Editorials
Tuesday, March 3, 1998THERE'S a strong sense of deja vu about the opposition to locating a state prison in the Kau district of the Big Island. We've been through it all before, about prisons and airports and incinerators. Not in my backyard. Sure. Opposition to Kau
as site for prisonBut if not in my backyard, where? Somebody else's backyard, because we all more or less acknowledge the need for prisons and airports and incinerators.
Kau lost its major employer when the sugar plantation there closed. The failures of the plantations in East Hawaii made jobs even more scarce. Unemployment now runs about 10 percent.
Kau is a big, mostly empty place on the southern end of the Big Island. It's got 600,000 acres, about 1.6 times the entire island of Oahu, and only 6,000 people. Robert Kim, chairman of the Democratic Party on the Big Island, thinks it certainly should be possible to find a site for a prison in that vast area that would not adversely affect the community and provide some jobs.
But not everybody wants it. There is a vocal group in opposition that contends a prison would bring crime and drugs and disrupt the rural life style. In addition, the area lacks adequate water, sewer and electrical lines and roads. At a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee Saturday in Pahala, sentiment ran 2-1 against the prison.
Opposition to development in Kau is nothing new. Proposals for a privately operated spaceport and a major resort have been shot down in the recent past.
At the same time the state is looking for a site for a new prison, it is also looking for ways to stimulate the stagnant economy, not only in Kau but throughout the islands. The alternative of building or buying a prison on the mainland might be cheaper, but it would amount to exporting tax dollars that could be spent in Hawaii, and make no sense.
If the residents of Kau don't want a prison, that fact has to be taken into account, but it should not be decisive. The needs of the people of the state as a whole must be paramount.
For example, some residents of Kapolei oppose use of Barbers Point Naval Air Station as a general aviation airport after the Navy pulls out. But the state cannot pass up this opportunity to obtain an airport at virtually no cost to meet the need for a reliever airport.
Hawaii urgently needs another prison, because the existing prisons are badly overcrowded. Maybe there is a better location, but if Kau turns out to be the best place for a prison, that's where it should go. Opposition based on "not in my backyard" can't always prevail.
AMERICAN troops in the Persian Gulf war seven years ago against Saddam Hussein are today suffering the consequences of their exposure to hazardous particles from spent U.S. munitions. The Defense Department admitted as much in a report issued quietly two months ago. A coalition of veterans groups says the Pentagon knew of the danger before the shooting started but chose to say nothing. An explanation is warranted. Toxic war hazards
The danger occurred when troops were exposed to depleted uranium, a residue left when uranium is refined. When a shell hits a target, depleted uranium sealed in armor or the shell can oxidize into small particles that are toxic when inhaled. The Defense Department on Jan. 8 admitted that the hazard was known by technical specialists but the information was not conveyed to troops, resulting in possibly thousands of unnecessary exposures. The Pentagon said previously that only 27 soldiers had possibly been exposed to depleted uranium.
A study released by the veterans coalition estimates as many as 400,000 U.S. and allied troops were exposed to the particles from shells fired by American tanks and aircraft. About three-fourths of the 541,000 U.S. troops reported contact with Iraqi equipment that had been destroyed by American firepower.
The Pentagon says the exposure of troops resulted from "the failure to properly disseminate such information" to them. The veterans groups contend the failure was deliberate. "They were aware they had a problem on their hands, and they were looking to minimize the (public relations) fallout from it," says Dan Fahey, the principal author of the study.
The Defense Department's explanation that it simply failed to communicate the hazard to troops is inadequate. Administration officials should respond thoroughly to the accusations that the failure exceeded mere negligence. Whatever the facts, the Pentagon should report on what is being done to ensure that the same mistake does not happen again.
KAVA, derived from the root and stem of the pepper plant, may become the next "blockbuster herbal remedy." An article in the Wall Street Journal, reprinted in the Star-Bulletin, says kava is being promoted as a natural alternative to drugs used to relieve anxiety. Previously it was described as "an aid to feeling high and a sexual stimulant." The article said kava's popularity is growing although no clinical trials have been conducted on its efficacy and safety in the United States. Kava's popularity
Unnoted was the fact that kava has long been used in Melanesian and Polynesian societies. Consumption takes place in a ceremony that includes the ritual making and drinking of the beverage and eating a ceremonial feast. Occasions for the ceremony can be social or formal, such as the conclusion of an assembly presided over by a chief or king.
Kava occupies a unique place in Pacific island cultures. Now its value is becoming recognized in the mainland. But we doubt that the ceremony will catch on.
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
