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Two weeks ago, in a period of just over 24 hours, the state Land Use Commission voted to rob us of 45 percent of the prime Oahu farmland that currently produces food for the local market.
With the approval of the Koa Ridge and Ho‘opili developments, efforts to achieve food security were dealt a perhaps fatal blow. We import 90 percent of what we eat, have only one week’s supply of food on-island, and will starve if the ships stop arriving. If these decisions are not overturned, our highest producing farmlands will be lost forever.
Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono: The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
Shouldn’t the state motto mean something to the commissioners? There is no life left in the land if it is paved over. Where is the righteousness in their decisions?
As young Hawaiians and pro-Hawaiians, we look at the history of our leaders coerced by the influence of outsiders to actions that sacrificed Hawaiian lands and people. Kaahumanu allowed the missionaries to change native culture and values, while their diseases killed hundreds of thousands of kanaka. Kamehameha III agreed to the Great Mahele, through which Hawaiians lost title to their land. And Kalakaua ultimately submitted to the Bayonet Constitution, which paved the way for the overthrow of the kingdom.
While the commission should be saving these farms as the breadbasket of the future, it instead has set the course to finally extinguish the Hawaiian nation entirely. In the decades and centuries to come, there will undoubtedly be a catastrophe that will close off supply lines, leaving our islands desperate for food.
The LUC’s current decisions will earn hundreds of millions for a mainland developer whose profits will go out of state. The developments are justified as providing needed jobs for construction workers, even though there are already more than 50,000 homes in Leeward and Central Oahu that are approved by the commission, zoned by the city, and just waiting for a further upturn in the economy to be built.
The Land Use Commission was created specifically to protect agricultural lands, but almost all of the commissioners are tied to, and make their living from, the housing industry.
What is most disturbing about the recent votes is the commissioners who identify with being Hawaiian, and who supposedly care about the Hawaiian people and traditional Hawaiian values, turning their backs on exactly that. For more than 25 years, commissioner Ernest Matsumura served on the board of directors for Alu Like, a nonprofit that helps Native Hawaiians achieve social and economic self-sufficiency; commissioner Matsumura voted for development. Commissioner Chad McDonald, current vice president for an architecture and construction company, learned, but seemed to have forgotten, the traditional Hawaiian values taught to him at Kamehameha Schools; commissioner MacDonald voted for development. Thomas Contrades was on the Hawaiian Homes Commission for years; he voted for development. And Commissioner Kyle Chock, former member of the famous halau hula ‘O Kawaili‘ula, composer of the Na Hoku Hanohano-nominated Song of the Year, "My Sweet Pikake Lei," and overall active practitioner of Hawaiian culture, turned his back on his people and voted for development.
What happened to kuleana? What happened to loving the aina like your kupuna? What happened to practicing what you preach, rather than completely compromising your values? Commissioner Jaye Napua Makua is a kanaka maoli who examined the pono way to proceed, and voted against the development. She understands that by destroying this farmland, the Hawaiian nation will suffer. These commissioners need to remember their roots, and take a serious look into their na‘au.
We call upon the commissioners to malama i ka aina (care for the land) and reconsider your vote at your Thursday meeting. Make a decision that puts ke ea o ka aina (the life of the land) first.
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Co-signatories include: Kina Ululani Garcia, Chris Keli‘iwaiho‘ikeone Camarillo, D’Angelo McIntyre, Hans Kea Chun, Jeannine Johnson, Alexander Herpst, Dustine Aiu, Ray Grahm, Cory Harden, Stephanie Terlep, Luwella Leonardi, Rosemary Bak, Art Whatley, James Bousman, Wayne Bow, Mark Fontaine, Joseph Nolan and Zuri ‘Aki, on behalf of the Makawalu Hawaiian student organization at UH-Manoa. Also: Michael Kumukauoha Lee, Clarence Ching, Pi‘ilani Kaopuiki, Glenn Martinez and the Hawaii Farmers Union, Fred Dodge, Margo Kitts and Victoria Cannon.
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