A SACRED LAND

Recently, I was blessed with the opportunity to go to Hawaii. Before you get defensive, and tell me that you’re not interested in listening to another vacation story from some lucky stiff who was able to escape some of the winter cold for a warmer climate, I want to say, this is not about that. I am sure many of you have been there, and many of you have it on your bucket list. No, this is about the way the Hawaiian people feel about their state, and how they differ from us on the mainland.

Now, on the island that I was on, there seemed to be an absence of the toys we see around our neck of the woods in the summer time. No Wave Runners or other personal watercraft; or speedboats whipping around the harbors. No four-wheelers tearing up the ditches or going across country on well-worn trails. No one harassing the wildlife. In fact, most Hawaiians hold wildlife in reverence. We traveled quite extensively around the country while we were there, and I never saw a dealer for any of those crafts; just a lot of people paddling out in the surf, or using sails to propel them on their boards, or snorkeling in the shallows, and enjoying the coral and fish. I went to an aquarium and was told they don’t capture or imprison whales, porpoises, dolphins, seals or sea lions. It is their feeling that these mammals suffer too much in captivity. Even many of the fish are only kept for a short time, and then released back into the ocean. Always, it comes back to what is good for the animals and good for the land.

Each day I walk the road by my house with my dog, and pick up the garbage that gets thrown out the car windows by people who don’t have any respect for our part of the country. Plastic bottles, glass, cans, Styrofoam and cardboard drink containers, a lot of plastic bags, and food containers. I saw little of this in Hawaii, and my gut tells me—what little there is, is thrown out by the tourists who are used to doing this back home. Once, while walking down my road, I found hundreds of prescription anxiety capsules that had been discarded along the roadside, and couldn’t help but feel the harm that would come to every bird or animal that tried to ingest the colorful capsules.

We, like the Hawaiians, are blessed with a beautiful part of the earth. The difference lies in the attitude that exists towards taking care of it. I sometimes dream about what this country was like when the only inhabitants were the Native Americans. This land must have looked to them, much like Hawaii looked to the Polynesians. Maybe the big difference I am talking about is the Polynesians never lost control of the Hawaiian Islands and still yield great influence there. As I said before, we too live in a special place but one sad day, if we keep our attitude about trying to keep everyone happy with trails and playgrounds for machines that put more pressure on nature then nature can readily fix, the outcome is not going to be pretty. I know I’m preaching to the choir with a lot of you, and to those of you who feel like I do about preserving this country for future generations, well God bless. We need to be like the Hawaiians and say no sometimes.