Letter of the Week

Your letters continue to make a difference by keeping the issue in the public eye, so keep sending them! This heartfelt message appeared in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin Letters to the Editor on Sat., Nov. 23, 2007 :

"Everyone should have easy beach access"

I am deeply concerned and saddened by the recent Kailua beach access issues. This is, however, no longer an "issue" -- it is a crisis. The State Supreme Court once opined that "the Western concept of exclusivity is not universally applicable in Hawaii." The problems in Kailua lead me to believe that this principal is slowly being eroded.

When beachfront lots were initially offered in Kailua, I, like many Hawaiians, could not afford one. Those who could afford the lots built houses, and many of them let the City and County install and maintain the roads. These communities availed themselves to the benefits of city living (water, sewer, garbage pickup), yet at the same time, they put up locked gates, excluding everyone else from enjoying Hawaii's greatest natural resource -- the beach.

As an octogenarian, I am no longer able to enjoy our beautiful beaches like I did when I was younger. My mo'opuna, and every other resident of Hawaii, are entitled to unencumbered access to our beaches.

Let's re-introduce Rep. Marcus Oshiro's bill to stop the wrongdoing being done to us Hawaiians. Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono (The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness).

Elizabeth Ernst-Heiligman
Kailua

A Letter from the Aluli Family

Ano'ai me ke aloha kakou -- greetings to all gathered.

We are here representing members of the Aluli, Meyer and Souza 'ohana who would like to speak up in the name of kuleana. All of us at one time called Kailua our home. Most of us still call Kailua our home.

We've lived on or close to the ocean in Kailua for over fifty years. As native Hawaiians, our ancestors before us were sustained by the ocean since first coming to these shores thousands of years ago. Access was never an issue, taking care of the kai was.

Because we are a large family -- many of us have different opinions about access to the ocean in today's world. So often people using these accesses do so with no consideration of others, trashing, ignoring and abusing the privilege. At the same time, hostile looks, offensive signs, and locked gates can't be the solution. Is it possible to take a deep breath, have faith in humanity, step back and look at the underpinnings of the issue? Looking through a Hawaiian lens, we believe there is another place to focus. The Hawaiian word is kuleana.

Kuleana is about responsibility, personal responsibility.

We are talking to all of us, all sides of the issue. All parties must be considered, but most of all, our lands and ocean. As the most connected place on earth (we're isolated if you focus on land, but we're the most connected if you focus on ocean) we are a place that can model right behavior. And right behavior over time -- looking seven generations forward and seven generations behind us, how is our behavior holding up to our ancestors and our unborn great grand children?

How do we educate individuals to respect our land and ocean and care for it instead of desecrating it? How do we educate individuals to share something they don't own, but are caretaking for humanity? One idea is to incorporate a Hawaiian way. Actually all root cultures share this sentiment. The land is our Makua, our parent, to Hawaiians, our mother.

How do each of us in this room care for our mothers, or want to be cared for as a parent. We can transform this issue if we shift the focus from the end result, to the root issue. If everyone accepts kuleana for the way we behave and what we model to others and what we teach our children, we can stop the escalation of retaliation and reintroduce kindness and care of place and people.

We know Kailua is changing. Hawai'i is changing. The world is changing. Can we not refocus, recenter and reinvigorate models from the first people that welcomed all of us to these shores? Personal responsibility taken to heart, can transform our community. The change for Kailua can be a place where the continuity of kuleana is internalized and reflected in how we care for our mother -- our land and ocean. Let us forgive each other and try again.

Reprinted with the permission of Maile Meyer, owner of Native Books/Na Mea Hawaii