Blog Changes

The original www.BeachAccessHawaii.org site is no more, now that the domain registration has expired. I'm sorry to say I don't know if the BAH cause is dead as well. I know people care, but unless someone wants to pick up the ball and run with it, the issue will fade away because I can't continue to do it alone.

Eg., this blog. While attending to my full-time job as producer of a local TV show for OC16 (www.CareerChangers.TV) and blogging for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, I've been remiss in updating the BAH blog. When I returned, lo and behold, Blogger had changed the customized settings... so I had to convert the plain text to this generic template, which is temporary. If anyone would like to take over the BAH blog maintenance and update duties, please contact me. 

But this blog is the least of my worries. The biggest problem is the lack of political will to do anything to protect public beach access. County officials say go bug State legislators or the DLNR. State officials say it's not their problem because anything above the high water mark along shorelines is in the county's domain. Until someone dies due to a locked gate, or a lawsuit is brought against homeowners who deny access through a beach right of away on "private" property, nothing is going to change in Hawaii. More gates will continue to be put up, forcing even more locals to get in their cars and drive to beach parking lots instead of just walking across the street. That will lead to more cars parking on side streets when the lots are full, creating more problems for residents -- all because their wealthier neighbors will not share their beach paths with others.

It's no coincidence that across the country thousands and thousands of people are rising up against the the Greediest Generation, symbolized by Wall Street and politicians who bend over backwards to give out tax breaks to the rich. Fox News keeps calling them the "job creators," yet after more than eight years of Bush tax cuts for those so-called job creators, where are the jobs? You know where their tax savings are going? Yep, they're buying up beachfront properties, renting some of them out as "corporate retreats" or bed and breakfast operations, putting up locked gates and telling longtime residents to go screw themselves.

But here's the thing: no matter how much money they have or how much property they acquire, they are going to die some day. And when they are nothing more than bones or ashes, what we'll remember about those people who locked out their neighbors, is... well, nothing. We'll remember those who showed aloha and welcomed neighbors, instead of treating them like scary boogeymen.