Reasons to leave Hawaii

[Cindy B]

Thanks Carrie for the language lesson. I had no idea. Just wanted to say in my defense though that in the 10 years I lived in Hawaii (Hilo, Puna, Kona, Waimanalo, Oahu and Kauai) that I didn't try to change anything, and I had only one negative encounter with a local. I was just saying that I'd hoped they'd changed the name because 1. I didn't understand where it came from and 2.When my friend was teaching in Pahoa, it was still the wild west. So when I saw the school called itself Home of the Daggers, I wrongly assumed that this had something to do with the generally tough nature of the student body there (and back in the 80's it was pretty harsh, in general). Anyway there are some pretty violent place names here in Southern Oregon, and I really don't like. But I'm not out there campaigning to change them. Other than to help youth who came from domestic abuse and drugs, I never tried to change anything in Hawaii. I didn't mind the cinder and gravel roads, the schools low test scores(never really understood what all the fuss was about), and I'm not looking foward to more big box stores, etc. I do mind animal abuse and domestic abuse, but I mind that here too. Before I moved to Hilo and then Puna in 1988, I got the warnings you all probably do too...the locals will call you haole, you won't be accepted, etc. My grandparents told me to just be myself, that the locals may be suspicious of you at first, wondering if you're going to be another mainland snob who looks down on those with a lesser education, whether in a snotty way or a patronizing way. I learned so much from locals I met that first year, including Hawaiians, that I couldn't imagine anyone looking down on them. Sure many of my students weren't into academics, but so what. The principal at my school seemed to think everyone should go to college, and I don't buy that. I know this is overgeneralizing, but many of the locals are gifted in the arts, or with this amazing knowledge of nature, that you just don't get in a book. So anyway, my dinner's burning, but just wanted to say before more jump on me for my comment, that I'm not returning to Hawaii with a mission to change things.

Aloha,
Cindy

Royal wrote: "The new people coming over always want to change things. Do you suppose that may be part of the reason the locals are not happy with us?"