Kapolei Library is still
closed to the commuters
who helped pay for it

There is an old saying, "Not all that glitters is gold." Another is that "You can't judge a book by its cover."

Many of us in the Kapolei area have waited for a public library for at least 30 years. But now that a beautiful new one has opened, it's neither all golden nor is there good reading beyond the cover.

The library's hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Thursday and Friday; 1 to 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. The library isn't open at all on Sundays. Other than school children on library field trips and retirees, who in the surrounding area is really going to be able to use the library?

Kapolei's commuters spend long hours on the road. It's typical for them to leave between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. Many do not return home until after 7 p.m. And many often work six days a week. And remember, the library is closed on Sundays.

Commercial book stores, record shops, Internet cafes and coffee shops are often open daily from 5 a.m. until midnight. For working people, they are our sources of salvation for reading material. Ever notice how many people are in some of those stores at 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. or midnight?

As I have suggested to deaf ears, why not have Borders Books or Barnes & Noble operate a portion or all of our libraries? Why not locate a Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts in the library? You could get a cup of coffee, snack and/or use the Internet in the library to offset the costs of the extended hours. This would allow people who work for a living -- taxpaying consumers who have among the Top 10 highest median incomes in Hawaii -- to utilize the library system during hours when they have the free time.

It might even be a place where teenagers would go to read, surf the Net and listen to CDs rather than being a nuisance hanging around malls and fast food restaurants. Heaven forbid that a teenager would read and improve his or her mind. With a little more reading, perhaps the achievement test scores would rise a little above 48th in the United States.

Until there is a change in government and educational attitudes to treat taxpayers as consumers and have reasonable library hours for the consumer, our new Kapolei Library is far from golden.

The story is the same at other state library branches. Just take a look at the number of libraries open when consumers are available to visit. For whom is the library open? Is it for the state employees who work there or the taxpaying who paid for it?

However, I suppose we should all be thankful, bow down and pay homage now that we have books in a library that sat vacant for so long because lawmakers didn't allocate funds to staff it and fill the shelves. Former state librarian, Virginia Lowell, opposed building the Kapolei Library for those reasons. While she may never have expressed it exactly this way, Lowell may have been right. Why build and stock a library if only a limited few can use the facility?

Congratulations to our government bureaucracy and beloved government employees who so graciously sacrifice for the humble taxpayers and the wonderful and responsible politicians who look out for our welfare.

Of course, we could change the subject to roads and say how the same wonderful government bureaucracy, employees and politicians are again looking our for us. At least we have roads, even though many look like they are in a war zone and congested with refugees attempting to escape to a safe haven.

I suppose I should just be happy that we have a library with books, CDs and a few computers. By the way, when I drove by last night, the library was closed. When I went by this morning, it was also closed. It looked great. A stunning victory for the community! It doesn't matter that it wasn't open. We have a library, and it stands tall. Yea, team!