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Changing Hawaii
WAS growing up in Manoa truly idyllic for this valley girl, or does it only seem so now? Back then, people didn't lock up, whether they were home or away. This made it easier when neighbors wanted to leave fruits, vegetables or flowers from their gardens inside your doorway, or were nice enough to take in the newspaper for you when it started to rain. Thugs are changing
the way we liveIn those days, the elderly were revered, not preyed upon, and everyone assumed that strangers walking the block were either exercising or admiring the neighborhood.
Today, such trust is dead. Long live paranoia.
Since the beginning of the month, four brazen home-invasion robberies have been reported on Oahu -- two in Manoa. All targeted women victims. The daily newspaper is starting to look like Al Capone's to-do list:
In the past, hooligans would wait until a house was empty before breaking in. Now, they want the occupant, preferably female, present. That way they can interrogate her to find out where the cash and good jewelry are hidden.July 4, armed intruder robs 83-year-old Makiki woman.
The suspect in the July 8 heist ordered the older victim to slip the diamond ring from her finger or he'd cut it off. He also joked that the family should get a better security alarm system.
Feel pretty brave with a gun in your hand, huh, punk?
Maybe hoodlums like these shouldn't be charged with burglary, armed robbery or kidnapping. They should be accused of murder, because something inside us dies when we read about home-invasion robberies like the four in the past three weeks.
SLAIN is our ability to give strangers the benefit of the doubt, for one thing. Everyone unknown to us suddenly falls into the category of suspicious character intent on mischief, or worse.
Windows and doors must now be tightly shut and bolted -- even when we're home. Our former openness to new folks and experiences must be closed up, for fear of getting burned.
When someone comes to call, we can no longer trust that he's truly from the phone company, termite inspection firm or other legitimate business. Instead, we must demand to see an official picture I.D.
We install more and more sophisticated home-security systems and alarms, buy noisy guard dogs and install ornamental wrought-iron bars over the glass louvers that we once always left open to let in the trade winds.
In turn, the bad guys become increasingly daring, devious and desperate to thwart our self-protection efforts.
Most disturbing is when we reminisce -- telling our kids that, not too long ago, we never locked our doors or distrusted people or worried about crime coming a-knocking. Our children, bless their hearts, listen and nod, although they absolutely cannot relate.
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.