Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 2, 1 February 1986 — from the Chairman's Desk [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

from the Chairman's Desk

A Dream forAll

Editor's Note: The following speech Luas givcn by Joseph G. Kealoha Jr., chairman of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees, during a Unify Day program Monday, Jan. 20, at Kapiolani Park honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Aloha Auwinala Kakou! It is a privilege and an honor to participate in this first national tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King had a dream. And his greatness, it seems to me, was his ability to inspire others to dream the same dream, and to work toward the realization of that dream, secure in the belief

that one day that dream must become a reality. Dr. King's dream was not only for the black man. It was for the downtrodden, the oppressed, the subjugated, the alienated, the victims of injustice, whatever their race or homeland. King told the Nobel Prize committee in 1964, "I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere ean have three meals a day for their bodies . . . education and culture for their minds . . . and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits". That, too, is my dream for the Hawaiian people. A dream whieh has yet to be fully realized. King's first visit to Hawaii eame just after statehood. In an address to the State House of Representatives in 1959, King said, "We are seeking to free the soul of America . . . all men, all racial groups. This is our responsibility and challenge . . . and we look to this great new state as an example". I feel sure that Dr. Kihg was aware of the depressed condition of many Hawaiians when five years later, on Feb. 19, 1964, he preached a sermon at historic Kawaiaha'o Church. The occasion was the annual "God and Country Service," sponsored by the Honolulu Council of Churches in conjunction with the opening of the state legislature. His audience included then Lt. Gov. William S. Richardson, Senate President Nelson K. Doi, House Speaker Elmer Cravalho and Mayor Neal S. Blaisdell. About two-thirds of the state legislature was also present. Wearing leis of hala and kaunaoa, and flanked by Kahu Abraham Akaka and Episcopal Bishop Harry Kennedy, King told his audience "there are some things whieh are absolutely right and others whieh are absolutely wrong . . . and the twain does not meet". He cautioned the Hawaii legislators to "make sure that the laws of the state are in line with God's will". Surely Dr. King's example helped create the moral climate whieh in 1978 encouraged the people of Hawaii to provide a constitutional mechanism to better the conditions of the Hawaiian people. Perhaps some of those same legislators remembered Dr. King's words when, in 1979, they wrote: "The people of the State of Hawaii reaffirmed their solemn trust obligation and responsibility to native Hawaiians and furthermore declared in the state constitution that there be an Office of Hawaiian Affairs to address the needs of the aboriginal class of people of Hawaii". On the morning of the same day that Dr. King preached at Kawaiaha'o, he spoke before some 10,000 students jammed into the University of Hawaii's Andrews Amphitheater. It was the largest crowd in the history of that facility. Dr. King opened his talk by voicing thanks to Hawaii for "the gentle sweetness of her people". According to newspaper reports, "from that opening, to the close of an hour-long address, he held his audience spellbound, They in turn gave him a standing ovation". I would like to end my remarks by quoting the poem whieh Dr. King used to conclude his speech at the university.

Fleecy looks and black complexion Cannot forfeit nature's elaim Skin may differ, but affection dwells In black and white the same Were I so tall as to reach the pole Or grasp the oeean at a span I must be measured by my soul The mind's a standard of the man