Christmas is coming up and we’re going to find out who’s naughty and nice.
The nice ones get candy in their stockings and the bad ones get sticks and coal, in Hawaii we might replace coal with dirt clods, but you get the idea.
I have an insider up at Santa’s Workshop. An elf who shall remain nameless faxes me the stocking report ahead of time. I actually know who gets the candy and who gets the sticks.
Now, I’ll tell you. Starting with the naughty ones.
Billy Kenoi will get coal in his stocking. We all know why. He will also get a new bike and surfboard for Christmas paid for by taxpayers.
Next is Councilwoman Valerie Poindexter, who helped uproot the most beautiful spot in all of Hawaii Island, Kukuihaele Park, by championing its reconstruction. The next one is the Big Island Humane Society for reportedly using emails for a smear campaign against fellow dog rescuers, both of whom are in the middle of a lawsuit.
And the last naughty one is HELCO, for making everyone’s electric bill almost $500 a month and then asking for a rate hike! They do not make stockings big enough for the ton of coal they will get.
And now for the nice ones.
Margaret Wille’s stocking will be filled with candy bars for improving the quality of life on our island, standing up for the aina.
Paul Streiter, The owner of Jackie Rey’s Restaurant, and Salvation Army volunteers will get stockings full of candy. For nine years on Thanksgiving they have fed the hungry in Kona. This year they gave out 422 meals to feed 850 people.
They got the idea from Jesus.
And the Ala Kahakai Trail Association, for saving paradise. They are group from Kohala that has secured the protection of 10 miles of Kohala shoreline, an area called Kaiholena. It will be untouched and open forever, Mahalo to them, they deserve a stocking full of chocolate for sure.
For the same reasons, Pohaku Dedman and the Hawaiians standing up against the TMT will get chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. Along with Koohan Paik, who made a brave stand against the bulldozers digging up her Kukuihaele.
These nice ones would gladly pour all their candy into the stocking of a woman in Honaunau who showed forgiveness beyond this world. She turns Christmas into something true to its core.
Her name is Julie Kaaloa.
A careless driver hit her daughter, Ulu, and she was taken away forever. A tragic incident that would make most us hate the one who did it.
When Julie Kaaloa recounted when she saw the man who was driving the car that took her sweet daughter she said, “I would like to give him a hug, I cannot imagine how he feels being responsible for taking the life of a little girl, I should have went and gave him a hug.”
There’s not enough candy in the world.
Mele Kalikimaka everyone.
Dennis Gregory is an artist, teacher and writer who mixes truth, humor and aloha in his biweekly opinion column for West Hawaii Today. He can be reached at makewavess@yahoo.com.