Mason Kaawa-Loa, known going forward as MK-L, congratulations on your team’s recent win, I’m sure that is more paramount in your thinking and less so all the publicity around your appearance on the front page of WHT. ADVERTISING Mason Kaawa-Loa,
Mason Kaawa-Loa, known going forward as MK-L, congratulations on your team’s recent win, I’m sure that is more paramount in your thinking and less so all the publicity around your appearance on the front page of WHT.
God Bless the fact that in spite of America you have been gifted with critical thinking and the courage to express those thoughts through yours actions. A gift from your ancestors, no doubt.
Recently, Mr. John Rabi wrote that “I feel sorry for Mason Kaawa-Loa and the likes not realizing protesting the past is worthless.” He goes on to say that “I defected from a former communist country, and while I know there is no perfect place in the world, the USA is clearly above them all.”
Sorry, by definition, is “grieved for the loss of some good.”
I feel sorry for Mr. Rabi, who chose to flee his country rather than to stay there and stand up and fight for that “perfect place” he may have been seeking when he defected. Comparing America to a communist past does not compute with a Native Hawaiian view. It matters less what Mr. Rabi thinks about what America is or should be, it’s more about what America is for those who are its first people.
MK-L is doing that and Mr. Rabi surmises that MK-L’s “and the likes” efforts are worthless. In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” a white jury convicts an innocent black defendant of a crime he did not commit and whose only “crime” was to feel sorry or take pity on a white person.
When my daughter entered Boston College we were approached by a student organization named AHANA (African, Hispanic, Asian, Native American). I thought how appropriate, my daughter is all of those, maybe she should join. In truth she is all of the above except Native American, she is Kanaka Maoli. AHANA was there as a puuhonua for non-white students.
So fast forward to today. Mr. Rabi offers that America is that puuhonua. Neither AHANA nor America is a solution. We all know that anthems, particularly the USA national anthem, are merely religious oratory where in the words evoke some patriotism inspired by religious rhetoric. Like Jesus crucified on the cross, redemption lies in the personal actions one takes when one is redeemed by the truth and not whether one knows the words to a song.
When will you learn to sheath your swords of spite long enough to hear the voices of those you have smote?
And the Gospel according to Charles: No lie, no cheat, no steal. No sing off key.
Charles Young is a resident of Honaunau
