Musings: In Search Of

Waialeale wore a crown of clouds, from which only her highest peaks emerged, floating in a sea of pink, when Koko and I took our walk this morning.

The chorus of bird song was so varied and resplendent that I stopped and sat awhile on the bench at the school bus stop just so I could listen. Beneath some trees, I found an empty tiny nest — most likely made by a Japanese white eye — with an ironwood cone woven into one side and a soft bed of ironwood needles for the eggs to rest upon. Such miracles of engineering, and all totally sustainable, without any legislative mandates, studies or pilot projects to guide them. What happened to our own innate knowing?

We were passed at intervals by four pick up trucks with pig dogs in the back, packed in tight under their low-roofed mobile kennels, most of them homemade, and each encounter was an extravaganza of sight, sound and smell that got Koko all excited. At the trail head, a group of orange-shirted men posed for pictures snapped on a cell phone before heading out in search of birds.

Hawaii Superferry will be in desperate search of passengers now that it’s announced it will be operating two trips a day to Maui four afternoons a week, starting May 9.

I loved the optimism (delusion?) expressed by Terry O’Halloran, HSF’s director of business development:

O'Halloran said the company hopes to reach its projected averages of about 400 passengers and 100 vehicles per trip soon. The Alakai can carry 866 people and 282 compact cars.

"That is what we're projecting once we get ramped up," he said. "We're not there yet but the bookings are strong and increasing daily."

When you figure they had just 35 cars and 77 people making the trip from Oahu last Monday, they’ve got a ways to go.

The same could be said for those of us seeking recognition of Hawaii's independence, but I was heartened by “an open letter to the US left from the Hawaiian sovereignty movement” that appeared in The Nation and was distributed by LightLine.

Authored by such independence heavyweights as Ikaika Hussey, Kekuni Blaisdell, Andre Perez, Kelii "Skippy" Ioane and Kauai’s own Kai'opua Fyfe, among others, it spreads a message that is rarely addressed by the mainland media, even in progressive periodicals:

The confluence of two forces -- a massive military expansion in Hawai'i and Congressional legislation [the Akaka bill] that will stymie the Kanaka Maoli [Native Hawaiian] sovereignty movement -- will expand and consolidate the use of Hawai'i for US empire. We are calling on the US left to join our movement opposing these threats and to add our quest for independence as a plank of the broad US left strategy for a nonimperialist America. If you support peace and justice for the United States and the world, please support demilitarization and independence for Hawai'i.”

It’s amazing how few people in Hawaii, much less America and the rest of the world, know the truth about the overthrow, so it’s great to see those who are actually in the movement getting the word out.

While we’re on the topic of getting the word out, Keone Keaaloha and Chris Jaeb of Malama Kauai invited me to be a guest on their KKCR radio show yesterday, along with Juan Wilson of Islandbreath,
to talk about about how to get your message out, especially via digital media.

Afterward, station manager Gwen Palagi came out into the parking lot and introduced herself, and urged me to get involved with news and public affairs programming at the station. I was impressed by her willingness to seek me out, seeing as how I’ve been critical of the station, and I thought it was really nice gesture. So we’ll see. Perhaps I can contribute something to KKCR. Mahalo, Keone, for breaking the ice.