Editorials
Wednesday, August 20, 1997TWO Hawaiian leaders say the state should stay out of the Bishop Estate furor and let the Hawaiian community handle it. Understandably, "Frenchy" DeSoto and Charles Maxwell don't want the Hawaiian community to wash its dirty linen in public. But it is hopelessly unrealistic to think anything would change without a full public airing. Bishop Estate issues
can’t be kept quietThe need for such an airing motivated the five co-authors of the remarkable "Broken Trust" article criticizing the Bishop Estate trustees and the justices of the Hawaii Supreme Court. Four of those co-authors are Hawaiians -- some of the most distinguished members of the Hawaiian community -- and two of them are retired judges. They are anything but outsiders.
DeSoto says, "We need to use our culture to approach the issue rather than make the newspapers all rich." The Star-Bulletin has received many compliments for publishing the "Broken Trust" article and considers it fulfillment of our responsibility as a publication dealing with public issues. These Hawaiian co-authors -- Gladys Brandt, Walter Heen, Charles Kekumano and Samuel King -- know as much as DeSoto about using "our culture" and it was their decision to go public because they knew it was the only way to get results.
Similarly, the alumni and parents of students at the Kamehameha Schools who marched through Honolulu and demonstrated in protest against the policies of the trustees last May are just as Hawaiian as DeSoto and Maxwell, but they felt it was necessary to publicly display their outrage.
Every ethnic group prefers to avoid the embarrassment of a public fight. But there comes a time when the situation has become too serious to keep it quiet any longer. The problems at the Bishop Estate have been simmering for years. They have finally come to a boil because the trustees have arrogantly rejected criticism and acted as if they were accountable to no one.
Bishop Estate Archive
A change in the leadership of the Republican minority in the state House of Representatives is usually not a matter of consuming interest in view of the GOP's failure over many years to capture enough seats to influence the fate of legislation. However, Quentin Kawananakoa's replacement of Gene Ward as Republican leader holds additional interest because both have aspirations to higher office -- the same office, in fact. Republican leadership
THE state of Missouri has terminated its $6 million contract for the housing of prison inmates in Texas because of a videotape showing guards kicking a crawling inmate. The incident raises questions about the degree of oversight of private prison operations by Texas state officials. Hawaii correctional officers should seek assurance about the safety of Hawaii's inmates being held in Texas facilities. Inmates in Texas
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
