• Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III, Honourary Irishman
• Water-wasting message
• Changes taking place are criminal
• Individual and community rights
Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III, Honourary Irishman
‘Tis seldom remembered that the great Hawaiian King Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III chose the date of March 17 to be his “official birthday” for public celebrations. He apparently chose that date in honour of St. Patrick’s Day, because both Ireland and Hawai‘i were island nations with legends of “little people” (leprechauns and menehune).
Kauikeaouli did not know his actual date of birth. It’s a mystery why not. Everyone knew the baby would be king someday because of his parents. Surely there were chants, hula, and stories celebrating his birth, which would have noted what day on the lunar calendar, and it happened in the same lunar cycle as some other great event that could later be placed on the Western calendar. Even the year of his birth is uncertain. He needed to invent a birth date out of thin air and chose March 17 as a token of respect for Ireland and for the missionaries of Irish descent.
Kauikeaouli was a truly great King. He proclaimed Hawai‘i’s first Constitution. He established private property rights. He twice tried to get Hawai‘i annexed to the U.S. (1849 and 1853). One important sentence he spoke became today’s state motto: “Ua mau ke ea o ka ‘aina i ka pono.”
I believe the most important and profound statement he ever wrote was the first sentence of his Constitution: “God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the earth, in unity and blessedness.” Kokokahi. Imagine that. If only today’s Hawaiians could embrace that sentiment of their sovereign King. ‘Ae; ‘tis no blarney.
And so now I, Kenneth Conklin, as an Irishman, do hereby proclaim Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III an honourary Irishman, and ask all who are Irish by descent or at heart to celebrate his memory this day.
Ken Conklin
Kaneohe, O‘ahu
Water-wasting message
I just finished reading the March 13 article “Salon business is a family affair” (Thursday, page A8) on the family-run salon.
Are the owner and writer both oblivious to the impact of wasting water by hosing off the parking lot daily? I thought I understood that the island was suffering from reduced rain and reduced potable water supplies.
This story, complete with a photo of a squirting hose sends the wrong message where water conservation should be emphasized.
John Giddings
Riverside, Calif.
Changes taking place are criminal
I have been fortunate enough to visit your beautiful Kaua‘i eight times since 1998. The changes that are taking place border on the criminal.
Unrestrained development on all fronts is ruining one of the great places on earth. The people responsible for this rape of the land should hang their heads in shame. The officials that approve these developments are out of touch with what you have to lose.
Already, many local people are priced out of a decent home or a lot to build one. The well-off have taken over with million-dollar homes and property , but these lucky people (and, yes, I guess I wish I could be one of them) are also in danger of losing what they came for.
There was a time when Kaua‘i could absorb this invasion, but no more.
Enough already!
I urge you, the people that have been fortunate enough to move to Kaua‘i, to unite with the local population to protect and preserve what you have, if only for selfish reasons. You cannot undue what’s done, but you can protect what’s left and preserve it so that you and future generations can continue to enjoy one of the truly great places on earth.
Bless those who tried to save the monkeypod trees. How sad to hear that the beautiful specimens by the post office have been destroyed. Bad karma on those responsible.
Jeffrey Pignona
Saint Albans, Vt.
Individual and community rights
R.S. Weir’s letter “Collective ideological stink” (Letters, March 15) condemned the efforts of Koloa community members to thwart a developer ripping down a grove of monkeypod trees at the center of their town.
The Knudsen Estate (the owner) and the Nelson Co. (the developer) would not even meet with the Koloa Community Association on the issue of redesigning the parking lot to save more trees.
Certainly, protecting individual rights is important. But protecting community rights has a place as well. In much of the civilized world, community good trumps individual greed. That’s why we don’t allow a pig farm operator to pollute a stream that feeds our drinking water supply, no matter how much money he may make.
The very idea of “owning” land, as Mr. Weir describes, is a recent European invention. Indigenous American and Hawaiians peoples were the victims of that invention at gunpoint. The results have been an accelerating destruction of the living environment.
The logical consequence of absolute individual property rights would be to deny zoning, planning, building codes among other “civilized” constraints. That may work in a feudal or plantation society, but in a populous and diverse community of private property owners, the kind of “freedom” Mr. Weir is talking about gets pretty ugly — and dangerous.
Certainly, the financing and taxing of property in our culture makes it inevitable that growth and profits be maximized. This is why so many of the trees in Koloa have been butchered … for more parking.
The Waikomo Stream flows through the absorbent flood plain where monkeypod trees stood. One anticipated result of blacktopping so much of the area for the new plaza will be more flooding in Koloa when the Waikomo Reservoir can’t hold back its water.
Would a dangerous modification to the wall to the Kaloko Dam fit within the rights of a property owner if it could endanger the community below?
Juan Wilson
Hanapepe
