There's a strange fear in the "don't even go there" mentality. It is used when Mama is telling you not to open the door to the bulging linen closet, or when an overweight man is avoiding a glucose and cholesterol blood screen: They know there's something that needs to be fixed but they aren't willing to do the work to fix it. Better just not to go poking around.

That's what the groups lobbying against a Constitutional Convention are saying: Don't go looking for stuff we don't want you to find. Let us live in the comfort of our current dysfunction.

Note the parties buying the expensive ads telling you to be afraid of all that will be lost in the ConCon. Those in power are always afraid of opening up the books to tough questions and having to abdicate to the will of the people.

In light of the state's budget situation, it's easy to dismiss something like this as an unnecessary expense that can be saved for better times. But a ConCon doesn't have to be deluxe accommodations, just an extravagance of ideas and a wealth of participation. Make it sandwich-and-juice sessions in the Farrington High School auditorium. Pay ConCon delegates an honorarium rather than a salary.

Will forces try to use the ConCon opportunity to break up the Department of Education into local school boards or take away Native Hawaiian entitlements? Probably. But those types of battles are already in play.

A ConCon offers opportunity for both sides to have their say, and our society is stronger for having the discussion. There are also opportunities for campaign finance reform, something the Legislature hasn't been able to bring itself to do to itself.

Bottom line, anything decided on by the convention delegates must be approved by voters.

The 1978 ConCon was empowering; a statewide barn-raising. It brought a kind of vitality and commitment to Hawai'i that is all but extinct these days. Hawai'i has so given up on local government that few could even muster the energy to roll down to the school cafeteria to vote in the primary.

The time to get the roof fixed is before the big rain storms sweep in. We all know the house is leaking right now. Thirty years is too long to go without an earnest examination of where we are and where we could be. At the Legislature, new ideas get run over like a toad on the highway.

We need to go there. We need to ask questions and entertain new ideas, and the people who are so comfortable and unwilling to change need the good exercise of defending their positions.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.