The Value of Hawai‘i: Knowing the Past, Shaping the Future

How did we get here? Three-and-a-half-day school weeks. Prisoners farmed out to the mainland. Tent camps for the migratory homeless. A blinkered dependence on tourism and the military for virtually all economic activity. The steady degradation of already degraded land. Contempt for anyone employed in education, health, and social service. An almost theological belief in the evil of taxes.

At a time when new leaders will be elected, and new solutions need to be found, the contributors to The Value of Hawai‘i outline the causes of our current state and offer points of departure for a Hawai‘i-wide debate on our future. The brief essays address a wide range of topics—education, the environment, Hawaiian issues, media, tourism, political culture, law, labor, economic planning, government, transportation, poverty—but the contributors share a belief that taking stock of where we are right now, what we need to change, and what we need to remember is a challenge that all of us must meet.

Written for a general audience, The Value of Hawai‘i provides a cluster of starting points for a larger community discussion of Hawai‘i that should extend beyond the choices of the ballot box this year.

Contributors: Carlos Andrade, Chad Blair, Kat Brady, Susan M. Chandler, Meda Chesney-Lind, Lowell Chun-Hoon, Tom Coffman, Sara L. Collins, Marilyn Cristofori, Henry Curtis, Kathy E. Ferguson, Chip Fletcher, Dana Naone Hall, Susan Hippensteele, Craig Howes, Karl Kim, Sumner La Croix, Ian Lind, Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie, Mari Matsuda, Davianna McGregor, Neal Milner, Deane Neubauer, Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwo’ole Osorio, Charles Reppun, John P. Rosa, D. Kapua‘ala Sproat, Ramsay Remigius Mahealani Taum, Patricia Tummons, Phyllis Turnbull, Trisha Kehaulani Watson.

• Craig Howes, Editor

  Craig Howes is director of the Center for Biographical Research and professor of English at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

• Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwo‘ole Osorio, Editor

  Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwo‘ole Osorio is dean of Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge and professor at Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

• If there is only one book you read this year, read The Value of Hawai‘i. This thought-provoking publication is for everyday people, just like you and me, who appreciate the significance of [Hawai‘i] and realize change is inevitable, but would prefer for it to be for the better.
  —Ka Wai Ola o OHA