WAIKIKI

HAWAIIAN MUSIC AND SHOWS ARE AWOL

Where have all the Hawaiian music and shows that had once dominated Waikiki gone? The hula mound next to the Duke Kahanamoku statue has performances only once a week. Also gone are the abundant weekly or nightly lu'aus and Polynesian revue shows just like the ones back in the days of "Hawai'i Calls."

Now we have Waikiki sidewalk performers making senseless noises with drums and bongos, beautiful Peruvian music played by Peruvian musicians but with no Hawaiian sounds, and vintage Beatles music playing in the open air across Waikiki Beach from a well-known hotel.

The only recognizable Hawaiian features found in Waikiki today are the coconut trees and the beaches.

Old Waikiki, we certainly miss you. No more Hawaiian style.

FUNDING

STATE, PRIVATE GROUPS MUST SAVE WAIMEA

Mayor Harris in 2001 declared that obtaining Waimea Valley is important for the public because "the city intends to preserve and protect the historical, cultural and environmental assets of the park." Since then, the North Shore Neighborhood Board, the Friends of Waimea Falls Park Coalition and others have worked hard to fulfill that purpose.

Now without warning after four years of working to preserve this resource, City Council members on Dec. 7 will consider a settlement offer with the New York owner that would relegate 1,575 acres as no longer worthy of that intended public purpose, thereby opening it to development in the back of the valley.

This rare environmental asset, one of Hawai'i's treasures, a complete ahupua'a of rich cultural, historical and environmental significance, may be lost forever.

Councilman Charles Djou is worried that the city may have to pay more than $5.1 million for the 1,875 acres when the court makes a ruling — a little histrionic suggesting up to $54 million. Though land prices have risen in Hawai'i in the last four years considerably, this land is still highly restricted if zoned "preservation" or "conservation." Lands with such zoning will not have appreciated nearly as much, if at all, as other unrestricted lands have.

I urge the state or private foundations with conservation as a mission and Hawai'i connections to express an interest to the council before it meets on Dec. 7 to consider funding of the acquisition up to a possible $19 million.

DEVELOPMENT

SELLOUT OF THE 'AINA

Truly it is unconscionable and infuriating that the leaders who are supposed to represent the 'aina and promote what is best for the 'aina are preparing to sell us out to the highest bidders. The current plans under consideration for both Waimea and Kaka'ako must be scrapped to ensure our island's heritage and spirit of aloha remain for future generations.

VENGEANCE

15-YEAR-OLD SHOULD NOT BE TRIED AS AN ADULT

I'm writing about the possibility of charging a 15-year-old boy as an adult (in connection with the rape of a girl at Beretania Community Park). Clearly the crime he allegedly committed was heinous and the victim deserves justice, yet I'm concerned that the line between justice and vengeance may be crossed should he be tried as an adult.

Is our society prepared to write off a 15-year-old boy by locking him in Halawa with hardened criminals? Should he survive the beatings, rapes and abuse, he would spend the rest of his formative years in a prison system that is more about punishment and storage than about rehabilitation.

Can it be that we truly believe that a 15-year-old child is beyond rehabilitation? Should he be found guilty as a juvenile, he could be held for four years in Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility, where he could finish school, get treatment and have a chance of being a productive citizen upon his release.

Let's not rush to calls for vengeance against a child who may have the capacity to change. While vengeance is often more satisfying, justice is always more worthwhile in the long run and more truly reflects what our community should be about.

MEMORIES

PAN AM'S DEMISE AN ENORMOUS LOSS

I want to thank Paula Helfrich for such a moving commentary on Nov. 23, entitled "70 Years later, memories stir of Pan Am." I had the good fortune to fly with Pan Am as a stewardess for many years, and I share a lot of her poignant memories.

Pan Am was a truly wonderful airline that treated its employees like family. I not only saw the world while getting paid to do so, but I met so many remarkable people, both as passengers and fellow crew members.

It makes me sad to think that our government didn't help Pan Am survive after the terrorist tragedy over Lockerbie the way it did with other airlines after 9/11. Pan Am's demise was an enormous loss to many. However, as Paula Helfrich reports, at least we have many beautiful memories of an era in which it was truly an exciting and comfortable mode of travel.

STADIUM

ALCOHOL BAN IS GREAT, BUT LOWER THE PRICES

Banning alcohol in the parking lot during UH games is absolutely a great idea.

The Stadium Authority should still allow the fans to have their traditional tailgate parties in the parking lot, only without alcohol. Those fans who get caught drinking on the premises should not be allowed into the stadium or fined.

In fairness to the fans, the authority should also lower the cost of the tickets and the cost of alcohol that is being sold inside the stadium.

KAKA'AKO

CREATIVE FINANCING DISCUSSED IN 1970S

The West Kewalo District — that's what we called the makai part of Kaka'ako when I was an urban design student at UH in the '70s. One of the underlying principles for development in this area has been no residential use makai of Ala Moana boulevard. The district was (until recently) supposed to have been dedicated to public use.

What Daniel Dinell and the HCDA need to do (should they feel obligated to do) is lay out for the public just exactly why residential towers for the affluent and retail facilities we do not need are the best use for this absolutely irreplaceable piece of the waterfront.

In the early '70s, the Hawai'i Chapter of the American Institute of Architects sponsored a regional urban design assistance team to discuss Kaka'ako development. This was a gathering of city planners, architects, members of planning commissions and economists to look at models for developing this area. Creative means of financing the public portions of the development were discussed. There is no real, compelling need to sacrifice this district for the sake of private development interests.

The burden is on Dinell and the HCDA. Please set forth for the public the rationale for allowing this inappropriate development to occur.

SOCIETY DUTY

GET INVOLVED WHEN CRIME IS OCCURRING

I have always felt that the people in any society deserve the government they have because they allow themselves to be governed by that government. The same applies to the amount and types of crimes that exist in their communities. Our citizens allow those crimes to occur.

An example is the rape of that 11-year-old girl in Beretania Community Park last week. Nobody called the police, although many people probably heard it happening.

The same thing happened in New York City in 1964 when Kitty Genovese was stabbed, raped and murdered within earshot of at least 38 residents who chose to ignore the screams of murder.

Where is the outrage here?

Another example is the alleged hatchet killing of his father and critical assault on his mother by a local man because the father would not give the son money to buy "ice." Apparently, the entire family knew that that son was addicted to ice but did nothing about it. That ended in tragedy.

How many other families know that someone in their family is also addicted to drugs but do nothing about it? How many and which of those families will also know tragedy?

The Honolulu Police Department estimates that as much as 80 to 90 percent of all crimes are directly or indirectly related to drug use, especially ice. Most home break-ins, muggings, thefts, beatings, etc., are for money to buy ice. How many families close their eyes when their children or family members suddenly have cash to buy that last fix of ice? Are those families accessories to crimes? The criminal is us.

DOUBLE-HEADER

HAWAI'I BOWL MUST HAVE UH PLAYING

As a season ticket holder since 1987, I am a very loyal fan of the UH Warriors football team. Only one thing could lure me to this year's Hawai'i Bowl. That would be a double-header between UH and another team of UH's caliber.

I realize the hardest part is to get the NCAA's approval of such a postseason exhibition game. Next is getting a team to come here with no strings or funding attached.

I would venture to suggest that any one of the service academies might be interested since it could make the trip at very low cost. The academies can fly on organic Air Force aircraft for many reasons, including space-available seating, public relations, recruiting, etc. Additionally, I know when the Air Force Academy was in the WAC and played UH, its football players would be housed with volunteer Air Force families at Hickam. Surely, the other service academies could do the same.

There. I have mentioned the impossible. Now it is up to the Hawai'i Bowl, WAC and UH officials to make it possible. I wish them good luck. I will be among the first to buy tickets to the Hawai'i Bowl if this were to happen.

DEBT RELIEF

'GIVING' VIEWPOINT SHOULD BE TOSSED OUT

I'd like to clarify a common misconception that appeared in "State forgives Aloha tax debt" (Advertiser, Nov. 28).

Lowell Kalapa is quoted as saying, "I think that a million dollars is not all that bad if the state can give $75 million to Jeff Stone."

"Give?" No, "refrain from taking." For such a credit to have value, income must first be earned and then taken in taxes.

Perhaps this "giving" viewpoint is a holdover from Hawai'i's monarchy when everything was effectively owned by the state? High time it is jettisoned.

IRAQ WAR

STOP EXCUSING BUSH DISTORTIONS

Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished historian of war, especially war in ancient Greece, but he is off the mark when he excuses the Bush administration's distortions leading up to the Iraq war.

First is the claim that there was widespread agreement that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. We know that Vice President Dick Cheney repeatedly pushed the CIA and that it eventually obliged him with evidence of WMDs. However, the Los Angeles Times has revealed that the Bush administration repeatedly ignored and deleted the caution that "Curveball," the primary WMD informant, was probably lying (which he was). The White House also deleted other information that disagreed with its story, such as a Department of Energy analysis that the famous aluminum tubes were not suitable for WMDs.

Then there is the claim that Saddam worked with al-Qaida. Saddam did give money to Palestinian suicide bombers and their families, but so did Saudi Arabia, our supposed ally. Saddam also allowed the dying Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal to take refuge in Iraq. But this was only Saddam's attempt to align himself with widespread Muslim sympathy for the Palestinians. And neither the Palestinian bombers nor Abu Nidal had anything to do with 9/11.

Now Murray Waas' Nov. 22 article in the Online National Journal reveals that President Bush's Sept. 21, 2001, presidential daily briefing and a later CIA assessment said that there was no evidence connecting Saddam with 9/11, and that the only connection between Saddam and al-Qaida was Saddam monitoring the group as a potential threat. Bush and Cheney nevertheless claimed that Saddam and al-Qaida worked together. Even after the CIA and FBI disproved it, Cheney claimed that 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence officer before the attacks.

The U.N. inspectors found no WMDs. Curveball was lying about WMDs. The aluminum tubes were not suitable for WMDs. Saddam and al-Qaida were not working together. Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11.

Nevertheless, the Bush administration used WMDs and 9/11 to justify the Iraq invasion, which they had publicly advocated since the 1990s, and which former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil says they had been planning from their first days in office, nine months before 9/11.

Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made things worse by not allowing the military to plan for the post-war occupation, not giving them the number of troops that Gen. Eric Shinseki said they needed, providing angry recruits for the insurgency by firing the entire Iraqi army and even innocent Baath party officials, and by letting the reconstruction bog down in cronyism and bureaucracy.

By the time we leave Iraq, we will have lost more brave Americans than on 9/11, in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. Hanson is correct that sometimes there is a price to be paid to maintain our freedom. But he also knows very well that the folly of leaders waging unnecessary wars can weaken even the most powerful country.