Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 8, 1 August 2009 — The legacies we leave our children [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The legacies we leave our children

Būyd P. Mūssman TrustEE, Msui

Aloha Kākou, We unfortunately write these trustee columns two to three weeks before you read them and so it is not so mueh news as commentary that we must write or else be compelled to forecast the future. Accordingly, mueh of what we say is also past and pau. What I wrote two months ago about the frustration we at OHA had with a past colleague, Clayton Hee, still stands, though it is apparent that there is one trustee who disagrees with the rest of us based on her last eolumn. That is her prerogative and the board will move forward from here as we have over the recent years despite those who would swim against the current just to be different and end up further away from their goal than when they started. We are tasked with bettering our people and are doing so for the most part in unity. As the board seeks to fulfrll its trust responsibilities we are cognizant of the many views, opinions and positions of the Hawaiian people and therefore rely heavily on staff to research and investigate matters requiring our attention, as well as to inquire into matters initiated by us. As the state addresses the eeonomie downturn so must OHA, and I am saddened that there will be employees at OHA who may lose their jobs as a result. I am honored to have had the privilege of working with and knowing so many dedicated OHA staff and hope that morale will be sustained as we bid farewell to our friends and colleagues. Our administrator has done better than any past administrator and has strengthened the professional product that OHA today produces. Though I may not agree with staff recommendations on occasion,

I nevertheless acknowledge their good faith and intent in reaching their eonelusions. I appreciate the many hours they spend in the freld gathering information and creating bonds with our people here and on the mainland. OHA truly is a professional and competent organization and will defrnitely prepare the way for a nation to be created within the nation we all belong to as citizens right now, the United States. When that happens, our Hawaiian government will have a solid foundation from whieh to grow as OHA has set the standard from whieh the government will step forward. With the creation of a governing entity via the process provided in the Akaka Bill, Hawaiians will have a voice in their own affairs for frrst time since the overthrow. The entity will be able to focus, as does OHA, on Hawaiian needs and establish a means of preserving our lands, our culture and our traditions. Without this Hawaiians will lose in the courts all they have now or could ever have had, and the die-hards will eonhnue to eomplain and rue the day they lost it all as they waited for the United Nations to step in and order the United States to somehow give back Hawai'i to the Hawaiians, whoever and wherever they might be. And so, will the legacy we leave our kids be that of what onee was or will it be of what is and ean be? Though our past is helpful in setting the course for the future, the present is the gauge for the future and as Hawaiians we cannot allow our posterity to be deprived of all things Hawaiian because we placed our pride before their prosperity. Why jeopardize our future as Hawaiians because we refuse anything but eomplete capitulation today? Is that eourageous? Is that wise? Is it right that we sacrifice our kids' futures for our present state of mind largely mired in past injustices? The answer is NO. ■