Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 6, 1 June 2000 — TRUSTEE MESSAGES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TRUSTEE MESSAGES

An obligation to choose

0UR LĪVES are meaningful because we make choices every day and those choices, for whieh we must take responsibility, and no one else, ean improve our lives, those of our 'ohana and our community. In the words of Harland Cleveland, people are presented with a ehoiee (and an obligation to choose) between relevance and remoteness. We, Native Hawaiians, must choose "relevance" to ensure our survival. We cannot avoid issues or be "remote" in these challenging and sometimes difficult times. We ean go through every day repeating the same things we did yesterday or the day before, and the day before that. We ean continue to say to our family and ffiends, I don't know what to do, so 1*11 wait and see. What we're really saying is I don't care enough to find out and become part of the solution. John Newbem said long ago, "People ean be divided into three groups: Those who make things happen; those who watch things happen; and those who wonder what happened!"

There are increasing opportunities for Native Hawaiians to become better informed about issues whieh will affect us and future generations. There are many meetings, conferences and workshops. There are community education fomms

initiated by various groups. There are weekly Native Hawaiian Reconciliation Task Force meetings. There are OHA committee and meetings of the Board of Tmstees. And there are organization meetings whose agendas ean be arranged to provide us more opportunities to leam.

If you choose not to attend meetings, there is information whieh is currently in the public and University of Hawai'i libraries; there is information on different sovereignty models on videotape, also available at libraries; and there are weekly radio talk shows with a variety of guests and topics for the listener to keep better informed. The collective efforts by many groups tc educate the community need not be eonfusing (1) if we use the format or matrix provided by some groups to compare the various forms of self-govemance, and (2) if we listen carefully to the advocates and sift out the fact from fiction based upon our reading of the literature. In time — sooner than we realize - Native Hawaiians and the people of Hawai'i will be asked to choose future directions. Will you and your 'ōhana be ready? Will you take responsibility to be "relevant" to our future survival? Or, will you be the person who suddenly awakens and says, "What happened?" E maka'ala kākou. ■

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"John Newbern said long ago, 'People ean be divided into three groups: Those who maKe things happen; those who watch things happen; and those wno wonder what happened!'"

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