We are all soldiers
in the war on terrorThe issue: In Hawaii and all across America,
citizens, local and state agencies, federal agencies
and the armed forces are being organized
into a layered defense against terror.
You, citizen, have become the front line of defense against a possible terrorist assault on Hawaii, although you may not have been made aware of it. Similarly, corporate executives have become responsible for providing the first line of protection for electrical power plants, oil refineries, the telephone system, cables connected with the Internet, bus barns, theaters, hospitals and other assets vital to our political, economic and social order.If you see something suspicious, call 911. The Honolulu Police Department has also set up a special hot line -- CALL HPD or 225-5473 -- to receive information on things out of the ordinary. Another number is the FBI at 566-4300, which will be answered 24 hours a day. Information will be relayed to a central intelligence unit that has been established to sort out, correlate and make sense of information coming from the public, corporations and government agencies.
This effort, while warranted, has two potential flaws. It could be flooded with garbage, that is, information that has no basis in fact and is useless. Another is that unscrupulous people could abuse it by filing false reports to accuse someone else of wrongdoing. There is never any time for either, and especially not now.
Behind the citizenry and the corporations is a layered defense of the police, sheriffs and fire departments at the local level, the Department of Public Safety and the National Guard at the state level, and a slew of agencies led by the FBI at the federal level, plus the armed forces. Appointed to coordinate this effort is Lt. Gen. E.P. Smith, who commands the U.S. Army Pacific from his headquarters at Ft. Shafter.
The homeland defense effort, which is about 90 percent in place in Hawaii, reflects similar activities across the nation. Getting the myriad of local, state and federal bureaucracies, each protective of its own turf and resistant to coordination, to work together will be no mean task. Moreover, much of it will go on out of sight, making it a thankless mission.
Homeland defense goes beyond protecting residents and is essential to the economy of Hawaii, resting as it does on tourism. The best thing Hawaii can offer potential visitors from the mainland or from Asia is the prospect of security in air travel and a vacation in a safe place. Therefore, the authorities should make security as visible as possible without jeopardizing that which must remain secret.
Redistricting panel
should get it rightThe issue: The state Reapportionment
Commission will review its plan after getting
hostile reaction on neighbor islands.
RELENTING to public outrage and possible legal challenges, the state Reapportionment Commission has decided to return to the drawing board. The panel appears ready to eliminate four unconstitutional "canoe" districts from its map and nonresident military dependents from its formula. The plan should be redrawn with those changes and without regard to the home addresses of current legislators.The commission had tentatively approved a plan to combine Kailua, Oahu, with northern Kauai, in one House district, and most of that same area of northern Kauai with Mokuleia, Oahu, in a Senate district. Voters in Puna, Hawaii, would share House and Senate districts with areas of eastern Maui. Those four divided districts would violate a state constitutional provision that each legislative district be entirely in the same county.
Wayne Minami, the commission's chairman, says the panel is likely to yield to broad, bipartisan opposition on neighbor islands to including 53,261 nonresident military dependents in the population base. Including those nonresidents would result in Oahu being over-represented in the Legislature and would violate a 1992 constitutional amendment that the formula be based on permanent residents.
The commission maintained that it was restricted by a federal court order that district populations vary by no more than 10 percent. However, the court order allows that difference to be exceeded on a "rational basis."
The commission had been given an Oct. 26 deadline to complete its redistricting, which will be used in elections for the next 10 years. The need to conduct public hearings on a revamped plan is likely to extend the process. "The final product, even if it is past the deadline, should be a better product as a result of the process we followed," Minami says.
Minami says the panel will continue to be cognizant of home addresses of current legislators. That risks violating a constitutional provision that lines not be drawn to unduly favor a person or political party.
Minami explains that he wants to avoid major changes in district lines because many residents may end up going to different polling stations with unfamiliar candidates and incumbents. Continuity can be achieved by trying to approximate present district lines, but any effort to accommodate -- or punish -- an incumbent who lives near the edge of a district would be inappropriate.
The commission indicated incumbent legislators' homes on initial maps used to reshape district lines, some of which curled around those homes. The district of a senator whose reformist actions had irritated some legislators was carved out of existence. The commission should not repeat that behavior.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, President
John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
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