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The Next Fifty Years Of Hawaii's Statehood
THIS WEEK, our islands will observe Statehood Day in celebration of Hawaii's decision to become a part of the greater ohana of freedom we call these United States of America. In the forty nine years since the fiftieth star was sown to the deep blue fabric of Old Glory, the face of Hawaii has changed from a sparsely populated comma between East and West into the Pacific Ocean’s exclamation point for urban development. We have developed new attitudes, new traditions, and new lifestyles. We have solved problems through our great innovation, but we have also met challenges which require the collective pull of our entire community to solve. The next fifty years of Hawaii will be determined by the decisions we make today. We need more than just strong elected leaders; we need strong mothers and fathers, strong sisters and strong brothers, strong friends and strong neighbors to be willing to make and keep these islands a place we can all call home.
Two generations ago, our forebears understood that having a home meant building one with your own hands. They were a tough generation who came to Hawaii as immigrants and expatriates, some of whom, like my grandfather Pablito “Paul” de Gracia, struggled to the point of death in building the foundation that would later become our present day. They labored in the fields, enlisted to fight in the Second World War, and above all else, said that sacrifice was something they weren’t afraid to do, and do gladly. It was that generation that gave birth to men like Ellison Onizuka who was born on July 24, 1946 in Kona and became an Eagle Scout and a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force who dreamed of landing on the Moon, but whose life was cut short when the STS-51-L flight of the Shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986. That generation, which has often been called the greatest generation, understood that parents were responsible for children, that a man’s word should be kept even when it hurts, and that love overcomes all odds.
Somewhere in passing the torch from one generation to another, we became complacent in the way we felt about ourselves and our aina. We decided to place our trust in leaders rather than in the confidence that comes from working with our hands, working with our neighbors, and working with the knowledge that God is not indifferent towards Hawaii. We focused on our differences more than our similarities, we let our fears dictate our destiny, and we said that government was better than our hearts in showing us the way we ought to go. And so, today, in August 2008, we find ourselves living in a state where racial tension boils beneath the surface, where opportunity for growth is turned into occasion for unrest, and where there is scarcely a thing under the tropical sun that is not regulated, legislated, or taxed.
It’s time, my friends, to take back control. One of the reasons I support a Constitutional Convention is it gives people who care the chance to come together and start working together again. It’s time for the people of Hawaii to sit down with each other and have a real dialogue over what matters most: their future. I believe that less government and more community conscience – along with the social and personal responsibility it brings – is the key to building a future we can all live together in prosperity and agreement with one another in. James Madison said that justice is the end of government – meaning, as those of us who study the Bible and believe in Jesus Christ know, that righteousness, mercy, and love is the end of the law. In that same Bible, God prefaces the promise of blessing and restoration with the words “if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways”.
It’s up to us to make those steps to say that we, not government, can be the driving force in changing Hawaii. It’s up to us to say that we are not ashamed to say that we love our children and their future too much to not pray for them. It’s up to us to stop complaining together and start working together again. Can we do it? Can the next fifty years of statehood be better than the last? That’s a question whose answer starts with you and me.
Two generations ago, our forebears understood that having a home meant building one with your own hands. They were a tough generation who came to Hawaii as immigrants and expatriates, some of whom, like my grandfather Pablito “Paul” de Gracia, struggled to the point of death in building the foundation that would later become our present day. They labored in the fields, enlisted to fight in the Second World War, and above all else, said that sacrifice was something they weren’t afraid to do, and do gladly. It was that generation that gave birth to men like Ellison Onizuka who was born on July 24, 1946 in Kona and became an Eagle Scout and a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force who dreamed of landing on the Moon, but whose life was cut short when the STS-51-L flight of the Shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986. That generation, which has often been called the greatest generation, understood that parents were responsible for children, that a man’s word should be kept even when it hurts, and that love overcomes all odds.
Somewhere in passing the torch from one generation to another, we became complacent in the way we felt about ourselves and our aina. We decided to place our trust in leaders rather than in the confidence that comes from working with our hands, working with our neighbors, and working with the knowledge that God is not indifferent towards Hawaii. We focused on our differences more than our similarities, we let our fears dictate our destiny, and we said that government was better than our hearts in showing us the way we ought to go. And so, today, in August 2008, we find ourselves living in a state where racial tension boils beneath the surface, where opportunity for growth is turned into occasion for unrest, and where there is scarcely a thing under the tropical sun that is not regulated, legislated, or taxed.
It’s time, my friends, to take back control. One of the reasons I support a Constitutional Convention is it gives people who care the chance to come together and start working together again. It’s time for the people of Hawaii to sit down with each other and have a real dialogue over what matters most: their future. I believe that less government and more community conscience – along with the social and personal responsibility it brings – is the key to building a future we can all live together in prosperity and agreement with one another in. James Madison said that justice is the end of government – meaning, as those of us who study the Bible and believe in Jesus Christ know, that righteousness, mercy, and love is the end of the law. In that same Bible, God prefaces the promise of blessing and restoration with the words “if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways”.
It’s up to us to make those steps to say that we, not government, can be the driving force in changing Hawaii. It’s up to us to say that we are not ashamed to say that we love our children and their future too much to not pray for them. It’s up to us to stop complaining together and start working together again. Can we do it? Can the next fifty years of statehood be better than the last? That’s a question whose answer starts with you and me.
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