Letters for Saturday, January 13, 2007

• Greg Allman on Kaua‘i

• Thanks to an ‘angel’

• Let’s open minds to others

• Party politics no help

Greg Allman on Kaua‘i

Greg Allman and I are old friends. In 1970 my buddy Rick and I had to go to Los Angeles to take our draft physicals. On the way back we decided to stop at the Whiskey a Go Go on the Sunset Strip. It was a Tuesday night and the billboard said “The Allman Brothers Band.” There was nobody in line, we even wondered if the place was open. All of a sudden a limo pulls up and the Allman Brothers get out. My friend asks Greg if they are any good. Greg says, “Yeah we’re great, come on in for free with us.” So we go in and there are girls dancing in cages. Needless to say, they rocked and I have been a big fan for 36 years.

Not wanting to capitalize on my relationship with Greg, I will probably buy tickets this time.

Koloa

Thanks to an ‘angel’

I would like to publicly give my thanks to Daniel Saylor for the selfless act he did for me last Tuesday evening. He says he does not want any thanks — but I cannot stop thinking about and reliving the terrifying event that was happening to me that day at Ke‘e Beach. He was the only one — of a beach full of people who were able to help me (and he was on crutches). It felt like an eternity out there fighting the endless waves, I did not know which way to go to get out of that watery trap. I was praying for God to send an angel and he did. Daniel may not think he’s an angel, but God did and I do too. Your act of kindness was a blessing to my entire family and will never be forgotten. Thank you isn’t enough for what you did. We will be forever grateful.

Merced, Calif.

Let’s open minds to others

Racial violence starts at home. Recently my child was the victim of racial violence here on Kaua‘i.

While walking after school between Puhi and Kukui Grove he was verbally assaulted with racial slurs by one car full of students. He kept his eyes straight ahead and kept walking. A second car full of boys approached and shouted more remarks; this group also threw their soda cans at him and hit their mark. Staining his clothes and his soul. He kept his eyes straight ahead and kept walking.

When he arrived at my work place in Lihu‘e he was visibly upset, and angry. He told me he wouldn’t mind someone hating him if he knew them and had given them good cause to hate him. He did not know these kids, and they only hated him for the color of his skin and hair.

He made a good point when he said these kids’ families were not Native Hawaiians. Their families may have emigrated here more recently than ours. He assumes their families moved here to offer their children a better life than they could have in their former homeland.

We wondered if these kids were born here on Kaua‘i. They shouted “haole go home.” He is home. He was born and raised here. He tries to take care of his home on Kaua‘i by volunteering to clean the heiaus in the Kapa‘a area where we live. While cleaning the heiaus he learns Hawaiian legends, and true Hawaiian culture. He is taught to honor your land, your family, and your home.

Respect and honor start at home. My child is taught to respect each individual for his or her own value as a person. It has been a hard lesson, as he was treated with disrespect at his elementary and middle school by other students and yes by teachers as well. Through all this he has kept his eyes straight ahead and kept walking.

Racial violence starts at home, and so does respect. To the kids who attacked my child I want to say have some respect for yourselves and your families. Thank your mother for giving you a safe place to live on Kaua‘i. A child should feel safe walking in our community after school, regardless of the color of his skin.

As an island community, maybe we should stop arguing about big boxes, and start talking about small minds.

Kapa‘a

Party politics no help

I am just back from a beutiful visit to your wonderful island. Upon returning home to Woodstock, N.Y., I recieved an e-mail from Howard Dean. I want to share my response with the people of Kaua‘i where I was teated so well.

He said the Democrats are “ready to act.” He wants me to write newspapers to voice opposition to the President’s troop increase for Iraq. This is what I wrote back to him:

Dear Howard,

I disagree with your bold contention that the Democrats are ready to act. If they were, they would have immediately gone on the offensive to begin proceedings to impeach George W. Bush. The man is a criminal by law. He has broken and bent the laws of our land. He and the neo-cons are destroying the Constitution or at the very least riding roughshod over it. And the Democrats are letting him. We are not talking about clumsy mistakes — of which he makes plenty — but the President, Vice President and his Cabinet have lied to the people and Congress. Maybe you and our newly elected Democratic Congress don’t get that but the people who elected this new congress do.

So it seems to me the first order of business would be impeachment proceedings but Nancy Pelosi says that is not on the agenda, consequently the man in the White House and his fellow crooks are emboldened. Now this is what will happen: Your Democratic Congress, many of whom rubber stamped Bush’s previous lies to America, will now attempt to block his escalation of the war. They will fail. And what’s amazing is, the Democrats, as you say, think they have reason to be “upbeat.” They can’t see the forest for the trees. This never-really-elected President will again be empowered by his victory over Congress and do still more damage. He will put more troops in Iraq and this bloody war will drag on. More children will die, more families be uprooted, more villages destroyed and more American service people will die and be grievously wounded.

But the privileged members of the Senate and House, who have no children in Iraq, will continue to play politics, will not risk anything, not take any chances even though the President and his cronies are busy wrecking what is left of civilization both by war and absolutely horrid environmental policies, not to mention torture, illicit spying, detention of innocents and denial of universal right of habeas corpus. The Democrats will have failed the country once again because, with exceptions like Maurice Hinchey, Dennis Kucinich and a few others, they have not an once of courage — something I thought you once had. Party politics has robbed you of that. Once you spoke your mind for the truth, now you just try to strengthen the party. What a difference.

Woodstock, N.Y.