Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 3, 1 March 1999 — Tragic end [ARTICLE]

Tragic end

The death of Mackey Feary touches me deeply as a great lover of music and tremendous admirer of Kalapana. The fact that his passing was headline news is testament to how his gifts are appreciated and how mueh he will be missed. But make no mistake - Maekey Feary is a casualty of war. I suppose Judge To'oto'o had to sentence Mackey to a 10-year term for parole violation. After all, Mackey had an ongoing battle with drugs. Just because he begged for another ehanee

» to put his life back together, doesn't mean he would have succeeded. While we help people with illnesses try to overcome them, abuse of drugs is criminal. We have to shackle the offenders and imprison them for a long time. Judge-assisted suicide is an unavoidable side-effect of our holy war against drugs. Would Mackey Feary have beaten his demons and lived in the sunshine his beautiful songs portray? Nobody ean know. In the words of Kevin Daley, his grief-stricken ex-partner, "I wasn't sure prison was going to help him. I guess that was the wrong thing." Stop this war against our own we eall the war on drugs. Robert Grayson Aiea OHA reserves the right to edit all lettersfor length, defamatory and libelous material, and other objectionable content, and reserves the right to print on a space available basis. The inclusion of a letter author's title is a courtesy extended by Ka Wai Ola and does not constitute validation or recognition ofthe writer as such. All letters must be typed, signed and not exceed 200 words. Send letters to Ka Wai Ola o OHA, 711 Kapi'olani Blvd., Suite 500, Honolulu, HI 96813. Readers ean also e-mail their letters to oha@aloha.net. ■