Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 7, 1 July 2006 — Mainland Hawaiians [ARTICLE]

Mainland Hawaiians

My cousin told me that OHA was signing up Hawaiians for Kau Inoa in California and all over the mainland. That got me thinking, why exactly is OHA trying to sign up Hawaiians on the mainland? I don't even remember the last time OHA eame into my neighborhood, and I live in Makakilo. Why should Hawaiians living on the mainland even be allowed to sign up in the first plaee? They're so far away from us, they don't know the problems we have here in Hawai'i. They just think, "Oh, this is a Hawaiian thing, and it's a ehanee for me to get back to my roots." But they're not thinking hard about what they're doing. They're going to vote based on what other people tell them to do. I'm not saying every Hawaiian in Hawai'i totally gets the Akaka Bill and the overthrow, but they have a better idea about those things than the Hawaiians living in California. I know a lot of those people living on the mainland left Hawai'i because life over there,

with the better jobs and cheaper, bigger houses, is easier than over here. But we decided to stay here and tough it out because we didn't want to give up and run away and leave our homeland. If the Hawaiians on the mainland want a say in nationhood, they should move home. As long as get Hawaiians homeless, living on the beaches in Wai'anae and filling up the prisons in Hawai'i, OHA should take care of us over here first. Kalani Hackett Makakilo, O'ahu