Molokai Mana`o

I offer my humble mana`o in response to your invitation to “work with you” from the Dispatch article on Nov. 9. I rate the Dispatch a “9” because I realize how much effort goes into your community spirited endeavor, however, all human endeavors can be improved so a “10” would be inappropriate.   Your newspaper provides our community with news and events that we would not get other than through word of mouth.  Mahalo Dispatch for giving us more accurate information than through the “coconut wireless.

While the Dispatch attempts to offer the pros and cons of controversial issues, the minority voice is frequent, loud and clear while the silent majority occasionally and fearfully speaks in subdued and veiled messages.

Growing up on Molokai in the 1940s to 1960s gives me a somewhat different view of problems being dealt with today. Our kupuna were very close to the aina they tended but their lifestyle was not the flamboyant one we see today.  As a child I recall very few large luau anywhere near the magnitude of the numerous parties held today in celebration of birthdays, weddings and graduations.  Could we be guilty of stressing our own resources by taking from the sea huge amounts of food just to stage these parties?  Is it OK for us to overfish but not the “outsiders?”

The trash I pick alongside the road as I take my daily exercise is put there by our own locals, not the tourists.  Our island is supported by numerous government subsidized programs that employ, rent and purchase from us, and lucky for you if you can tap this resource.  Therefore, when something is asked of us can we at least be civil and fair in our assessment of the proposal?  I think my kupuna from the 1940s and 1950s would not get hung up on protocol because my gut feeling is that my kupuna would have been wiser in determining their priorities and what is truly important and vital to their lifestyle. They would have saved their energiesfor the real problems, not manufactured ones.  Why are yachts and windmills all we read about while our huge drug problem stays under the wire? 

How awesome it would have been if the front page photo of residents protesting a passenger yacht showed them boycotting drugs instead.  Put your energies into the real problems.

With sincerity and aloha,
Maile Goo