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Changing Hawaii
ON Tuesday, a 6-year-old boy in Mount Morris Township, Mich., brought a gun to school, pulled it out in a classroom and shot to death a fellow first-grader named Kayla Rolland. A revelation while
reading out loud to childrenWhat is this world coming to, I thought morosely, sitting on the front lawn of Washington Place yesterday morning.
As one of 120 "celebrity readers" invited by the Hawaii State Teachers Association to its third annual "Green Eggs and Ham Sandwich Readalong" to cultivate love of reading, I'm sprawled on a rolled-out beach mat and impatiently awaiting my audience.
Finally, they arrived -- the 8- and 9-year-old students from Gus Webling Elementary in Halawa Heights!
They were from Mrs. Lani Katsura's third-grade class, to be specific, and a spiffier, cuter bunch simply can't exist.
Sharing my mat, book and enthusiasm for the printed word were Dana Aguilar, Jacob Arakawa, Destry Chun-O'Brian, Dominick Corelli, Chante Higa-Lingard, Elliot Johnson, Karly Kunieda, Chelsie Milikaa, Shaun Miyashiro, Suzanne Pak, Tiare Saito, Christopher Teasley, Sarah Toleafoa, Alan "A.J." Yee and Kimi Young.
They were remarkably attentive and alert, considering the hot Hawaiian sun, noisy traffic on Beretania Street and competing voices of other enthusiastic readers.
Donning my towering, red-and-white-striped, "Cat In The Hat" stove-pipe hat to get into the "Green Eggs and Ham" spirit, I introduced my selected tome, "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein (Harper Collins, 1964).
It's the simple but profound story of a young boy who befriends an apple tree. As he grows older, though, he begins to ask more and more from the tree, which happily complies.
At its finale, the poor tree is without fruit, branches and even most of its trunk when the boy, now an aged man, returns for one last reunion.
The surprise ending proves that it is, indeed, "a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return," as the book jacket says.
To their credit, all of the Webling kids "got it."
They understood the implicit message that, even though the boy seemed unrelenting in his demands, he was finally appreciative of all he had received from the selfless tree, which relished the opportunity to share. It was a mutually enriching relationship.
AND that's when I "got it," too -- the reason this tale was so appropriate on this day, especially in light of the kid-shooting-kid crime on the mainland.
The 6-year-old boy who killed his classmate reportedly had a horrid existence. He lived in a home that neighbors said was rife with drugs, booze and guns. His father was in prison; his mother had been evicted.
Luckier keiki, like my new Webling friends, had much to appreciate -- thanks to caring and conscientious parents, relatives, teachers and friends.
These young, impressionable saplings have been basking in the shade of "The Giving Tree." Consequently, they wouldn't even think of finding a gun, bringing it to school and using it on another human being.
At least one lad in Michigan wasn't as fortunate. Because he hadn't received much, all he has to share was hatred. And a bullet from a .32-caliber semiautomatic.
Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
dchang@starbulletin.com, or by fax at 523-7863.