Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 4, 1 April 1990 — Our Readers Write. [ARTICLE]

Our Readers Write.

On Senator lnouye To the Editor: It's time to set the record straight. Here are the hard and positive facts about Sen. Daniel Inouye's assistance to Hawaiians. More than $21 million dollars in federal money was appropriated last year alone, thanks in great part to the leadership of Sen. Inouye. Money to develop Hawaiian community health centers, to take traveling pre-schoo!s to Hawaiian young families, to provide good nutrition to elderly Hawaiians, to assist Hawaiian entrepreneurs, to build infrastructure on Hawaiian Home Lands, to help younq Hawaiians to go to college, to bring books into Hawaiian homes, to give Hawaiians technical and vocational training and mueh more. Sen. Inouye began caring about Hawaiians when he was a youngster — aloha taught to him by his mother. He has never stopped caring. He has had to make some tough decisions as a representative of all of Hawaii's people. But the record shows he has accomplished more for Hawaiians than any of his harshest critics. In recent weeks Sen. Inouye has been working with Hawaiians to improve the Hawaiian Home Lands Act and the Hawaiian Home Lands program. He is attempting to get both the state and Congress to recognize their trust relationship to the Hawaiian people, assume their fiduciary responsibility to our people, and work towards developing an increased land base for Hawaiians. AJ1 of these are positive steps towards solving a longstanding complex problem. But instead of supporting the senator and working with him in a positive way. there are those in our community who want only to criticize this friend of the Hawaiians to advance their political agendas. These critics offer no constructive and realistic alternatives of their own. It's time for Hawaiians to stop complaining for no good reason, and instead practice the aloha and lokahi we profess so loudly. We need to support this senator who cares and produces. Myron B. Thompson, trustee Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate