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Under the Sun Cynthia Oi |
Kahoolawe sparked
a new Hawaiian visionI DON'T recall the exact words exchanged, but I remember clearly that Walter Ritte wasn't happy with the Star-Bulletin. I was working the city desk back then and Ritte, one of the founders of Protect Kahoolawe Ohana, had a beef with coverage of an event, and wanted to give an editor his point of view.
It was one of many conversations I would have with Ritte over the years and, like a lot of them, it wasn't altogether pleasant -- for either of us. It was a time when newly awakened sensibilities ran hot about the continuing desecration of an island Hawaiians held sacred.
A co-worker, who'd first fielded the phone call and so had borne the brunt of Ritte's indignation, was himself upset and declared that the Ohana's mission was hopeless, that the group would never get the military to stop bombing Kahoolawe and that the U.S. government would never relinquish its hold.
In 1990, President Bush I directed the military to stop using the island as a target range.
Today the Ohana and others will celebrate the transfer of Kahoolawe from the Navy to the state. Sometime in the future it will be turned over to a sovereign Hawaiian entity.
In January 1976, when the Ohana began its first occupation of the island, I was still living on the East Coast. I hadn't come home during the years after college graduation, and getting news about Hawaii meant going to New York City to buy a weeks-old copy of the Star-Bulletin in the "international" section of a newsstand in Times Square. (Yes, children, there was a time when the Internet did not exist.) So seven months later, when I stepped off the plane, I was astonished by the changes in the visual and political landscape of Hawaii.
Student activism had evolved. People were examining and debating all sorts of issues -- resort and housing development, land and water use, shoreline and mountain access.
Hawaiians were resisting the inundation of their cultural practices and their lands in the amalgam of America. Recovery of Kahoolawe became an objective and an emblem of their struggle.
Along the way, they would lose some pioneers, among them George Helm and Kimo Mitchell, who disappeared in 1977 while trying to rescue their friends from the island. But despite all odds, the Ohana and other Hawaiian groups have succeeded in regaining Kahoolawe. It is just a first step.
The island, abused by ranching before the bombs fell, is largely barren and gets little moisture. The Navy and the federal government will leave the land still tainted with unexploded ordnance and other debris. It will be decades before it can be restored.
It is against this background that Hawaii must consider whether such activity is suitable as the Army proposes a Stryker brigade to be based here.
On Oahu, about 1,400 acres would be added to the 27,000-acre Schofield Barracks for three live-fire ranges and facilities. On the Big Island, the Army would buy 23,000 acres from Parker Ranch to be incorporated into the more than 100,000 acres at Pohakuloa. On these lands are about 500 cultural sites, including a heiau in Kahuku and a cave believed to have been inhabited by ancient Hawaiians.
Some people see the brigade as another economic reward military presence brings to Hawaii. But the trade-off will be degradation of our scarce land resources. Ranch acreage is by no means pristine and its owners should be free to do what they want with their holdings, but what will be the value of the land when the Army abandons it, either by choice or by political necessity?
There are a lot of other places in the United States with abundant vacant land, but it seems like Hawaii's geographic isolation and history of being a military outpost unduly tags it for destructive uses.
I'll probably get phone calls questioning my patriotism and my knowledge of military strategy. I don't think Walter Ritte will call. He, the Ohana and others who have joined their mission are probably much too busy with the diverse efforts their spirited cause has sparked. Good for them.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Cynthia Oi has been on the staff of the Star-Bulletin since 1976. She can be reached at: coi@starbulletin.com.
