Do Something Day Day 64 of 2010 301 days left in this year

March 4, 2008: Maui County officials are shown to be criminally negligent in their failure to purchase West Maui watershed. A Wailuku Water Co. official says it has a watershed buyer ready. The private  company’s offer would cut out the county, which was offered the entire 13,000-acre watershed but has not followed up with any proposal to purchase. Read more …

March 4, 1977: The Honolulu newspapers report that two protesters on the island of Kaho’olawe are finally arrested, their names lost in anonymity.  Why the authorities waited for 35 days to arrest them is not explained. Why they were there is old news.

On these pages we have told some of the story of the bombing of the island, its use as a target range, and the now ongoing efforts to clean the land and shoreline of unexploded ordinance. Many Hawaiians hope that Kaho’olawe will be the first island given wholly back to Hawaiians, and that they may re-establish their country once again.

But the road to new statehood will be long and not without detractors, including many Hawaiians themselves. As one Hawaiian in Kahului recently told me, “I like dental care, and a pension and a democracy. I’m not interested in having royalty or ali’i.” Read the rest…