Hawaii Calling

A   L   O   H   A  !

This curb in Downtown Honolulu on King St was cut from

 the reefs offshore. You can see tiny holes in it. 

(Click to Enlarge) It may well date back

 to Territorial Days, or even further.

" I had to dance topless 

for two years to make cash . . .

 But it was very enlightening. . . 

 I'm talking about

 light from the gutter. "

Susan Powter 

“We are all in the gutter,

 but some of us

 are looking at

 the stars.”

 Oscar Wilde

" Memory... is 

the diary that 

we all carry 

about with us. "

Oscar Wilde 

When Hawaii became the 50th US State

I was in elementary school

 (just barely).

Hawaii called out to me. 

Everything about her

enchanted me. I learned

 a few words of Hawaiian

from the National Geographic.

The islands were a long LONG away

from the snows of Philadelphia.

Sometimes I went with my Dad

driving around the City while he

conducted his business.

Arthur Godfrey's radio show

 was often on the radio,

(he was HUGE then)

with his ukulele's and trademark:

"How Ah Ya, How Ah Ya, How Ah Ya"

Which I heard as "How are You"

and also "Hawaii.."

I think that's what he meant

cause he broadcast from

 Honolulu sometimes.

There was one song I heard on his show

that is forever associated in my soul

with sunny leafy

 Philadelphia childhood 

days in the old Ford 

with my young father.

I had forgotten about that song

but it was not lost forever.

When I moved to Hawaii

I heard the song again!

It is called Kalamaula. Have a Listen-

=^..^=

' Take Peace & Smiles - Leave Your Comment '

Thanks for visiting!

                            Warmly, cloudia

Here is uncle Arthur singing a Hawaiian classic 

about a little shack in Kealakekua Hawaii.

Our first Hawaii home WAS a little coffee shack in KEALAKEKUA!!!!!!

Capitol Walk

Aloha & Welcome to Honolulu

A special place like Hawaii,

 needs a special capitol building,

 or so they believed in the 1960's.

Our capitol is open to the elements,

and to the people. On one side of this

courtyard is the Senate Chamber.

On the other: the House Chamber.

Their outside walls are sloping stone 

representing the volcanoes that are the 

bedrock of these Islands.

Outside, the building is set among pools of water:

the ocean that surrounds us;

 out of which

pillars representing palm trees

 rise to support the roof.

That 'framed' tower is Honolulu Hale,

our City Hall.  It looks Spanish, but is actually

based on a fortified Italian castle.

"The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness"

 our motto.

The Hawaiian Language is our official language along with

English.  Interpreters of many flavors

 make a good living here though,

as we continue to attract folks from all over Asia,

 the Pacific,

and the World!

The offices are upstairs.  Lobbyists, staff, citizens,

 all hang out here by the railings

 where a lot of the REAL business of government is done.

You can see the State Flag

 flying in front of the building

 from these "corridors of power."

And the sky is always looking on,

putting things into perspective.

(one hopes :)

Looking down at the ground level

 yields a nice view of this watery mosaic.

Behind the capitol building,

 is our original government building:

Iolani Palace,

 built by Kalakaua for some three hundred thousand

dollars in the 19th Century.

All Done Up for a Festive Event.

Link to a Royal past and a troubled political history.

<>

A true tale is told (courtesy of the great Glen Grant)

of a government employee

who stayed late one evening

working at the new Capitol.

Her young daughter played in the halls just outside

as they waited for father to come

collect them for the ride home.

All the way home,

the little girl spoke excitedly about

playing with a nice lady

whose arms were draped in lei.

The mother had smelled flowers

& faint cigar smoke. She assumed it 

was a staffer or cleaner the girl spoke of.

Or perhaps it was childish imagination.

Weeks later, when the statue of

 Queen Liliuokalani 

between the two iconic 

buildings was unveiled,

Hawaiians present protested covering

Her neck piece (more HERE)

with lei, and so the statue's arms

were draped in dozens of flowery garlands.

"Mommy! That's the nice lady

who played with me!"

Squealed the little girl.

The Queen has been seen,

 the smell of flowers 

and her favored small cigars

left behind, many times since.

She is still looking out for Her

People.

And besides:

who would really want to leave

this fragrant & magic land?

As yesterday was King Kalakaua's 174th birthday,

Hawaii National Guard Soldiers acting as ceremonial

Royal Guards stood sentry at the palace gates.

The past lives here!

“May the dreams of your past

 be the reality of your future.”

anonymous 

And may only benevolent airs

and spirits surround

YOU

this day. . . 

. . . and always.

cloudia

Wash Plce, Liliuo Kupuna, Kapu

August 21, 1959
Hawaii Becomes the 50th US State.

historical background HERE

Queen Liliuokalani,
AKA Mrs. Dominis

The Palace

KAPU (taboo) means 'set apart'
'special' 'holy'

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Fifty Years of Statehood Today

Welcome to

the

"A L O H A

STATE"

. . .

Welcome to the unconquered

"Kingdom Of Hawaii"

This is not where the story begins, in 1959.

It's a much older story, with a much broader context.

My grandparents came to America as young children. They were fleeing a bad situation, and they were yearning towards a great hope that, by and large, did not disappoint them.

I love the values that the USA stands for

(if imperfectly realized some times).

But America came to the Hawaiian People, a sovereign nation.

The "How" and the "Why" of this is seen very differently

by different points of view.

A King was forced to sign away his hereditary powers by subjects of his kingdom (who were) of American birth or extraction.

History remembers this as the

"Bayonet Constitution."

His sister (after his death) the final Queen, was deposed and imprisoned (1893)

when she tried to promulgate a new constitution;

All under the watchful eyes of US Marines.

She asked her beloved people

not to resist as they burned to do.

Hawaiian blood,

and the blood of her other multi-cultural subjects,

was too dear to this gracious lady,

who was libeled as a savage.

She took her message to Washington DC and the world.

Riding by rail across the continent,

she wondered aloud why such a huge country

would want her tiny kingdom.

President Cleveland

bemoaned the overthrow

as a betrayal of a weaker and confiding people.

But Congress had other things to occupy their time.

McKinley's assassination

brought Bully Teddy to the White house.

The Spanish American War

made Pearl Harbor an indispensable mid-Pacific coal refueling station

on the road to Manila Bay.

And so

the Queen died a subject

of the U.S. Territory of Hawaii.

(1917 - a mere 24 years before the Pearl Harbor Attack, and 42 years before Statehood)

Though the world is made up of HER subjects

whenever we hear the strains of her song:

"Aloha `Oe"

The Hawaiians have no land base, or government structure,

as North American Original Inhabitants have.

Most Hawaii people, Hawaiians included,

celebrated Statehood.

Statehood is superior to being a Territory.

But the rights of the Hawaiian Nation

deserve to be honored

by a great nation.

I am a proud US citizen, a citizen of the world,

but also consider myself a subject, a guest, of the displaced

Hawaiian Kingdom.

Today's videos (below) will give you the flavor of what is going on here politically and socially around these unresolved issues.

But Hawaiian wisdom understands

that it's kingdom is not purely of this world.

For theirs is the realm of the heart,

and as such

Aloha has conquered her conquerors.

Existing within this reality of Statehood,

Hawaiian Heart remains

immutable,

for as long as a drop of

"Koko,"

Hawaiian Blood,

lives in these islands;

for as long as outsiders

like me

come from far away, and capitulate to a completely

unique reality and understanding of life.

We produce amazing people,

scientific breakthroughs,

US patriots and even a

President.

Hawaii and the USA

are married;

and few marriages run smooth

all the time.

Perhaps our native son,

born & bred

Barack

will refresh the entire world system

from the well of

Ho`o ponopono.

Amen.

Please enjoy these stirring expressions of the Hawaiian Nation & her remarkable people (below)

who are the True Flowers of this Land.

And "Kaulana na Pua"

Famous are these Flowers.

* Ho`oponopono: Prayer, Mediation, "Making things righteous-RIGHTEOUS"

"Ho - oh - pono - pono"

Fifty Years Ago

Click on photos to enlarge!Ted Trimmer: Golden Dream

By building relations we create a source of love and personal pride and belonging that makes living in a chaotic world easier.

Susan Lieberman"

Royal Hawaiian Band on the steps of Iolani Palace, 1906

"The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down."

A. Whitney Brown

Dan Axler: Indiana Sky

"There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America - there's the United States of America."

Barack Obama

It was 50 years ago this week that the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Hawaii Admission Act by a 323 to 89 vote. One day earlier (March 11) the Senate had granted their "yay" by a margin of 75 to 15.

With the expected signature of President Eisenhower it would be up to the citizens of the Territory of Hawaii to give their assent. A mere 66 years after the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani's monarchy, just 42 years after the old Queens passing, the Territorial Legislature sat in morning session at her Iolani Palace while Congressional delegate (not representative!) John A. Burns relayed his account of the historic vote by telephone from Washington DC, where afternoon shadows already lengthened.

When Territorial House Speaker Elmer Cravalho announced the final affirmative tally, the representatives took to their feet spontaneously to sing the "Star Spangled Banner." Then they sang the Isle anthem, "Hawaii Pono`i." With the future (the Sixties!) and a young President right around the corner, American optimism swept the isles in a tsunami of excitement and opportunism. With full citizenship rights and voting representation, it was hoped, the strangle-hold of the old Big Five companies would be broken. Then a post-missionary, post-colonial, post-plantation-oligarchy, multi-ethnic society might bloom and prosper after lifetimes of labor, denigration, and exclusion. The Japanese-American veterans who we saluted last week: http://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/2009/03/go-for-broke.html

deserved no less. Even the frank southern racism of certain U.S. senators and representatives, fortified by the anti-communist/anti-labor organizer sentiment of the day, ultimately withered before the evident justice of Statehood. If Hawaii was too different, then the decision to admit Alaska first, as 49th US State, might be viewed as an easy step in America's westward expansion.

Not everyone was celebrating. Hawaiians who had endured "future shock" cultural dislocation, genocidal health emergencies, and political dispossession, still felt a deep pulse of love for their nation and their Monarchs. Many Hawaiian families still cherished elder members who had been born in the waning days of an Island Kingdom. These kupuna passed on stories of a stolen past that they had overheard in small kid times as their parents, who had lived through it all, quietly talked into the evening. The mother tongue, Olelo Hawaii, was spoken in private homes, and hula & chant never really died.

Nevertheless, the momentum seemed ordained. 99 % of the 140,744 local voters who cast their ballots in the June 27, 1959 statewide plebiscite favored statehood. America's "affair" with the brown hula girl was rendered respectable as she assented to become Uncle Sam's latest wife.

On August 21st President Eisenhower signed papers dissolving the Territory and establishing the 50th State of Hawaii. "Us guys stay EQUAL now!" Soon jets would bring newly prosperous visitors from the continent, many of them WWII veterans who had forged an emotional attachment with the isles. I still see the hula girl tattoos fading on their tired arms as they sun on da beach with their Midwestern wives. Pearl Harbor continues to welcome daily visitors from all over the world; Many Japanese visitors pay their respects to this day. The planeloads of visitors did come to "get lei'ed" and to catch a whiff of Elvis. They followed their dreams of an American paradise. Did you see Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's incendiary send-up of island tourism on last week's Saturday Night Live?

Far far away from the islands, in every way that places can be distant, lived a very young Me who watched "Hawaiian Eye" and "Adventures in Paradise" on a small, family black and white Philco television. It had rabbit ears, I wore Mickey Mouse ears. Already longing for escape from the conformity of 1959, I dozed off on the living room carpet dreaming of an endless summer of no school, no bullies, no stultifying arithmetic lessons.

Somewhere distant in that long ago night, a train howled and chattered; a Harley Davidson backfired, a finned convertible wheeled past my first window blaring Doo Wop. Stirring slightly in my baby sleep, my lips practiced once again the lovely words I had "sounded-out" from the pages of the National Geographic. "Aloha" means "hello" "goodbye" and "love." A porch (my grandma had a Philadelphia "stoop") is called a "Lanai."

But first I had to grow up and move on to second grade. . .

A L O H A! Cloudia

ps: it still means "love!"