I have decided to support certain candidates running for election this year, and this poses a conflict of interest here on the blog. This is fair. And it's time for me to take a break from this...

Although before my "break" begins, you may want to watch "Insights" on PBS tomorrow night (February 4th):

A diverse panel including State Attorney General Mark Bennett, The Honorable Walter Heen - OHA Trustee, and Jonathan Osorio, Ph.D - Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at UH gathers to discuss the Akaka Bill. Panel members represent opinions from those who are for the bill, against the bill, and still in between. Join in for this discussion about where the bill stands, proposed amendments, and predictions for the future of the bill. Contributing editor Howard Dicus files his weekly "Everybody's Business" report on the state of Hawaii's economy and places the show's topic in an economic context.

http://www.pbshawaii.org/ourproductions/insight.php

Being my last blog post, I think I've earned the right to say what I really think. I think in the process of raising a nation, our Hawaiian leaders and administrators have forgotten that our nation was always about people first. As a people, we are entitled to better leaders than the ones we have right now, and I'm tired of having the pay such close attention to their follies. It's very sad to watch; it's even harder to watch its impact on my people. I have always enjoyed being around my people, on the land, more than anything. I look forward to getting back to that.

We have extraordinary people in the Hawaiian community, I would love to see them step into leadership positions. Our community needs it.

I don't know what happens to the blog. There is some effort to find someone to take it over, I will not be involved in that process.

I am thankful to all of you who read this blog. It never ceased to amaze me that people actually read this. I don't find myself that interesting. I am just someone who loves people and loves her culture. I am someone who believe that Hawai`i has something special to share with the world. I love "aloha" - because I believe it is a way of life that can make the world just, peaceful, and sustainable. I believe it is an extraorindary gift from the Hawaiian people to the world. All I ever sought to do was to encourage people, all people, to live aloha.

So since I started this as a way to celebrate the Hawaiian community, I thought I would end the same way. There were a lot of wonderful things I never got to write about, so here are two (of the many) that deserve mention:

First, I am a member of `Ahahui Ka`ahumanu. There are fews things in life I have found to be as wonderful or meaningful. I was brought in by my beloved Aunty Nickie only to discover my great-grandmother (my "Puna") had been a member. The `Ahahui has pledged $50,000 to Hawaiian Hall at Bishop Museum for the Ka`ahumanu case on the third floor, or Wao Lani. I think this is a beautiful gift to give the museum, Hawai`i and the many visitors to enjoy the hall. For 105 years, we have dedicated ourselves to honoring our Hawaiian history, this gift demonstrates the depth of our dedication. I am so proud and honored to be a member of this organization.

Second, I am copying a message that went out to the Civic Clubs earlier this week. Diabetes is a serious disease that impacts too many of our family members. I didn't know Kaho`onei well, but this blog was never about me, so I find it appropriate to end with someone's call to honor her friend.

Aloha mai, kakou

Me ke aloha,
Leimomi and Vicky

Click here to visit Vicky's personal page.If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR/StepOut/StepOut480018010?px=5619985&pg=personal&fr_id=7072&et=h5gAohXtSX_OcxzA7hOPwg..&s_tafId=337156

Click here to view the team page for Team Kaho'onei. Then click on JOIN TEAM at the bottom. Be sure to provide your email address after the contactinformation section so you can use the online fund-raising tools.
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR/StepOut/StepOut480018010?team_id=451149&pg=team&fr_id=7072&et=yPh89bm4Gj04KXfewfD20A..&s_tafId=337156

It effectively reflected the reality: there is no money.

Senate President Colleen Hanabusa said in her opening remarks:

"Now is the time to prove that we have our priorities in order, that we reflect the values that have made Hawaii special, and that we possess the political will and leadership skills to work past the bad facts to good solutions."

I think we are in universal agreement that the facts are bad. In fact, I'm pretty sure we leapt over the "bad" threshold about six months ago.

The question now: what are the good solutions?

The solution is to find ways to stimulate economic growth. Reconsider existing GET exemptions. Streamline regulatory processes so new projects can begin in a timely manner. Make ourselves eligible for as much external funding as possible.

This is the year for people to learn about the state budget. It's not like the state has a giant vault of gold bullion it can just distribute at its whim. There are many different colors of money. Now's the time for the public to education itself about that reality.

It is particularly important to understand about federally designated funds. In short: you use them or you lose them. And they need to be used as designated. It's not like you can take money given from the federal government to build a highway and then decide to use it for a school.

So we need to think about the importance of capital improvement projects and the legislative process. Good projects will bring in money from external sources. It is critical to get these dollars into the state. This will lead to employment, tax revenues, spending, economic growth and stability for families - this is partially how we will find our way out of our budget problems and generate the funds needed to take care of schools and other public services.

It's not glamorous, and I appreciate that opening day reflected this. This job ahead is hard. There are complicated and tough decisions ahead. It will be a slow, hard, detailed process. We need to be grateful to those taking it on this session.

We slept as much as two kids can sleep in the back of a station wagon with its 1980s shock system. We would get to Manoa, only to be carried up the stairs of my grandparents' house by my grandpa, where we would sleep a little more. So breakfast and getting ready for school was always done with my grandparents. Same with afterschool activities. We spent it with our grandparents in Manoa. Manoa was home.

Mom would come get us after work, and off would we drive, again in endless traffic to Mililani. Eventually, we would just stay in Manoa.

I realize now how much traffic impacted our lives. While it gave us priceless time and years with my grandparents in Manoa, it denied us family time with our own parents. It changed our quality of life. All due to traffic and that painful commute.

Rail is not about architecture to me, nor is it about unions. It's not that the minute details being debated aren't important, it's just that they're the sort of details that a community will never have complete consensus on. They're meant to delay the project, and that will only hurt people.

Rail is about giving generations of Hawai`i residents more time with their families by saving them time on the road. It's about improving the quality of lives for people in Central and Leeward O`ahu, and those of us who live in town need to give these communities those opportunities. We need to start behaving like an island community, and that means the entire island. Rail is about giving families more time to sit down together at breakfast or in the evenings. Something so simple, but something those of us who live in town probably don't even think about and have taken for granted for years.

I am confident that better communication about rail is coming. I feel that the information getting to the public doesn't always reflect what a good project this is, because rail is a good project.

There are politics, yes. But at the end of the day, we must put politics aside and help families, not hurt them.

Rail will help families. Start the project now.

I'm not that interesting a human being; I'm certainly not one deserving of much attention. I love farmers' markets, acai bowls and bookstores. I was blessed with a great family, strong community and big brain.

I believe firmly in community. I love Hawai`i. I love the fact that everywhere I go, I know somebody or am related to somebody. We are an island community. We are always so much smaller than we realize. You just never know who you'll get seated next to at the sushi bar.

This "island living" demands a certain code of conduct - that we treat each other we a certain level of civility and respect. It's an acknoledgement of the reality that on an island, we just can't escape one another, and there is a quiet, constant understanding (especially in the wake of things like the Haiti tragedy) that in times of hardship, we will need one another.

It works for us. It's who we are.

So when we do engage in politics, it is understood in our local community that we do so within this unspoken code of conduct. We behave with civility. We remember that at the end of the day we all need to live here together, above all else, we don't attack each other's famiies.

I have always encouraged lively debate on this blog, perhaps more than I should have. I have been disappointed at times to see how the discussions have dissolved into name calling and personal attacks.

They have started to go too far. I will not tolerate personal attacks that involve my family or anyone else's family for that matter.

Comments will be closed until settings on the blog comments are modified such that all comments will be moderated. This was the best solution I could think of to allow the lively debate to continue while ensuring that people and their families are not personally attacked.

My apologies to all for any inconvenience.

2. After the overthrow in 1893, the provisional government/Republic of Hawai`i, and then the US government, systematically instituted laws and policies aimed at forcing Hawaiians off their lands and into poverty, hoping for their eventual complete demise.

3. The entire time, since the overthrow, Hawaiians fought to regain control of their nation and lands while actively maintaining a cultural and political identity; we saw this in the ku`e petitions, the formation of the Royal Benevolent Societies, the formation of the Hawaiian civic clubs and the passage of the Hawaiian Homestead Act.

4. In the 1970s, this movement gained substantial ground with the Hawaiian renaissance movement which included both vital cultural and political arms and resulted in the protection of Kaho`olawe from military bombing, the Hokule`a voyages, and recognition of Hawaiian cultural and political rights and the creation of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in Article XII of the Hawai`i State Constitution and their Native Hawaiian Board of Trustees to be elected by "qualified voters who are Hawaiian" - this Article was ratified by the Constitutional Convention delegates and a majority of the voting public in Hawai`i.

5. Angered by the restoration of Hawaiian rights, a small conservative group, funded largely by the descendants of those who first overthrew the Hawaiian nation, launch a flurry of legal attacks against Hawaiians programs.

6. For many years, their attacks failed, but in 2000, the Supreme Court found in favor of the anti-Hawaiian group in Rice v Cayetano regarding the State Contitution Article that allowed Hawaiians to select the OHA Trustees (that had been ratified by Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian voters) for two reasons: 1) Hawaiians did not have "tribal status" (i.e., federal recognition), and 2) OHA is a state entity and you cannot limit voting in a state election.

7. After Rice, many felt that Hawaiians needed "federal recognition" to protect Hawaiians from future attacks; the Akaka Bill is that federal recognition.

8. Also after Rice, as predicted, the same anti-Hawaiian groups launched even more legal attacks against Hawaiians attempting to end every program, including Kamehameha Schools, OHA and DHHL.

9. The Akaka Bill is an effort to 1) give us "tribal status" to satisfy the missing requirement in the Rice decision, and 2) to create a non-"State" governing entity in which Hawaiians alone could control their own governing body and future.

10. The bill is not perfect, but this is what it is and where it came from (as I understand it).

Hope to see you all tomorrow! I plan to be actively participating in the online debate.

OHA to inform the public about the 'Akaka Bill' via two live television specials on KITV this month

•FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
•January 5, 2010
•Download a PDF version of this release
HONOLULU -- The Office of Hawaiian Affairs will present a series of two live television specials beginning this week to inform the public about the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2009.

Also known as the "Akaka Bill," for its sponsor U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, this important piece of legislation is now before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

"The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has long been in the forefront of supporting a measure that provides a process of federal recognition to Native Hawaiians and OHA will continue that role in support of the Akaka Bill," OHA Chief Executive Officer Clyde Nāmu'o said.

"This is a complicated bill. We want to help both Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike understand what this bill means, answer people's questions, and help everyone prepare for what we believe will be successful passage of this landmark legislation," he added. "OHA stands ready to work with our Hawai'i Congressional Delegation, the Obama Administration, the State of Hawai'i and our Hawaiian community. We appreciate the collective efforts and we look forward to the passage of this long overdue legislation. We are hopeful that the final version of the bill will be one that all parties can move forward with."

OHA will produce two live television specials with community members and legal experts as panelists.

The first show, which will air on Thursday, January 7, at 8 p.m. on KITV, will feature community leaders as panelists including:

•Lilikalā Kame'eleihiwa, Professor with the University of Hawai'i Kamakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies.
•Michael Kahikina, Legislative Chair with Sovereign Councils of Hawaiian Homelands Assembly.
•Robin Danner, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.
•Bruss Keppeler, member of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs.
The second show will broadcast on Thursday, January 14, at 7 p.m. on KITV and will feature the legal implications of the bill before a panel of legal experts. Both shows will also be streamed live on KITV.com.

"We encourage the public to email their questions now to akakabill@oha.org.This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Viewers will also be able to call in their questions on the nights of the shows. We urge everyone to tune in. This will be an opportunity for the community to learn about legislation that has the potential to positively advance the lives of both Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike," Nāmu'o said.

For more information, go to www.OHA.org.

Now, I am not so arrogant as to think on your last night of your vacation here, you would sit around and read my blog (or that you would ever read my blog period for that matter), so I like to think of this as an adult version of a "Dear Santa" letter.

You see, in the "Santa Spectrum," I am still my six year old son who believes in you with great passion and without cynicism. Shirley Chisholm has this wonderful quote that I just love: "I don't measure America by its achievement but by its potential." I believe you can deliver on America's potential.

The reason for this belief is simple: I had to be the most apathetic voter in the world. The voter who muttered while voting each year about voting for "the least stupid." (Yet, I still voted.)

Then you came along, and we have so much in common that it was truly inspiring. I, too, was raised in Manoa by my devoted grandparents. I am a Punahou survivor, which wasn't easy for those of us who looked different in a sea of Caucasian and Asian students. I had parents who sacrificed to give me the best education they could. I choose a career in community over one in law. When you became President, it truly meant that someone like me could become President. That means something in a time when this country is otherwise mired in hardship and despire. It means there is hope.

So I imagine 2009 was quite the year for you: surreal, blessed, overwhelming...

Here are the things I hope you do with 2010:

1. Make it safe to fly.

My son wanted to see snow for his birthday. I won't put my son on an airplane. Call me paranoid; I rather just call me a mom. We're opting for a stay-cation with waterslides instead. I understand that liberties need to be protected, but the most important liberty is life. Life comes first. Protect that first. We must be as zealous in our effort to protect lives as terrorists would are in their efforts to take them.

2. Make us a country all people love.

You've made amazing strides in making us a country the world admires again. Don't stop. We have given the world reasons to hate us. We have done terrible things to countries and their citizens. Only ownership over our mistakes and sincere efforts to rectify them will solve this problem. We must model justice by being just.

3. Create competition for health insurance companies

I know, you just passed the health care bill. Yet, when Rush Limbaugh got up today in Queen's hospital and said "there's nothing wrong with health care in America," I wanted to scream. First, Queen's hospital was founded by King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma during the monarchy, so all their people would have health care. Second, he only got treated there, because he has health insurance. For health care reform to work, health insurance companies need to have competition so their rates are kept low and so we develop a health care industry based on keeping people healthy instead of one banking on keeping them sick.

4. Being the COP to the United States

We pollute too much. You know this. You have a lovely Noble Peace Prize, because you know this. COP16 is in Mexico. COP17 is in South Africa. COP18 is in Asia. Bring COP19 to the United States. Please make China sign a real accord (and while you're at it, sign it as well). Tell China that until they stop destroying the planet, we will stop buying their widgets. We don't have the money to be buying widgets anyway.

5. Be sure to bring our troops home

Those of us who don't like war, we really want you to bring the troops home. I can't imagine it was an easy decision to send additional troops. Don't let it drag out. In and out. Bring them home. Then give them the benefits they need when they get home. Make sure we have jobs waiting for them.

6. Help our farmers

We are a nation built on farmers. It's sad how we have begun to treat farmers. I believe protecting our agricultural industry will be key to our economic recovery, especially since renewable energy projects are well suited for agricultural lands.

7. Don't forget your community roots

You're President, it can't be easy to hang with the people anymore. Yet, I hope you don't forget that community people are rather different from traditional political types. I think as a Native Hawaiian, whose people has critical legislation in D.C. right now, I am rather frustration by the feeling that our advocacy has been co-opted by special interest groups.

8. Bail out families, not corporations

I'm not an economist, but I know we need to figure out how to save jobs and homes without saving "fat cats." Let's please, please, please get rid of "fat cats." We need to reward people who hire and deter employers from firing. We are killing small businesses with things like unemployment taxes. We need to find a way to save small, family businesses and working families.

9. Everyone deserves a great education

We were blessed with a great education at Punahou. Every child should receive such a great education. NCLB does not work; we all know that. We need accountability without creating a system that hinders education. Further, we need to improve the college loan program so students can borrow enough money to go to college, live (and take care of families if they have one), and then have enough time to find a job before having to pay back their loans.

10. Demand greatness

Of yourself, of this country, of those around you... of your legacy. Demand greatness. Achieve America's potential. To hell with the critics. Greatness and history will silence them.

JW Marriott Ihilani Resort and Spa

I also need to say how much I appreciate Ko Olina. They have a fabulous history of hiring local people, particularly people from the Wai`anae Coast. I have found this to be consistently true everytime we have come here. I once even came to write an article on the problems with eco-tourism but came away a convert for Ko Olina. The employees seem to genuinely love working here and feel like they are treated well. It's the reason I continue to come back to Ko Olina.

I am also going to make a pitch for the stay-cation. First, we live in the most beautiful place on earth. And coming to a place like the Ihilani, which I consider one of the best hotels on the island for a variety of reasons (i.e., it's been smoke free for years; it's eco-friendly; the staff are awesome), is truly a delightful little escape without all the hassle of flying. (Which is something, especially if you have kids, that is really a high-point for the stay-cation argument.)

And right now, you simply can't beat the fabulous kama`aina deals going on at these hotels. You need to actually call the hotel and ask for them, but they are great deals!

Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club

I'm just saying that sometimes we forget that paradise is all around us - literally. I hope we all take some time to enjoy it in the new year!

Happy New Year all!!