Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 3, 1 March 1993 — Our Readers Write [ARTICLE]

Our Readers Write

To the editor: Taxpayers are losing patience with activist groups such as Hālawa Valley Coalition, Women of Hale O Papa, sit-down protesters and the rest of us Hawaiians. This fact should be of eoneem to all Hawaiians because we should not allow this minority, who seem motivated by a misplaced idealism, to represent the silent majority. We must appeal to and seek the support of other Americans, the unions, and state and federal govemment to achieve our objectives. The future depends on our actions today. Governor Waihe'e, and Senators Akaka and Inouye must be supported and petitioned to obtain funding for Hawaiian Home Lands infrastructure and legislation to benefit all native Hawaiians, enabling the two-thirds of the population left in Hawai'i to live and die here in the land of our fathers. The Bush Administration supported none of these objectives. We must not be made to suffer for the aloha, the generosity or the innoeenee of our ancestors. We have waited almost 100 years for justice. To imitate the maka'āinana of the past by being unseen and unheard will gain us nothing for our children - and theirs. Support the cause for the perpetuation of the Hawaiian race in Hawai'i. Imua! Marisa Mia Plemer (KS '67) Hale'iwa, Hawai'i

To the editor It is with sadness that I consider the proposals before the state Legislature concerning the future of the Hamakua coast and, moreover, the intellectual bankruptcy revealed in proposing a "prison indus|try" for this precious island — this sacred 'āina now called the state of Hawai'i. It is suggested there will be a seven percent increase in crime in Hawai'i and an expanded prison system, they say, is a reality. Well, I don't shy from reality and I protest the calloused attitude toward our fellow citizens — many of them today's children and teenagers who will be tomorrow's prisoners. If this hardening of the class stmcture holds tme to form, most of those incarcerated will be local-bom and educated and ethnically part-Hawaiian. Hamakua? Return the land to the workers and Hawaiians from whom it was not too long ago swindled. Allow cooperatives to prosper and prisons will not be needed. It must be obvious to some that everyone does not thrive in this competitive system. The cost of keeping one citizen in jail is equal to a year's tuition at an Ivy League school. If this prison industry is the best the goveming individuals and philosophies ean eome up with from the fabulous resources available on this island, we are far better off sovereign or independent. It's very Amenean to think big. 'Onipa'a. Tomas Belsky Hilo, Hawai'i