THERE are thousands of good reasons to vote next week, and I met 770 of them last Thursday at Queen Kaahumanu School. The rambunctious elementary students converged on the campus cafeteria for Community Day '96, a chance to meet their "neighbors" from around the heavily populated Kinau and Pensacola quadrangle. Elementary lesson of
Community DayAdult participants ranged from the ever-impressive men and women in public safety uniforms to government paper-pushers to enterprising entrepreneurs. The children learned that it takes all kinds of folks to keep this town humming. However, elders like me also got a re-education, and were reminded about one reason we were put on this earth.
At Kaahumanu, the microcosm known as Honolulu was tres well represented. The mayor's assistant, Ann Kobayashi, doled out ice cream lollipops, while the governor's chief of staff, Charles Toguchi, dispensed those ubiquitous milk caps. Usually staunch competitors, Aloha and Hawaiian airlines, were seated as close as co-pilots, and a brave salesman from Royal Copenhagen let the keiki handle some delicate and very expensive-looking ceramic artifacts.
Meanwhile, photographer Craig Kojima and I manned (and wo-manned) the Star-Bulletin station. As kids lined up to snap pictures with two of Craig's cameras, I struggled to look dignified in my makeshift dress and sailor's hat made out of old newspapers. I am a ham; a ham I am.
The kiddies laughed at my outfit, but they posed and answered serious questions. My most sobering revelation came after I had asked several of the students what they wanted to be when they grew up. Want to know the most popular response? It wasn't a professional athlete, nor a high-paid fashion model or a movie star. A teacher.
A teacher? At first, I wanted to joke that they should start lobbying Charley Toguchi's boss for a job and a raise.
But then came the realization: Children respect teachers because they are selfless and know a lot. Kids trust big people to enlighten them, to raise them and to turn the world in the right direction. This decision includes who is voted into office, since these policymakers will shape the present and the future.
Next week we select our all-important president, mayor, prosecutor, members of Congress, state legislators, and policymakers on the state Board of Education. They will determine the quality of our public schools and the safety of our streets, among other issues.
It's not like we aren't well acquainted with the stances of the front-runners, given the overdose of TV debates and all of the political propaganda clogging up the mailbox. Citizens have a good idea who can best serve - but the real gamble is whether they will bother voting, or abdicate their responsibility to the next generation.
I forgot about this mandate until coming face-to-face with the future at Queen Kaahumanu School. The pupils parading before us, with smiling faces and trusting countenances, wanted to find out about the community because, in a few years, they are the community, if they decide to stick around at all.
Whether they do stay will be up to the current adults of this state, who can propel the very best or the very worst lawmakers into leadership roles. It's elementary, really: If Hawaii's big people don't care about the outcome of Tuesday's election, a tragic legacy awaits Hawaii's little people. If nobody gives a darn, it's the kids who are damned.