Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 13, Number 6, 1 June 1996 — Hawaiians are too bright! [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiians are too bright!

by BiUie Beamer Trustee-at-large Hawaiians have changed. many more are educated, independent and too bright for the old manipulators. Their attitudes aie different, some don't stand when meeting an o!der person, some don"t smile, but, for sure, they are not about to be part of any herd. They stalwartly affirm their own sovereign individuality.

To the dismay of the Hawaiian ESTABLISHMENT, our self appointed leaders, they even impudently answer back now. Two decades ago too many were compliant followers of an ESTABLISHMENT script designed to show our political force. Herded as faceless native brown skinned followers, we marched with posters prepared for us, wore the free tee-shirts to feint solidarity, filled our opu's with Larrv's smorgasbord, sang "Tiny

Bubbles" with Don Ho, chanted with Zulu the token activist-comedian and stomped with the Surfers. The ESTABLISHMENT told us how destitute we were and our right was to moie than welfare. Their oratory called for rule by our own kind. The dirge of the pahu inflamed us with the genealogy of wretched VICTIMHOOD. Tears, ti-leaves, and brutal accusations targeted the missionary as oppressors. We blamed eveiyone: the non-Hawaiian trustees of Bishop Estate, Congress for the woes of DHHL, the Republicans, and the other ethnics. We believed we were helpless. The accusations worked, those who used Hawaiianess as a qualification were mounted as our frontispieces. The Leeward Coast matriarchs and sons took reign without challenge, as the: Apos on the School Board and in the House; Drake/Peters in DHHL, House leadership and Bishop Estate; Cope/Kanahele wielded Federal, OHA Administrative and Trustee clout, and the DeSotos at OHA and the City Council. We elected a Hawaiian Lt. Govemor and Govemor. A score later, there is no trace of any non Hawaiian as a DHHL commissioner, an OHA or a KSBE trustee. Now they are the get rich lawyers defending sovereignty. In 1985, Cooper and Daws in LAND AND POWER, exposed the polieial consortia of

cronyism. So, have we Hawaiians benefltted from our LAND AND POWER ALII? After 20 years of saturated Federal monies and j)olitical clout Wai'anae still leads the dismal social indices. KSBE is still only enrolling 3,000 students, tTustees are treated to a MANUAHI million dollar year of service, then hired as consultants. Past DHHL Hawaiian commissioners made more

land giveaways than the state or federal governments thieved. Our politicians mine DHHL cinders for their own benefit, receive land awards or signed as applicants without the 50 percent quantum. OHA tmstees surreptitiously work to transfer its assets into a private corporation. Beneficiaries are not asked about this option. Beware of the oId style. KSBE replayed their evangelist politics bussing students to the capitol in Tee-shirt regalia while chanting a eapella that nonHawaiians were land thieves.

Copycat OHA select trustees followed with two rallies. OHA employees (voluntarily, what else could they do?) led the march to hear speakers charge our Govemor with being anti-Hawaiian. Larry's visible security guards protected Hee and De Soto who play the death threat theatrics to the hilt. I know of no Hawaiian Politico who has not received death threats. Neither have I ever heard of real Hawaiian women in office like Rosalie Keliinoi, Kamokila Campbell, Esther Richardson, or a Flora Hayes needing the protection of sumo men. The moral of this tale is that those days of the herd mentality are gone. Kali Watson has little time to rue about the past, he wants to build 3,000 homes and we should help him. The young and bright need not teeshirts and stew, they want aehon, information and to design their own sovereign destiny. The eyes of the blinded have been opened, the ears of the not hearing unstopped, and the tongue of the too long muted are speaking out loud and knowledgeably. Your time is past ESTABLISHMENT! MOVE OVER! MAKE ROOM FOR THE OLD AND WISE AND YOUNG AND BRIGHT! TO BE A POLITICIAN AND HAWAIIAN IS NOT ENOUGH!