Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 5, 1 May 1998 — VOTE! [ARTICLE]

VOTE!

Are you of Hawaiian ancestry? Are you registered to vote? Do you care? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then you need to read this. If you are of Hawaiian ancestry and are not registered to vote, then you really need to read this. Recently I had the pleasure of attending an OHA outreach meeting in Waimea and I found one aspect of it truly sad for people of Hawaiian ancestry. Of 1 18,907 Hawaiians who could vote in the last election, 66,805 did not! More than half! *These figures bespeak a great injustice Hawaiians perpetrate upon themselves. If you, as a

Hawaiian, beheve you cannot control your own political destiny, then you must be one of the 66,805 apathetic onlookers who stand by and let their future be dictated by someone else. Your vote could make a huge diiferenee. Your vote is power. Casting your vote is flexing your muscle. Use it or lose it. If you don't get out and vote, then all Hawaiians lose. Wouldn't it be awesome to see all 118,907 ehgible Hawaiians actually voting? This is where sohdarity begins. Wake up, e ala! Get out and vote! Ski Kwiatkowski Pu'u Hue. Kohala