Newspaper Commentary

Hawaii State Capitol

Honolulu Advertiser OPINION PAGE 6 January 2006:

DO 'PEOPLE'S BUSINESS'
LEGISLATURE: TAKE A HIGHER ROAD

By Cloudia Charters

(Editor's note: This is another in a series of letters from previous Advertiser Community Editorial Board members on the 2006 Legislature.)

The beginning of a new legislative season arouses conflicting emotions in many longtime kama'aina.

Distinct pride and expectancy accompany the start of another session of the "people's business." Our best hopes and wishes for this special place, our home, rest with the elected neighbors whom we have supported, believed in and voted for.

Yes, every session begins with hope for the best; but we must be honest enough to admit that Mark Twain's famous remark that no one's livelihood or property are safe while the legislature is in session seems wiser the older we get.
After the election, after the opening session and the singing of Hawai'i Pono'i, most busy citizens turn attention back to their families, occupations and immediate neighborhoods. In other words, we carry on the business of society, while we entrust its management and direction to others. But there is another, larger reason why the average citizen neglects to participate in the process of our government.

It is not apathy, but intelligence. The citizen who cares enough to become involved soon realizes that the high ideals of our democracy, of aloha (or even common sense or the common good), have very little to do with the day-to-day activities of our legislators and government. The average, local private citizen too quickly becomes aware that what is really going on is driven by a schoolyard mentality in which well-organized and well-funded interest groups pay for dueling experts to tout diametrically opposed views on any topic.

Have you been to a public hearing? Many feel that they reek of futility and obfuscation. Over-formal, and too long for time-stressed working parents, they can often degenerate into acrimony and mutual disrespect. Some officials barely hide their contempt for the intelligence of the average attendee, while the citizen participants can become angry, and sometimes rude, at what they see as deception and disinterest on the part of their public employees.

Everyone knows that the real story is about power, relationships and money, clearly not on what is good, right or logical.
Instead of leading toward genuine consensus, our electees feed us what they think we want to hear (expensive consultants advise them) while keeping their motives murky, and everyone feels it.

No wonder gridlock is the result.

And so the same issues come around again and again: education, homelessness, Sandy Beach, Pua'ena, Point Panic (Kaka'ako Waterfront Park) and now Waimea Valley.

No wonder people get cynical and refuse to participate, even by voting, in a system that promises much but fails to provide even basic functions competently.

Well, I have a radical proposal: Let's banish the zealots of all extremes and take back our government. Let's search for the things that we can all agree on and go to work on those.

If the majority of citizens are wrong about something, may we have leaders brave and smart enough to tell us the truth and lead us forward.

Let's truly value dialogue over demonization. Let the selfless sacrifice of our family members and neighbors who are serving in the military inspire and challenge our elected officials.

Let's see some genuineness and urgency in the housing of our most vulnerable at a time when grants for millions of dollars are spent yearly in our Islands supposedly to address this issue.

Most of all, let's use our secret weapon, the greatest resource of our Islands: the people of Hawai'i! Kaulana Na Pua. Our values, courage and hard work are the stuff of legend.

Cloudia Charters is an author, blogger, freelance writer, & UH graduate

© COPYRIGHT 2006 The Honolulu Advertiser

Riding With Dad

Aloha & Welcome to Waikiki! The trade winds are back today.

Bliss!

Today I had to drive out to Mapunapuna and pick Dad up.

“Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!”
William Butler Yeats

A "Funny" guy, he could be stressful to others. But I knew we'd have a lovely ride together.

“I think the thing to do is to enjoy the ride while you're on it.”
Johnny Depp

I loved to see him laugh, and I really enjoyed sharing my town, Honolulu, with this "city boy" from the streets of Philadelphia who had lived on the rural Big Island of Hawaii for years. Here he is with Mom enjoying the Lunar New Year's Lion Dance blessing.

“Love doesn't make the world go 'round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.”
Franklin P. Jones

So I drove out the H-1 this morning and picked him up.

It was a quiet ride. I did most of the talking.

He didn't criticize my driving, or suggest a better route.

He wasn't preoccupied with a list of "things to be done" and "things to worry about."

We stopped at the drive-through at Wendy's, and parked under a tree while I had lunch. He didn't want anything.

I remembered that some of the best times we ever had were in cars, including those diminutive English Fords he used in his route. He drove through the various ethnic neighborhoods of Philly selling dresses, housewares, and small luxuries to housewives on the installment plan. They bought some, they paid some; Poor Italians, Poles, "Negroes" (as polite folks called them then). He knew every corner in our "city of neighborhoods."

And everybody knew my Dad, albeit under a variety of "street names." I remember:

"Johnny the Dress Man."

for one.

Sometimes, like over winter break from school, I'd ride beside him, piled in with all the "merchandise" and all the notebooks, tools, and empty soda bottles that made up his "office."

My schoolmates remained safely in suburban ignorance, but I knew the grit, cobblestones, trolley tracks, corner "tap rooms" (bars/pubs) factories, and older housing stock of the city." I also knew that everyone was not Caucasian.

At Christmas the housewives clucked over me, and fed me cookies from every culinary tradition in town! Not my favorite Chinatown, though, as that was still a mysterious and impenetrable enigma broached only for "Chinese" food (the nectar of urban life!).

When I saw this exact "salesman dad/ride-along-kid" vignette on-screen in the film "Avalon" I felt as though I was watching a home-movie! The time period, and Baltimore row houses were PERFECT!

Later, Dad got up before dawn to deliver fresh-baked Italian Rolls from the Amoroso factory. This was his transitional period. I remember riding in the big truck, and learning how HEAVY bread could be!

"I wake the birds up every morning," He said, and it was true!

A changing society saw America's cities burst into flaming Summer "race" riots.

It was a far cry from my "Martha & The Vandellas (female vandals?) 'Dancing in the Streets' growing-up years. I was SO proud that they sang "Philadelphia PA now" in the list of places where folks were "dancin` in the streets!"

Now, even we no longer felt safe in certain areas.

Yo, Philly!

I'm very glad I knew that vanishing, blue collar city of breweries and lunch buckets before the decay of the 70's, and subsequent gentrification, changed my grandparent's red brick city forever.

So today I ate "street food" in the car like we always did.

Dad didn't mind.

I thought of all these memories, and more.

There was even a tear shed.

Though the Hawaiian music station was playing on the radio, I seemed to hear DooWop being sung by some kids on a corner somewhere.

My Dad, the poor kid from the streets of West Philly (neighborhoods, corners, high schools are important)

awoke his most recent mornings in sparkling Waikiki.

"Not bad for two kids from the city!" He'd tell Mom.

Last Fall, we watched the Phillies (complete with Hawaii player Shane Victorino!) win the World Series from Mom & Dad's "beach apartment."

After the bread, he got into the janitorial business.

Many were the exhausted ultra-early morning, or ultra-late at night, rides we took through our sleeping city together, surrounded by our mops, and rags, and keys. I still have a proprietary love of buildings that Kona couldn't satisfy. Luckily, my Honolulu has a gracious crop of many storeys and vintages!

Often we'd stop somewhere to grab a bite to eat, as today. I thought of all those rides as I ate: rides to school, to hospital, "down the shore" and even college visits. There were tense rides, and fun rides.

Winter & Summer; youth and middle age.

Today I had my last ride with Dad;

Bringing his ashes home to Mom

and to Waikiki. . .

A L O H A! Cloudia

A Tribute to a Business Woman

My Tribute to Mrs. Morita

Mrs. Morita was one of those truly great people that the general public never gets to know and apppreciate. She was a living part of an older Honolulu that fewer and fewer of our neighbors remember. Back then taxi drivers (especially at Charley's) were not immigrants reaching for a dream, they were local folks who knew the town (and people!) "Mango Tree / Mailbox." This haole girl from da east coast cherishes my days as a Charley's driver with great pride. In a very real sense it provided a better education about Our Town than the four years at UH Manoa that the taxi helped to finance. Mrs. Morita, or G-1 as EVERYONE at Charley's called her was not what you might call an "aloha personality" on the surface. She was busy and she accomplished a lot every day. She didn't have patience for sentiment - but she did give a Haole girl, new in town, a chance to work. I will always be grateful for that first REAL job in Honolulu. Years later when I was working at a local foundation, I dropped into the Charley's office (the "New" one on Ala Moana) to thank G-1 for the "leg up" she gave a malihini. You might have thought she'd seen me the day before: She didn't have time to talk story. But that's OK. I think she knew that I was genuinely fond of her and grateful. My grandfather, dead for decades, was a taxi driver. For years after he died we looked under every cab dome for his face out of habit. I have long been in the habit of asking Charley's drivers at red lights or convenience stops: "Hows G-1 doing." They'd smile every time and essentially say that she would live forever. And I will always glance into Like Like diner any morning I pass it at 5 a.m. to see if my boss is in there having miso soup for breakfast. At least in my heart, she will be. Mahalo Boss! Rest in Peace (at last) "April" Taxi 787

Darci Evans
Honolulu, HI
Reply »
Sunday

Thank you for your sharing your memories and the kind sentiments. Much aloha,Darci Evans (G-1's granddaughter)

Dale Evans
Honolulu, HI
Sunday

Cloudia Charters's comments said it all about our mom. Thanks Cloudia.
Dale Gloria Garvey


Kailua, HI
Sunday

Cloudia -- what great memories you have of Mrs. Morita! thanks for sharing them with everyone who loved her.
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1 HELEN HIFUMI MORITA / 1913-2008