CRIME

DON'T BLAME DOG FOR 'TOUGH LOVE' METHOD

The Island Voices commentary by RaeDeen Karasuda and Katherine Irwin, headlined "Dog's 'tough love' on crime isn't helping," could not be more wrong.

It's obvious that these two people do not watch the show on a weekly basis. If they did, they would understand that Dog does genuinely care for those lawbreakers he captures. Whether they receive jail time or rehabilitation is not up to him — it's up to a Hawai'i judge. In fact, most times Dog tries to keep these people out of prison and with their families.

It's not Dog who's sending a wrong message, it's people like Ms. Karasuda and Ms. Irwin who are blaming the "system" for putting my Hawaiian brothers and sisters behind bars. By the time Dog enters the picture, these people have already made their mistakes, and Dog is their last stop before they hit rock bottom.

Stop blaming Dog, or the "system"; it's up to us to raise and look after our loved ones in these Islands to ensure that they do not turn to a life of crime and drugs.

NEIGHBORHOODS

VACATION RENTALS AND B&BS MUST BE CURBED

I live in a residential neighborhood with 14 vacation rentals and B&Bs. On any given week, more than 120 strangers are invading my neighborhood. The majority of the illegal businesses are owned by Mainland investors and corporations.

Vacation rentals and B&Bs are not compatible with family-oriented neighborhoods. These illegal businesses are endangering the safety of our children, disturbing the ambiance and peace of the neighborhood, and displacing local residents and families.

BB/TVU Association of O'ahu and the Kokua Coalition propose to increase the number of B&Bs and vacation rentals and at the same time claim they support "preserving neighborhoods like Kailua and keeping them low key" (Advertiser, Sept. 3). But how can their businesses be low key when 30 percent of the homes on my street are mini-hotels?

These associations fail to realize the problem our residential-zone neighborhoods face is the quantity of these businesses. Already, O'ahu has licensed 1,000 B&Bs and vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods. Why do we need more?

The solution for resolving the conflict is simple. The illegal B&Bs and vacation rentals should relocate to resort-zone neighborhoods such as Ko Olina and operate legitimately. The city administration must enforce our current laws and shut down all illegal B&Bs and vacation rental businesses. This would be a win-win solution for our residents and tourism.

NO CHILD LAW

TEACHERS DON'T TEACH WITH LOW EXPECTATIONS

I teach at Sanford Ballard Dole Middle School, the Pride of Kalihi. Under the rules of the No Child Left Behind Act, we are under restructuring. It is demoralizing to be treated as a "failing" school.

However, I recently came across an e-mail I had written to our faculty some time ago when we were told that we had low expectations for our students:

"No one would teach at Dole if they had low expectations. What a dreary existence that would be, to teach at a school with low expectations and then to have your low expectations actualized. You may as well slit your wrists and take workman's compensation. We teach at Dole because we have high expectations. We teach at Dole because the kids here have incredible potential that has not been realized and we hope, we love to be part of that mountain-climbing effort; the urging-pushing-begging-tempting-pinching-shoving-dragging-oh-my-gosh-sometimes-getting-there part of realizing what great great great potential our kids have."

I mua, Dole!

DISASTERS

HARRY KIM IS NEEDED IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT

We had all better hope the people of Hawai'i have sense enough to nominate Harry Kim for governor (if he should decide to take on that "lousy job"). We need him in the driver's seat when a tsunami strikes the south shore of O'ahu or a similar disaster occurs in our state.

If you want to hear Bush rhetoric instead of getting a drink of water, food or medical care for you and your loved ones, you know who to keep in office.

DISASTER

DOES O'AHU HAVE PLAN FOR EVACUATION?

How well are we equipped on O'ahu to deal with a natural disaster and its aftermath and recovery? Are we learning (and preparing) to deal with a possible evacuation of this island on a massive scale? The good people of the tsunami-stricken regions in Indonesia were not prepared. Nor were the fine folks in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

I've been in Honolulu for more than seven years and can't recall a serious civil defense/natural disaster exercise involving the public. Is there a comprehensive disaster response plan? If so, does it have the money, staffing and resources needed to make it effective? Is it practiced? Exactly where are we as a state, county and city on this issue? I'd like answers.

AKAKA BILL

SHAPIRO'S AKAKA BILL ASSURANCE TRIGGERS ALERT

Kudos to David Shapiro for putting to rest the "big lie" that the Akaka bill will promote Hawai'i's "secession" from the USA. I'm sure what Shapiro meant to add was, "How can you secede from a nation you were never legally part of to begin with?"

It's important to fight these brush fires with political and economic extremists like the Wall Street Journal's John Fund — but we must never give in to their un-Hawaiian value system. If, as Dave Shapiro claims, "the most likely scenario for a Hawaiian sovereign entity is some kind of corporation," then the Akaka bill plays right into the hands of Fund and American capital at the expense of democratic control over our island resources and lifestyle.

It seems perhaps Shapiro's Volcanic Ash has backfired and Hawaiians, non-native as well as kanaka maoli, should be alerted to the threat to our future posed by "Akaka." Others may disagree, but I for one am proud to live in a country that cherishes such freedom of thought and speech as much as Hawai'i does.

PRICE SPIKE

GAS-CAP LAW HAS HUNG ISLE DRIVERS OUT TO DRY

Just three weeks ago, my neighborhood gas station charged $2.52 per gallon for regular unleaded. Now that the gas-cap law is in place, that same gas station charges $2.92 per gallon for regular unleaded. So, help me understand. How does the gas-cap law work again?

I agree that oil companies have taken advantage of Hawai'i consumers for years, but now it seems that we have created a law to allow them to further take advantage of us.

In recent visits to California, I was happy to see that gas there was more expensive than O'ahu pump rates. Thanks to our new gas-cap law, our gas is now about the same price as California's.

Now I'm concerned about the price of milk. Maybe lawmakers should start working on a milk-cap law. Or better yet, I could really make some big money on my house if we had a house-cap law.

VICTIM SUPPORT

ACQUAINTANCE-RAPES ALSO MUST BE TARGETED AT UH

I applaud the University of Hawai'i's recent affirmation to make the Manoa campus a rape-free zone. But as a student working as a resident adviser/advocate in student housing at Manoa, I hope that a large amount of the 5 percent of new money set aside for improved security goes toward making Manoa a place where all victims of rape feel comfortable enough to report incidents to university officials so that they can receive the support they deserve and so the university can prevent serial offenders from victimizing other people.

There is on average six reported sexual assaults each year at the Manoa campus. However, many studies show that only about 5 percent of rapes are reported by victims to university officials because they fear reprisal, fear that they will not be believed, fear possible publicity, or because they mistrust the university's judicial system.

News articles have stated that the three rapes occurring near the Manoa campus earlier this year have spurred university officials to find ways to intensify security measures. It is important to note that all three of these incidents were stranger-rapes, not acquaintance-rapes.

I agree that preventing future stranger-rapes is dependent upon increasing security on and around the Manoa campus, but also believe that using all of the additional money for security measures is a flawed strategy when combating all forms of rape.

This is because 90 percent of rapes are acquaintance-rapes, almost all of which go unreported, and the majority of which are carried out by serial offenders. This means that the overwhelming majority of victims are not being raped by someone jumping out of the bushes, but by someone they know and welcome into their apartment or dorm room.
In fact, a U.S. Department of Justice report concludes that nationally, 90 percent of on-campus rapes occur in residence halls, and that 60 percent occur in the victims' rooms. Thus, although additional security guards, increased policing powers, improved lighting or additional security phones address the incidents that made the evening news last spring, they do not address the more pervasive and just as serious and harmful acquaintance-rapes that are silently occurring every year.

If the university focuses more of its efforts toward making the Manoa campus a place where all victims of rape are comfortable enough to report incidents, they will help to ensure that the incident does not prevent the victim from attaining their education goals, and will attain valuable information that prevents serial offenders from victimizing other people.

PEARL HARBOR TUNNEL

RELEASE THE $200,000 FOR STUDY

The concept of using Pearl Harbor as a transportation corridor is currently being presented as an option for consideration within the O'ahu Regional Transportation Plan. The plan is to identify transit projects for O'ahu through the year 2030. Projects included in the plan approved by the O'ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Committee are eventually able to compete for state funding as well as qualify for federal funding.

The amount of federal funding available to Hawai'i for all of its transportation projects is around $141 million per year through 2009. Compare this amount to the $100 million provided in the same federal transportation reauthorization bill just to plan an underwater freight tunnel between New Jersey and New York. The congressional delegation from Texas was able to bring home to its state $14 billion for transportation projects over the same period.

To complement rail and ferry appropriations for our state, our congressional delegation should have more transportation options available to them like the Pearl Harbor tunnel so that it can garner more federal dollars for our transportation projects.

For decades, the use of Pearl Harbor as a transportation corridor was stymied due to various military concerns. However, at a meeting on Aug. 9 conducted by Rep. Rida Cabanilla, representatives from both the Navy and Air Force expressed an openness to entertain a tunnel concept and have offered to participate in future discussions.

But the state Department of Transportation has on its own accord sought to trump the political process. For instance, on Aug. 29 in a letter to Gov. Linda Lingle, the DOT took a position to not support a transportation measure that would use the Pearl Harbor Corridor. Furthermore, the DOT recommended to the governor that she not release the $200,000 contained in Act 178 that was to provide for a feasibility study for the tunnel.

I agree with the Legislature that the severity of gridlock on H-1 warrants that the tunnel concept be explored further. The $200,000 to conduct the feasibility study should be released by the governor so that the DOT can initiate proposals for the military to consider.

Tunnels of greater magnitude and costs have been built all over the world, and at least three of them function as underwater tunnels traversed by the Navy on a regular basis. Our Pearl Harbor tunnel has national significance written all over it and could be considered another wonder of the world in addition to being a solution for traffic congestion.

I find it premature for the DOT to want to halt the tunnel concept from going any further since it does not yet know what the tunnel's route would be, location of portals, or even the state's financial share to conceive the plan. In fact, the tunnel concept being proposed by Cabanilla entails a privately built and operated toll tunnel whereby any money incurred by the state to finance it would be reimbursed by the operator collecting the toll. Eventually, the tunnel could potentially be a source of revenue for the state.

Building a tunnel has its advantages over double-decking the H-1. It would not disrupt the flow of traffic to construct and would be less of a blight on the landscape.