Makalahi (wake up) Moloka’i…ho’olu!

Today, I woke up from moehewa (a nightmare).  I dreamed that kaulike (the balance) of prosperity and small town ohana life was gone and we were in horrible desperation; no work to feed our families.  All of this because a self-assigned few people (who love to hear themselves telling stories about how they are looking out for our best interests), had run away almost every employer/business that they decided.

They contest everything that is not their idea.  No moehewa.  It is ‘oia’i’o maoli (the truth and reality).

My parents brought me to Moloka’I long ago, so I’m not really native, or so I have been told, so I generally keep my thoughts to myself…but it is still my home and in my heart.  My family has always feared that I would speak out.  To them, I’m sorry; I love you all too much to stay quiet.

As a keiki, I watched in the 1970’s & ‘80’s as construction was really getting going.  Our island has always been poor by comparison, but the times were much happier.  The oli (chant) even then was to “Stop the building!” or we would lose our pono’I (ourselves).  Every project would have its resistance, then it would be built, and eventually our friends would live or work there and we accepted it as part of our very slow change.

Where on this earth is change (even very slow change) not going to happen?  But here, we are going backward, not carefully controlling growth.

The only thing we have lost in the past 40 years is mana’o (our minds).  Why have we let these self-proclaimed idols destroy our lives?  They have always claimed that they wanted “balance”, but look how lopsided their idea of balance is.  Our island is dying by the hands of those people that we let “save us”.

You would have to be so stupid to wonder why drinking and drugs are killing our keiki.  These idols who are saving us, offer them nothing more.  When you have nothing to look forward to, you think that the possibility of getting arrested for drugs is normal…and when you start thinking like that…well, it’s very sad.  The ‘oia’i’o is that you don’t have to look far on our island to see it is maoli.  In my 40+ years, nothing I have seen nothing destroys and devastates the ohana on Moloka’I faster and more thoroughly, than the lack of the possibility for a future better life.

It’s time that we get a truly balanced group/council to run things.  We need fresh minds…not ones whose objective is always really just their own.  Obviously we can’t make everyone happy…especially these whacko’s that “are saving us”.  But getting jobs and the quality of life going here is better than dying.

Makalahi (wake up) Moloka’i…ho’olu!  We have lost too much to these old idols.  It’s time to move them aside and bring in some real balance.