Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 2, Number 2, 1 February 1985 — Time for Lokahi [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Time for Lokahi

By Thomas K. Kaulukukui Sr. T rustee-at-Large

It isn't often I use this eolumn to express my views. I find, however, I need to explain one of the many goals I have espoused since I became one of your trustees a little more than four yeeirs ago. One of the goals mentioned then was "lokahi" of our people.

At a meeting of the Human Services Advisory Committee held Jan. 11, it was the unanimous opinion of committee members that the time is NOW to bring together all Hawaiians, individually and collectively. This continues to be one of my pet goals. Many of my non-Hawaiian friends and, unfortunately some Hawaiians, tell me that this is an impossible task. They cite the "crab in the bucket tale" as an example. I am sure you know the story about one crab attempting to climb out of the bucket while the others try to pull it back down. Well, l have a different version of this yarn. 1 see the crab on top looking at the others below and saying: "Hey, get on my back and I will help you out of the bucket." As a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Engineers stationed at

Schofield Barracks during World War II, I remember a sign at the entrance to the area whieh read: "The Difficult We Do Immediately, The Impossible Takes A Little Longer." I believe the task of lokahi may be difficult but surely not impossible. Unless all of us give it our best effort, we will never know if we ean succeed or not. Some years ago I read two interesting articles. I took parts of the first and second and put them into a paragraph and labeled it "Words of Wisdom." Here is how that paragraph reads:

Without the uniting power of love, we cannot become of one mind. As our love grows through a conscious relationship with our Savior, our desire and ability to tolerate differences, to work out conflicts and to solve problems also increases until we become of one mind. We must cooperate completely and work in harmony one with the other. There must be unanimity in our decisions and unity in our actions. If the spirit of the Lord is to magnify our labors, then this spirit of oneness and cooperation must be the prevailing spirit in all that we do. It is cooperation and mutual eoneem that determines the overall success."

We are the first to admit we cannot accomplish our goal alone because we certainly will need your kokua. It is only by working together I am confident we ean achieve our goal of "Iokahi." Ku lokahi kakou!