ECONOMY DRIVING AWAY HAWAIIANS AND THEIR ALOHA
The Maui News
Friday, May 14, 2004
Unless we immediately find a way to preserve and help the Hawaiians the tourism industry will soon find aloha harder to sell.
With the cost of homes soaring into the millions and thousands of Hawaiian families being forced to move to the Mainland, we are depleting our greatest natural resource for aloha.
Regardless of myopic rationalization by evolutionists that Hawaiians were just lucky they got here first, the place we live and the reason we love it is Hawaiian.
As Hawaiians lose their young to hopelessness and despair and moving away, aloha is in
trouble. The Hawaiians who grow up angry all go to prison, and the poor wind up living on the beach until we roust them.
Those of you who found no problem in plopping $100,000 or more down on a home just to resell it - including brokers who buy their listings - are adding to the problem if you don't reach out and help others who can't. Homeowners who recently sold their $200,000 to $300,000 homes for $650,000 and up then couldn't afford a new house
payment because everyone played the same greed-guided game know what I'm writing about.
Hawaiians ought to run for the Maui County Council seats and the Legislature, and we should support them in that effort. Mayors and governors ought to appoint more Hawaiians to government posts. Greed, selfishness, nepotism and a lust for control are not your friends.
David Paul St. John
Kihei
