Lepers Banished to Molokai
January 6, 2008 9:08 am > Maui Yesterdays Lepers Banished to Molokai |
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Bean Day
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Mai Lepela: Leprosy HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “The disease that deprives one of relatives and friends.”
January 6th, 1866: The first lepers are forced to move to Molokai.
The history of the Molokai Leper Colony at Kalaupapa causes a confusing and sometimes contradictory understanding of the peninsula. Today, there are people with Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) still living in the colony, even though the disease is curable with antibiotics. The state of Hawaii has pledged to keep the colony open as long as the residents wish to stay, or until the last of them dies.
Such beneficence is a recent phenomenon. The most recent book covering this topic, The Colony, by John Tayman, was met with effusive critical success in book reviews and newspapers across the country, but was not well received in Hawaii. One possible reason: He lays bare the cruel nature of the colony, which was not nescessarily inspired by sadism, as this passage suggests:
“Doctors tried training patients to blink on schedule, using a timer or some other device. The technique worked in some cases, but only if the patient was physically able. Leprosy bacilli also attack the nerve controlling eyelid muscles, creating a condition known as lagophthalmos, in which the person is unable to close the eyelids. In such cases surgeons rigged a thread of muscle from the jaw to the lid, which caused the person to blink as he chewed – doctors then handed them a pack of gum.”
Still, it is true that if a person in Hawaii had leprosy, or was suspected of having leprosy, they were forced to the island of Molokai, taken there in restraints if necessary. Once banished to Kalaupapa, (for decades doctors just didn’t know who to treat it, or what the causes were), medical experiments were routinely performed on patients without their knowledge or consent. In many cases, patients were not told about surgeries they would undergo, nor informed that most were experimental procedures.
By the way, these forced experiments were especially common during Father Damien’s and Mother Marianne Cope’s time. Christianity, it seems, was as misguided as science in this case. Father Damien himself eventually contracted and died of Hansen’s Disease in 1889.
HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY – January 6th
- 1493: The first mass in the “New World” is celebrated in Haiti
- 1496: The Moorish fortress of Alhambra, near Grenada, surrenders to the Christians
- 1540: King Henry VIII of England marries his 4th wife, Anne of Cleves
- 1639: Virginia is first colony to order surplus crops (tobacco) destroyed
- 1759: George Washington & Martha Dandridge Custis are married
- 1838: The first public demonstration of the telegraph is given by Samuel F. B. Morse
- 1907: Maria Montessori founds the first Montessori school in Rome
- 1912: New Mexico becomes the 47th state of the Union
- 1914: The stock brokerage firm of Merrill Lynch is founded
- 1927: U.S. Marines are sent to occupy Nicaragua
- 1950: Britain formally recognizes the Communist government of mainland China
- 1952: The daily comic “Peanuts,” by Charles Schulz, first appears in U.S. newspapers
- 1957: Elvis Presley makes his seventh and final appearance on CBS-TV’s “Ed Sullivan Show”
- 1958: Gibson patents the Flying V Guitar
- 1968: Dr N. E. Shumway performs the first U.S. adult cardiac transplant operation
- 2001: The U.S. Congress formally certifies George W. Bush as the winner of the close and bitterly contested 2000 presidential election (ironically, the losing candidate, Vice President Al Gore, is presiding)
BORN ON THIS DAY – January 6th
- 1367: Richard II, king of England
- 1412: Joan of Arc, martyr
- 1878: Carl Sandburg, poet/biographer
- 1880: Tom Mix, silent screen cowboy actor
- 1882: Samuel Rayburn, speaker of the House
- 1883: Khalil Gibran, mystic poet
- 1913: Loretta Young, actress
- 1914: Danny Thomas, comedian
- 1915: Alan Watts, writer
- 1920: Reverand Sun Myung Moon, evangelist
- 1921: Lou Harris, pollster
- 1924: Earl Scruggs, bluegrass musician
- 1925: John Z DeLorean, auto maker
- 1929: Wilbert Harrison, R & B singer
- 1931: E .L. Doctorow, novelist
- 1941: Sandy Denny, rock vocalist
- 1944: Bonnie Franklin, actress
- 1953: Malcolm Young, guitarist
- 1954: Anthony Minghella, film director
- 1956: Rowan Atkinson, comedian/actor
- 1957: Nancy Lopez Knight, pro golfer
- 1959: Kathy Sledge, vocalist
- 1960: Nigella Lawson, TV chef
- 1960: Howie Long, NFL player, sportscaster
- 1964: Mark O’Toole, bassist/drummer
- 1967: Peter Loran, rock vocalist
- 1968: John Singleton, film director
