Business group More than 900 members of the Waikiki Improvement Association set aside their scheduled annual luncheon program yesterday to turn it into a time for prayer and remembrance of those touched by Tuesday's terrorist attacks.
salutes Hawaii’s
public safety workers
The Waikiki Improvement Association
changes its agenda to recognize
N.Y. rescue personnelBy Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comOne of the highlights was standing applause for more than 60 Honolulu police, fire and ambulance workers who were invited in recognition of the work they do every day in preserving life and safety, the kind of work that has hundreds of their colleagues working around the clock in New York and Washington, D.C.
Instead of a formal annual meeting with election of officers and a guest speaker, the luncheon at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa did no business but heard words of sympathy, encouragement and aloha and ended with a standing crowd holding hands and joining former Miss Hawaii Kathy Foy in singing "Hawaii Aloha."
The Rev. Frank Chong, whose day job is executive director of the Waikiki Center, started the event with a caution not to respond to evil with more evil. The crowd stood, like others have done across the nation, to sing "God Bless America" and to listen to church bells ringing, broadcast throughout the Hilton property in line with President George W. Bush's call for a national day of prayer and remembrance.
Peter Schall, senior vice president-Hawaii region of Hilton Hotels Corp., said the association made the difficult decision to go ahead with the meeting, for which more than 900 had already made reservations before the Tuesday deaths. The result was an opportunity to come together in a moment of sympathy and aloha, he said.
City Councilman Duke Bainum, whose district includes Waikiki, said he was struck by the "giving of aloha" in Hawaii after the catastrophe, including the rush to donate blood. He said the tourist industry showed its aloha by the granting of "compassion" discount hotel rates to visitors who couldn't get home and by workers' patience with stressed-out travelers.
City Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura told the meeting that faced with a disaster that words can hardly describe, Americans are showing their resolve. "Once again we have seen how the very worst in some people brings out the very best in others," he said.
Mayor Jeremy Harris, scheduled as the annual meeting's guest speaker to talk about changes in Waikiki, talked instead about how the disaster makes it a time to reflect and tell those we love that we love them. "I think it's very symbolic that so many people showed up for today's event to pause and reflect on what America is all about," Harris said.
The terrorists made a huge mistake, he said, by not understanding that "America's strength doesn't come from its big buildings" but from the resolve of its people.
