Officials differ on whether to play vog up or down

The Big Island Visitors Bureau outsources its press releases to a P.R. agency on the mainland, far from the vog, though they do breathe smog, or, as they call it there, the "marine effect." This West Coast brain trust issued a press release this week playing down the vog. It characterized the matter as "negative publicity." The gist of the press release was that the vog has been overplayed and all Californians should board planes at once to come see the beautiful new atmospheric conditions at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, known far and wide for its lovely yellow sunsets. Also this week, however, House Speaker Calvin Say appointed a team of lawmakers to investigate the vog, and the committee chairman, the venerable Rep. Bob Herkes of the Big Island, said the vog has become an undeclared natural disaster. Venerable is sometimes used as a euphemism for "really old." Herkes is in fact really old, but he's also venerated, or respected anyhow, not least because he is sensible. And this is his take on the vog: that we should start thinking of it like an earthquake, a natural event that has consequences severe enough to consider relief. The vog has hurt crops and it has hurt tourism. It is real, and it is a real problem. It is not "negative publicity," nor has the problem been overplayed. People who never felt the vog before have felt its effects recently. Ask around. I'm not talking about hypochondriacs eager for a new ailment, but the sort of people who are proud of their robust health and are mortified to admit that for some reason the vog this time has really left them short of breath and scratchy-throated. And this is on Maui and Oahu. I feel for my friends in Hilo. Pretending that vog so severe it has closed a national park four times in a month is not that big a deal could really backfire if it induces some Californians to come visit the park, then they go home complaining of health effects. Advice to tourism industry players: be careful not to lean on your press release writers too hard to do something, because many fine press release writers lack the knowledge or backbone to tell you that what you're asking for is inaccurate, misleading or otherwise ill-advised. Rather than play the vog up or down, it might be better to play it straight.