Kapahulu Avenue on the event day and earlier in the week.

Not only is Kapi'olani Park closed, but Kalakaua Avenue, Diamond Head Road (lookouts included), Paki Avenue and Monsarrat Avenue are all closed to vehicular traffic, basically barring everyone from the park and beaches.

On any given weekend, thousands of taxpayers use this area for their own recreation, relaxation and commute.

I just can't fathom how the city rubber-stamp department just pushes these events on us and never gives a thought about that fact that people play, surf and relax on the weekend in this area. Aside from Ala Moana Park, Kapi'olani has to be the most heavily used park on the island. It shows that stupidity and greed overwhelm common sense and appreciation for our people.

How many events are held at this park on a yearly or monthly basis? How much inconvenience and denial of use are we supposed to deal with? Notice is the very least event organizers need to provide; that's a no-brainer.

But before notice, they should have to earn the right to get a permit from the people. What we need is some accountability from the city Parks and Permitting departments. This really should be front-page news.

Hey, Mufi, that's a big thumbs-down for you from everyone who was stuck in traffic and waiting to use our beaches and park this past Sunday.

FLAWED CRITICISM

GAS CAP NEEDS TIME TO ADJUST

With all due respect to my good friend Jack Suyderhoud and others, the state's gas cap, flawed though it might be, is working. One simply has to look at all gas prices locally and compare them to the national prices to see that.

I spent a good portion of the last 20 years of my professional life traveling to the Mainland, where my work required that I rent cars and purchase gasoline. Until four or five years ago, the prices per gallon on the Mainland in any part for any grade of gasoline were always at least 30 cents, and often 40 cents or 50 cents, lower per gallon than the least expensive gas available in Hawai'i — and this despite the fact that crude oil came into our local refineries at prices quite comparable to its delivery price to West Coast and other refineries. It was only after the state began its efforts (not coincidentally, four to five years ago) to address this disparity by way of lawsuit and then legislation that the prices began to come into line with Mainland prices.

There is a clear cause-and-effect between the price adjustments that occurred and those efforts. The present criticism of the gas cap because of fluctuating prices is flawed for several reasons. First, the gas cap was never intended to rigorously regulate prices by setting fixed prices. Its intent and its effect is to assure that, over the long run, the prices in Hawai'i are comparable to Mainland prices. And it does that by regulating wholesale prices by comparing them to Mainland prices, since investigation showed that wholesale was where the markup was greatest and most unwarranted.

Because the Mainland as a whole is going through a very tumultuous time with much higher prices because of the effects of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, the gas cap necessarily reflects those higher prices. When that situation settles down and prices stabilize on the Mainland, so will our prices.

The second criticism — that the cap is inadequate because it does not regulate retail prices and stations are gouging the public — is easily answered. All one has to do is look at the various retailers to find that a significant portion of those stations in virtually every community are charging as much as 30 cents less per gallon than others for any grade of gas.

All an intelligent consumer has to do is choose to purchase at that lower-priced station. If we as consumers do that, we will force those retailers who try to gouge us to lower their prices and actually compete in the market.

The foregoing also addresses another flawed comparison that has been used to criticize the gas cap — namely, the use of the "average" retail price per gallon in Hawai'i as a basis for criticism and for comparison to Mainland prices. Because some stations are choosing to charge exorbitant prices, that "average" price is much higher than the lowest price of gas available. In evaluating our gas prices whether compared to the Mainland or otherwise, we should be looking at the lowest prices, since those stations are widely available to all Hawai'i consumers and are where we can and should be buying.

In short, the state Legislature has passed many silly, bad and ineffectual laws in its time, but the gas cap is not one of them. It may not be a perfect law, and it may need some adjustment, but we should wait and watch its effect over a much longer period of time and well beyond the current period of price instability on the Mainland before we contemplate such changes.