WAIKIKI WASTE

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO AIR RIGHTS PROPOSAL?

About 1997-1998, the city sent out a road show to try to convince the public that a sewer line should be sent under the Ala Wai Canal from Waikiki into the golf course area. There was opposition as the McCully and Mo'ili'ili folks didn't want Waikiki's waste in their backyard.

It was recommended that the city give air rights to a developer. The developer would construct and maintain a new sewer system on the exiting site in Waikiki and the developer could build a high-rise building for profit tax free. Outrageous, but a possibility. What happened to that?

ETHICS

ACTING CITY DIRECTOR SHOULD BE REJECTED

I wonder how many people besides myself feel a sense of outrage at the behavior of acting city Managing Director Wayne Hashiro and question his fitness to become city manager after reading the story about him in the May 17 Advertiser.

We would not have learned about Hashiro's behavior if City Councilman Charles Djou had not requested an opinion from the city Ethics Commission, which ruled that Hashiro "should have avoided all involvement in his handling of consultant contracts awarded to companies that employed his son."

Although Hashiro broke no ethics law, the commission stated that he should have had nothing to do with the contracts to avoid "even the appearance of impropriety or conflict of interest."

Why did Hashiro engage in this questionable behavior? Didn't he realize the consequences of his actions? Does he understand what "conflict of interest" means? Or did he deliberately refrain from revealing his actions?

"I have nothing to hide," proclaimed Hashiro. As of May 16, he hadn't even bothered to read the report of the Ethics Commission. I hope the City Council will think twice before it confirms Wayne Hashiro as city manager.

DESCENDANTS

FIRST ARRIVALS AREN'T ALL THAT SOVEREIGN

In his May 23 letter, Hank McTeague says that undisputed, sovereign, independent and all-supreme power and authority in a given territory, such as Hawai'i, must be determined by descent from the first lot of people who can be shown to have set foot in it.

He gives Japan, Sweden, Russia and China as examples where he says this rule applies.

Does he mean that the minority Hun-descended Russians should exercise all-supreme power over the Slavic majority who moved in from the region of Slovakia?

Would he have the Sami people exercise undisputed authority over the Swedes (a more recently arrived Germanic group)?

Should the 92 percent Han ethnic majority cede to the 55 other ethnicities of China, all of whom claim to political rights outside of their own area of origin along the lower Yellow River?

Should all-supreme sovereignty over the 99 percent of Japanese who are of Han descent be handed to the indigenous Ainu?

GRAFFITI

PROVIDE A TRAIL WHEN BUYING PAINT

Congrats to Charles Djou for his three proposals to battle graffiti. How about adding a fourth?

I went to Costco to purchase a box of Claritin-D, stood in line at the pharmacy, and had to show my driver's license and sign my name for the purchase. I was told I could purchase only 30 pills a month, and the computer would reject anything over that amount.

How about showing your driver's license and signing for the can of paint? The amount purchased and colors used would also be noted on the info taken. It might be a bit more work for the stores, but Hawai'i is worth it.

WAR, TAX CUT

CASE SUPPORT LETTER SEEMS PRO-REPUBLICAN

I am suspicious of Mr. Peter Osborne's true purpose expressed in his May 17 letter, as it reflects a more Republican position than that of a Democrat.

I recall that U.S. Rep. Ed Case differed from U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka on a couple of extremely important votes. The tax-cut explanation offered by Mr. Osborne seems to closely reflect the latest Republican rationale being promoted even by Mr. Karl Rove (see The Washington Post's news article titled "Rove vs. Reality" by E.J. Dionne Jr., May 16).

Case's tax vote sided with the Republicans who have sought more benefits for the wealthy and for large corporations and who have created the largest national deficit and the largest international trade imbalance in U.S. history. To ignore these critical points made me wonder about Mr. Osborne's true purpose to promote Ed Case over Sen. Akaka.

Mr. Osborne's letter also ignored another critical issue where Rep. Case's vote differed from Sen. Akaka's. Case's war vote sided with the Republicans on invading Iraq because of WMDs, which could not be found. The war now has: a U.S. military wounded count exceeding 17,800 and growing; a permanently disfigured and disabled U.S. veteran count of 8,000 and rising; and a U.S. military body count of 2,400 dead and rising.

I wonder why Mr. Osborne is choosing to support a Republican viewpoint while promoting a Democratic candidate. There must be more behind Mr. Osborne's letter than he is letting on.

NO-SIGNAL FINE

HERE'S HOW TO RAISE ALL THE MONEY WE NEED

I got an idea the other day after being cut off for the third time in two days: We could raise all the money we need by raising the fine for not using your turn signal to $1,000 and then having the police actually enforce it.

I have little doubt that we'd raise enough money in a year's time to lay all new sewer pipe, repave every road on the island and build a new homeless shelter. Plus, I bet it would help 90 percent of the merging problems on H-1 town-bound.

SPIRITUAL GUIDES

BIG ISLE WILL MISS YOU, REV. AND MRS. SHINDO

Rev. Hosho Shindo has been at Kona Hongwanji since 1986. He will be moving to California to become minister of Salinas Buddhist Temple.

In honor of their years of service and participating in community events like the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival Lantern Parade and Interfaith Thanksgiving Services with other churches,

Mayor Harry Kim proclaimed May 21 as Rev. Hosho and Mrs. Mieko Shindo Day in the county of Hawai'i. Gov. Lingle and Sen. Akaka also extended best wishes to the Shindos.

The Shindos always welcomed my children in church. They provided the spiritual guidance at Kona Hongwanji. Jana loved all the times they visited Mrs. Karen's class at Kona Hongwanji Preschool. Fourteen-year-old daughter Colette has fond memories of Mrs. Shindo helping her in her kimono during Obon and teaching her Japanese dance. She also learned how beautiful the chanting sounds are when Rev. Shindo would lead the sutra during services.

Mahalo for providing the spiritual guidance in our lives.

TV ADS

MORALITY TAKING A DIVE

Look at some of today's TV commercials. There are some showing airport screeners "confiscating" (stealing) bottles of refreshment from travelers. Another commercial shows three friends lying to a generous but naive girl so that they can get a free meal. I guess the message is that little dishonesties are OK as long as they are clever or funny.

NEW COURSE

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES FOR THE TRIATHLON

On behalf of the entire management staff of the 2006 Honolulu Triathlon, I would like to send my sincere thanks to Mayor Mufi Hannemann and his staff for the successful event held on Mother's Day weekend.

After major traffic and resident problems plagued our 2005 events, the clean and refreshing outcome of last weekend's triathlon was a pleasure.

Mayor Hannemann and his entire team worked with the members of my staff to develop a new triathlon course from the host site of Ala Moana Beach Park. With an open mind to change, both sides worked tirelessly to develop, inform and communicate each and every option that would make the 2006 Honolulu Triathlon a complete success. And successful it was — let's review the numbers.

Following the October 2005 running of the ITU World Triathlon Championships from Kapi'olani Park, the city and race management received over 720 complaints from Hawai'i Kai residents and local businesses affected by the event. Last weekend's events, from all accounts, attracted fewer than 30 complaints from residents and local businesses.

This drastic drop in complaints can be directly related to the new course used for this year's event, which was suggested by the mayor's assistant, Isaac Hokama. For the first time, the 40K bike course took participants west out of the city toward Pearl Harbor instead of east toward the heavily populated areas of Hawai'i Kai.

This change made even concerns over the use of Mother's Day for the triathlon easy to swallow for local patrons heading to local restaurants for brunch.

Finally, I would like to thank the state Department of Transportation, the Honolulu Parks Department, the Honolulu Traffic Division and the Ho-

nolulu Police Department for their complete support of this new course and host venue. Without these local and state agencies working together, this event would not have been possible.

WE'RE NOT 'PROBLEM'

HOMELESS COULD USE HELP WITH RENT AND SAFE HAVENS

Businessman Bob Freeman's May 19 letter is of great interest to me as a houseless person who lived in Ala Moana Park for the last four months.

I agree that houselessness is an issue, not a problem, and that we have to get at the root causes of houselessness. If Gov. Lingle saw houselessness as an issue, she would have: