I�d like to first thank this community for taking me in and warmly welcoming me, as I walked door-to-door. Although I have yet to get to each and every household, I appreciated the opportunity to get to know you and your community.

The message I am getting is that our education system is broken; our government leaders must be responsive and held accountable; and things need to change.

The first step toward recovery is to embrace a vision powerful enough to generate real change. The time has come to rely on ourselves and our own skills. The vision driving us to a brighter future can only be one of all of us pulling together, using our talents, and controlling our destiny. This community is a prime example of using what you have and making it work for you. It�s special, and it�s something you can be proud of. Because of your community�s active involvement, this campus is ranked fourth in the West as the best comprehensive college by US News and World Report.

We cannot afford any longer to waste our human resources and talent, actual or potential. Hawaii is small, the world is moving at a very quick pace. We must uplift all our people, educate them, and give them jobs now!

�How?� you ask.

First, we must fix our broken education system. We simply have to break up Hawaii�s bloated, single school district and create independent, local school districts. Any reform that preserves the bureaucratic top down running of Hawaii�s schools is false reform and must be fought by all who believe that LOCAL needs are best met by LOCAL control. I�ll say it again: LOCAL needs are best met by LOCAL control. To make local control work, is to give you, the community, more power, more input, more say in the way your government and schools are run. It�s your right to demand excellence and it�s long overdue.

Second, we must reshape the current relationship between government and Hawaii�s citizens by remembering that government is the people�s servant, not the master. Government must be more efficient, less costly, and government must help business take the lead in doing what business does best�create jobs and stimulate the economy.

We are due, long overdue, for the real change Hawaii needs for all of our people to share in prosperity. It�s your right to demand excellence and it�s long overdue.

Lacene Terri's remarks made at the Laie Community Association's Candidates' Forum on July 11, 2002. Also in attendance: Andy Anderson, Ed Case, Gerald Hagino, Kekoa Kaapu, Ernest Martin, and Bob Nakata.