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Changing Hawaii

By Diane Yukihiro Chang

Saturday, March 10, 2001

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Apologies, all around

CMDR. Scott Waddle has finally apologized to the relatives of the missing men in the Ehime Maru catastrophe. That's all they ever wanted, really. Instead, the families were long denied the one thing they truly coveted: a face-to-face encounter with the man they hold responsible for the fatal accident involving a U.S. nuclear submarine and a fishing/teaching vessel from Uwajima, now lying at the bottom of the sea.

Apologies are very important in the Japanese culture and rightly so. Quite often they are the most appropriate method of managing delicate day-to-day relationships.

When you screw up, what better way to make amends than to express profound, immediate regret? It's better than offering excuses, saying nothing or steadfastly denying it until you get busted.

If only some people in Hawaii would take that lesson to heart. Wouldn't it be swell if we got an apology from:

The Senate for reneging on its planned state income tax cut, which means its majority is in favor of raising taxes on island residents. Yet, why are we surprised? The state Legislature rarely supports returning money to the folks feeding government's coffers, because lawmakers mistakenly think they know better how to spend our dough than we do.

The driver who hit Theron "Keoki" Nicodemus as he was riding his bicycle in Ewa Beach earlier this week, who then sped away without rendering help. The 21-year-old later died from severe head and body injuries. A suspect has surrendered to police. Whoever did it should save themselves from an excruciating existence filled with guilt and regret.

Gary Rodrigues of the United Public Workers, who regularly vilified Ian Lind, me and others in this newsroom via the pages of the UPW newsletter. He called us the Pilau Bulletin and Pilau journalists because we ran stories about his questionable performance as a union leader. Well! Guess it's too much to ask for an immediate apology, though, since he's kind of busy these days -- under federal indictment for fraud, embezzlement and money laundering.

That's OK. I can wait.

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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.