Seeing the powerful play Kamau recently was gut wrenching, and very emotional for me.
I knew that it was my grandson Kapono up there, acting. But it wasn’t him. It was the character Alika. And it was me.
Sitting in the audience, I absolutely identified with the family losing the only home they knew. And the conflicts within one’s self – that is real, too.
I went through all that myself when I was younger. I had no direction. I flunked out of school and got drafted. I volunteered to become an officer and then went to Vietnam.
There, we were 100 people in an infantry company walking through the jungle. No one could easily come and help us if we needed. It was real – people were shooting and getting shot.
There was no room for feeling sorry for oneself; not even a little bit. You used every bit of skill and cleverness that you had, fought and took care of each other to survive.
As in the play, there was loyalty. Every single one of the people in our company in Vietnam absolutely knew and there was no doubt – not even a little – that leaving someone behind was not an option.
When I came back from Vietnam, I was a changed person. I had direction. I majored in accounting because I wanted to run some sort of business and I needed to keep score.
Now, everything is simple and very clear to me. It is not about us anymore – it is about the future generations. Leaving someone behind is still not an option. We live in the here and now and must use every bit of our skill and cleverness so that we can create the best environment for the following generations.
This is why I am for building the Thirty-Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea. If we concentrate on what we can develop for future generations, instead of wallowing in past mistakes, it can help us transition to a future of sustainability for the next generations.
Thinking about sustainability shapes everything I do. It’s why we do everything we can to make our farm energy-self-sufficient. It’s why we started the Adopt-A-Class program – to take care of our own. It’s why we are putting on the E Malama ‘Aina festival – so people know they are not alone.
All of our people’s stories were in that play. It really hit me hard.
Great post, Richard–you nailed the KEY issue nobody talks about–what are we leaving our kids and grandkids?
Aloha Pauahi:
Being a farmer, I am mostly concerned about feeding Hawaii’s people. I worry that if we become isolated from the outside world we will have to depend on our limited resources here to grow all the food that we need to feed Hawaii’s people. I don’t think that we have enough fertilizer available locally to grow all the food that we need. We need to figure out how we can make fertilizer. I believe that with a strong education system that future generations will be able to find ways to use our natural energy resources and can find ways to develope the fertilizers necessary to support Hawaii’s population. That is where the TMT comes in, it can help to develope the education platform where these kinds of discoveries can be a possibility for future generations. It’s not about us. It is about giving the future generations the tools for them to become sustainable. Education is a key tool that we can help to give them.