Talk Story
Politics, the fine art
of using the ends
to justify the meansSOMEONE once said, "Patriotism is the veneration of real estate above principles." I reflected on that the other day when the City Council's Policy Committee passed by 5 to 3 the measure to condemn the land beneath the Outrigger Hotel's proposed $300 million Lewers Street redevelopment project.
There are two more votes to go, but it appears my early prediction -- that the Council would find the Outrigger plan irresistible -- is back on track.
I was surprised when four mayoral candidates, including current council members Hannemann and Bainum, told a pre-holiday voter gathering that they unanimously opposed condemnation and favored letting Outrigger and the four holdout landowners work things out among themselves.
True to his word, Bainum voted against the seizure. Hannemann isn't on the committee.
Protecting the individual from the tyranny of the majority is the American way. It's simply un-American to use the power of government to force somebody to sell property if they don't want to -- unless, of course, there's a condominium sitting on it. But governments do it all the time under the pretext of the greater good.
If I had the good fortune to own valuable land in a resort area, I'd want a developer to either make me an offer attractive enough to turn my head or let me share his future profits.
If this project is as good as they say, it will generate enough grease to lubricate the wheels of progress. Outrigger has offered a land swap, minority partnerships or leases amended to allow construction to proceed while the landowners want a voice in designing the project. Can't we all just get along?
Mediation is now a highly evolved profession and you'd think grown-ups could find a middle ground sufficiently palatable to all concerned without dragging in the heavy hand of government.
As Thomas Jefferson said, "No more good must be attempted than the public can bear." That's good advice for politicians wont to use worthwhile ends to justify any heavy-handed means they deem necessary.
The Lewers redevelopment project is just one example. Another is the traffic camera deployment, which smacks of Orwellian surveillance, as do the security cameras on downtown streets.
(You'd think all this technology would free up the police enough so they could check out the occasional burglar alarm, but no. Council has deemed citizens must pay $15 to register their security systems, pay an annual fee of $5 and a service charge of $50 for excessive alarms. What will the police do with all their free time?)
The recent gambling furor is another. Expect the gaming industry to offer the juiciest possible bait to win legislative and popular support for legalization. We'll be asked to hold our noses and invite in the high rollers "for the sake of our children." Count on it.
Gov. Ben Cayetano says a public vote will answer the question whether Hawaii should legalize gambling "once and for all." If a vote fails, however, expect a pause for the dust to clear and then a renewed push.
"Once and for all" is as much a fairy tale as "once upon a time." A disease that has already infected 47 of the 50 states can bide its time. Like herpes, it won't ever go away.
Airport searches are a third example. Safer air travel is the end and the means are random searches, pat-downs and hand baggage searches. Being safe is certainly worth a mildly inconvenient search.
However, choosing whom to search has become a battleground of political correctness. To avoid accusations of "racial profiling," airlines are using random searches rather than singling out travelers who fit the profile of a possible terrorist.
The result is that your average little old lady or newspaper columnist stands as much of a chance of being singled out for a close search as a young, male Middle Easterner travelling alone with an al-Qaida training manual under his arm.
As Lyndon Johnson once said, "While you're saving your face, you're losing your ass."
A well-conceived, sophisticated screening profile used by well-trained personnel to improve the security process is both defensible and necessary.
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.