STRANGERS IN OUR OWN LAND
The Maui News - Saturday, August 20, 2005
WAILUKU - With the Hawaiian flag flying upside down in a show of distress as the rains fell, the so-called "celebration" of 46 years of statehood for the islands on Friday was more of a somber gray than red, white and blue....
Cloaked in a red kihei, [Native Hawaiian cultural specialist Charles Kauluwehi] Maxwell recalled the day when he heard the news that the territory of Hawai`i was now a state.
"My father broke down in tears and said, 'We have lost Hawai`i forever as we know it, and it will never be the same,' " said Maxwell.
He then began to recite a list of some of the changes that have taken place since statehood opened the doors to tourism and a boom of transplants from the Mainland: less ocean and mountain access; million-dollar homes in gated communities where Hawaiians used to fish and camp; more traffic; big box stores replacing mom-and-pop businesses; and wealthy gentlemen farmers buying up former sugar cane lands.
"Today in 2005, my father's words ring loudly," said Maxwell. "We are strangers in our own land...."
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