When Walt Kelly in the 1960s was writing his comic strip “Pogo,” little did he know he was penning the watchwords to describe planning in Hawaii: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

It appears that the biggest obstacle to Hawaii moving ahead with making a decision and carrying it out is Hawaii.

City and state government would argue they bear no guilt, they are immensely capable of making a decision. Decisions fuel the government, they would say, although when the government comes down with decisions on both sides of the issue, it equals no decision.

Yes, not doing anything is something we do well.

Remember the Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial: It is Honolulu’s ultimate “No can do nothing” icon.

In 1965, the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation recommended demolition. It was and is collapsing and a public danger. Someone born when the World War I memorial was first declared a danger would now be 55 years old.

According to the privately funded National Trust for Historic Preservation, seven years later, the Army Corps of Engineers issued a draft of an environmental impact statement also recommending demolition. In 1972, the governor and the state Board of Land and Natural Resources agreed to the demolition, but legal cases tied up a plan forward, and to this day, no government has been able to make a decision resulting in action.

If we can’t move on that gorgeous piece of Waikiki real estate, just watch how much we won’t move on the latest land use controversy: more than 200 windward acres, home to the run-down, dilapidated, closed and off-limits Haiku Stairs.

The land is owned by the Board of Water Supply, which just voted to give the stairway to the city instead of dismantling it.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell wants to save the path running up the east side of Haiku Valley — so beloved that more than 4,500 pieces of testimony were submitted when the BWS held a hearing on tearing down the stairs.

Like the Natatorium, the Haiku Stairs has thousands of friends, to the extent that people who say they would never climb it because they are afraid of heights, profess their love for the stairs. Caldwell said all the city needs is a public-private partnership to put together a plan and those stairs will be humming.

Caldwell said the city “is interested in going forward with a competitive process relating to the preservation and operation of the stairs.”

Caldwell’s municipal mentor, former Mayor Mufi Hannemann, tried back in 2005 to have the state run the Haiku Stairs. But Gov. Linda Lingle wouldn’t bite. This was after the water board in 2003 officially transferred the stairs to the city, in a move that was later canceled.

The public-private gambit has already been walked up and down the Haiku Stairs. Failing any other alternatives, Hannemann in 2006 offered up a public-private partnership.

News stories at the time said Hannemann “emphasized that the private entity must take the lead — and ensure that the city will not be held liable if there is an accident on the stairs.”

Then as now, whomever is Honolulu mayor just says that all the city needs is someone to “restore, maintain and operate” the stairs.

Hawaii’s new normal is much the same as the old normal; it is that same old “no can do spirit.”

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.