Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 4, 1 April 2014 — 'Tell me what you think ... ' [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

'Tell me what you think ... '

My March 2014 article was about "Home Sweet Home" and the exhilaration I feel when I eome home to Moku O Keawe to all that is familiar: Waimea's green hills, Hāmākua's lush valleys, the glassy waters of Hilo Bay, Puna's warm rain and thick lauhala groves, the remoteness and untouched beauty of Ka'ū, Kona steeped in history - the land of the billowing clouds, Waikoloa's vast savanna and the 'Āpa'a winds of Kohala - where Paiea, our warrior King, was born. For those of us who are kanaka and were born and raised in these islands, the feeling of "ku'u home" is embedded in our DNA. It doesn't matter where we're from: Pā'ia-Maui, Moloka'i, Lāna'i, Ni'ihau, Hanapēpē-Kaua'i or Kualoa-O'ahu. We've all seen the changes (for better or worse), yes the changes whieh have swept through, over, across our towns and island. Parker

Ranch was the rock on whieh our

town was built. Mahalo ke Akua, the ranch is still here, but it is not the dominant force it used to be. When my brother Ben and I went to Waimea School in the 1950s and early '60s, our school had 200 kids. It was a K-9 school. Today it's a K-8 school (we lost our ninth grade to Honoka'a way back when) and the enrollment hovers consistently at 800.

Waimea had no traffic eontrol signals then. Today three of our intersections are signalized. When we were kids we helped our tūtū man and dad chase cattle from our house to our grandpa's a distance of two miles on Māmalahoa Highway. No one does that anymore. It's not allowed. We're losing our traditional paniolo ways and are slowly becoming "rhinestone cowboys." We used to be able to ride a horse

through town. Now you can't, the guy (or lady) with the blue light on the top of his car will gladly

give you a ticket. It's too dangerous; too many cars, trucks and humans. At one time the drive from Waimea to Hilo took three and a half hours. Today one ean make the drive in an hour and fifteen minutes. When I was growing up there were sugar fields from Waipi'o Valley to the Wailuku River. Today guinea grass, eucalyptus forests and houses have

displaced "waving fields of eane." I never dreamt sugar would die. Such is life; times change but as people we are resilient. Yes we grumble and yearn for the "old days" but then we do what we have to; piek up the broken pieces and move on. Enough reminiscing, the bottom line is these are exciting times for our island. In bringing us back to

real issues in real time so that we ean weleome in the future, I will have folks write viewpoint opinions (pro and eon) on the large issues we as a lāhui have eoneem for: geothermal, astronomy, a rising military presence, GMO and selfdetermination. My intent is not to "stir up the pot," but to raise awareness so that when the opportunity to take a position on any of these issues emerges (for or against) we will be better informed because the times we live in demand that we are so informed. Today the battles we face are not resolved by brawn but by brains (wits). Let us say what we must on any issue civilly, respectfully, thoughtfully and with aloha. If you are interested in offering mana'o on any of the issues mentioned above or one I did not even think of, please write me at boblindsey808@gmail.com, boblindsey808@hawaii.rr.com or robertl@oha.org. Or feel free to eall me at (808) 936-6795. ■

Rūbert K. Lindsey, Jr. Trustee, Hawai'i