Ka`u Calendar News Briefs Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016

Researchers hope biocontrols can help growers fight the macadamia felted coccid. Photo from Hawai`i Department of Agriculture

OPENING UP THE ORCHARD CANOPY and incorporating flowering plants near the trees could be one way to push back on a macadamia pest that threatens the industry. Such actions create an ideal environment for predators of the macadamia felted coccid, University of Hawai`i researcher Mark Wright said at a workshop in Hilo covered by Ivy Ashe, of Hawai`i Tribune-Herald.
      The method has been studied in Pahala orchards, where the population of predatory beetles such as ladybugs increased, leading to an “appreciable drop-off” of coccids, Ashe reported.
      “There seems to be a beneficial effect in doing this,” Wright said.
      The number of parasitic wasps that feed on the coccid during its early stages of life also increased, Ashe reported.
      “We need to find a way to increase the effectiveness of biocontrol,” Wright said. “It can be very effective, and predictably effective.”
      See hawaiitribune-herald.com.

      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Joe Boivin, Jr. Photo from Hawai`i Gas

WOULD LNG BE USED ON HAWAI`I ISLAND, and if so, where?

      “Hawai`i has secured a source of LNG,” Joe Boivin, Jr., senior vice president of business development and corporate affairs at Hawai`i Gas, told Kathryn Mykleseth, of Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “What we’ve done is put the plan on the table with firm numbers.”

      Boivin said Hawai`i Gas has an agreement with a liquefied natural gas supplier to build facilities to import LNG for $200 million.

      Hawaiian Electric Co. is working on its own plan to import LNG. “We are in the final stages of our own request for proposals, evaluating LNG suppliers and the potential to provide the greatest possible savings for our customers,” HECO spokesman Darren Pai told Mykleseth. “We are open to learning more about Hawai`i Gas’ plans if they will reduce costs for our customers and are consistent with state policy. One thing that is important to consider is the infrastructure that would need to be developed to support any energy resource. The option we are focused on would use specialized shipping containers to deliver LNG to our generating stations, thus minimizing the need for permanent infrastructure.”

      The companies consider LNG to be a bridge fuel as Hawai`i works toward its mandated goal of 100 percent renewable energy for electricity by 2045.
      Marti Townsend, Director of Sierra Club of Hawai`i, said her organization is “disappointed in Hawai`i Gas’ fixation on industrialized gas. Industrialized gas is no ‘bridge fuel’ to renewable energy. If anything, gas is a bridge to more economic hardship and environmental harm for our islands. 

      “We know that gas is not cleaner than oil. Mining gas emits methane that is 100 times more toxic than carbon dioxide, contaminates drinking water and triggers earthquakes.
      “It is irresponsible to spend $200 million to set Hawai`i up for gas knowing for certain that in a few short decades all of that will be abandoned, and not knowing for sure that it will save ratepayers any money. …
      “How irresponsible of Hawai`i Gas to dangle a specious promise of lower energy prices for a fuel that will exacerbate the hardships climate change inflicts on us, people who rely on the environment for our economic and spiritual well-being.”
      See staradvertiser.com.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

MORE THAN $3.4 MILLION in U.S. Department of Energy funding that will allow Hawaiian Electric Company to improve electric grid technology was approved today. The funding is expected to facilitate more renewable energy generation.

      “Today’s award builds on Hawai`i’s record as a state on the forefront of renewable energy research,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “This competitive funding will allow Hawaiian Electric Company to invest in and test technology that will allow more Hawai`i families to take advantage of rooftop solar systems and bring our state closer to reaching its goal of being powered by 100 percent renewable energy.”
      “We have all been frustrated by the technical challenges that have slowed down the amount of PV that can be put on the grid,” Sen. Brian Schatz said. “This project is exciting because it breaks new ground and is a fundamental shift in the design of our grids. This innovation will allow more customers to send electricity back to the grid without destabilizing the system. That’s a real positive for renewable energy.”
      “Hawai`i continues to lead the nation in renewable energy generation,” Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said. “As the state continues to move toward its goal of generating 100 percent clean energy by 2045, this grant will help to begin long overdue work to modernize our grid, which is necessary as we work toward increasing our use of solar power, reducing our carbon emissions, strengthening our energy security and improving our electrical infrastructure.”
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

OF THE 224 CONFIRMED CASES of dengue fever, “none are recent or in the stage of their illness in which they can infect mosquitoes, according to Hawai`i County Civil Defense. Hawai`i Department of Health, after reporting no additional cases on Monday, yesterday confirmed one more, with the latest onset of illness being Jan. 8.

      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

A 29-YEAR-OLD OCEAN VIEW MAN was involved in a two-vehicle traffic casualty yesterday on Kona Drive and Paradise Parkway in Ocean View. He was identified as Ling Oniel.
      Responding to a 7:15 p.m. call, police determined that an unknown sedan-type vehicle had been traveling north on Paradise Parkway when it failed to yield the right of way at the intersection with Kona Drive and collided with Oniel, who had been traveling west on Kona Drive on a black moped. Following the collision, the sedan and its operator fled from the scene prior to police arrival. Through investigation, police were able to determine that the vehicle may have been a white 1992-1995 Honda Civic.
      Oniel was taken to Kona Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:30 p.m.
      The Traffic Enforcement Unit has initiated a negligent homicide investigation. Anyone who witnessed the crash is asked to call Officer Justin Hooser at 326-4646, Ext. 229. Tipsters who prefer to remain anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at 961-8300.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

SENIOR NIGHT FOR KA`U HIGH VARSITY girls basketball team ended in a loss to Wai`akea. Analei Emmsley and Reishalyn Kekoa each contributed eight points to Ka`u’s 28, but the team couldn’t overcome Wai`akea’s high-scoring team that racked up 58 points.

      Jayvee also succumbed to their opponents, 21-62. With 10 points, Junialla Manantan was Ka`u JV’s high scorer.

MARK YAMANAKA OFFERS A FREE CONCERT today at 6:30 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, sharing original songs from his CDs.
      Free; park entrance fees apply.

LEGAL AID IS AVAILABLE Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Ocean View Community Center. Call 800-499-4302 for more information.

TOM PEEK PRESENTS WRITING on the Wild Side, on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m at Volcano Art Center’s Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village. Class fee is $75, or $65 for VAC members.

      Participants hone their writing skills, explore their creative mind and discover their unique voices in this new writing workshop with the Hawai`i Island writing teacher and award-winning novelist. Social media correspondents, bloggers, storytellers, journal writers and poets will find Peek’s stimulating techniques and exercises empowering.

Ka`u writers can learn Writing on the Wild Side
Saturday. Photo by Julia Neal

      In his newest workshop, Peek offers a wealth of knowledge that writers can use in everyday social media sharing, including journaling and blogging. Writing on the Wild Side will help them create prose that people actually want to read.
      Putting thoughts into words has never been more prevalent than in today’s electronic communications. Facebook and Twitter, not to mention blogs and websites, are all waiting for writers to release their expressive potential. Previous students have found Peek’s workshops to be engaging, informative and practical.
      Participants learn to silence their inner critic and unleash their expressive potential in this fun, fast-paced and provocative writing workshop. Open to all levels and genres. No writing experience is necessary.
      Peek has taught his popular workshops since 1991. A writer for over three decades, his work includes an award-winning novel, newspaper stories and commentaries, university publications, magazine articles, national park exhibits and award-winning video productions.
      Register at volcanoartcenter.org or 967-8222.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.

See kaucalendar.com/Directory2015.swf
and kaucalendar.com/Directory2015.pdf.

See kaucalendar.com/KauCalendar_January2016.pdf.

Ka`u Calendar News Briefs Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016

Ka`u's state lawmakers are heading to Honolulu for tomorrow's opening of the Hawai`i State Legislature. See more below.

WENDELL KA`EHU`AE`A IS RUNNING for mayor of Hawai`i County Council for a third time, Nancy Cook Lauer reported in West Hawai`i Today. Ka`ehu`ae`a founded KAHU-FM 91.7 in Pahala. Hawai`i Public Radio bought KAHU’s license after the station closed.

Wendell Ka`ehu`ae`a with HPR's
Michael Titterton.

      “I can’t stand anyone running unopposed,” Ka`ehu`ae`a told Cook Lauer.
      Ka`ehu`ae`a said current department heads and appointees would be welcome to stay in their positions if they want to under his administration.
      Kawika Crowley, who won the 2012 Republican primary for Hawai`i’s Second Congressional District, also told Cook Lauer he is running for mayor.
      Crowley said he would work to create two counties on the island, East Hawai`i and West Hawai`i. “We’re really two worlds apart,” Crowley said. “The Hilo side and the Kona side are two different economies. The people are different; the expectations are different.”
      Crowley said he also wants to reestablish East Hawai`i’s agricultural economy with food crops and hemp.
      Others who told Cook Lauer they are considering running are county Managing Director Wally Lau, former Mayor Harry Kim and Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung.
      They would face Pete Hoffmann, the only candidate who has announced.
      “I’m not waiting for other people to decide,” Hoffmann told Cook Lauer. “I want to be out there. I want to be early. I think we owe it to the people to have the discussion.”
      See westhawaiitoday.com.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

HAWAI`I STATE LEGISLATURE opens tomorrow. Ka`u’s State Sen. Josh Green and state Rep. Richard Creagan discussed their priorities for this session with Nancy Cook Lauer, of West Hawai`i Today.

Sen. Josh Green

Rep. Richard Creagan

      Green told Cook Lauer that reducing homelessness is his top priority. He wants to raise the minimum wage from $8.50 per hour to at least $16 an hour to help people afford housing. He also wants to build homeless shelters and institute a tax on luxury developments to pay for rental housing initiatives and to build affordable homes.
      Green told Cook Lauer that he also hopes to strengthen the state hospital system, improving access to mental health care and drug and alcohol treatment. Green also wants to ban pesticide applications near schools and hospitals.
      “I intend to press the governor’s administration to be much more responsive to neighbor island needs, especially in areas like health care, housing, education and a clean environment,” Green told Cook Lauer.
      Creagan told Cook Lauer, “We need to enhance our ability to stop the current dengue epidemic and use this event as informatively and constructively as possible in shaping our future response to dengue and other mosquito borne illnesses. We have eradicated Aedes aegypti, the principal vector for dengue, on every other island, and I believe it is time we do it on Hawai`i Island.”
      Creagan told The Ka`u Calendar and Cook Lauer that he is against proposed rule changes that would prohibit new cesspools. “With our current homeless crisis, the need for affordable housing is paramount, and with a septic system costing 10 times what a cesspool would, we need to evaluate the cost-benefit and risk-benefit balance in areas away from the coast and at higher elevations,” he told Cook Lauer.
      See westhawaiitoday.com.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

WINTER SPORTS CONTINUE for Ka`u High School Trojans.  The soccer team has been on the road, traveling to Parker Jan. 9, where they lost 0-2. At Honoka`a on Jan. 16, they also lost 0-5. Tomorrow, the head to Christian Liberty.
      Girls basketball teams had victories at HPA on Wednesday, Jan. 13. Junior Varsity won 27-24, and Varsity won 36-33, leading at the end of each quarter. At Hilo on Friday, Jan. 15, both teams lost, with scores of 25-47 for JV and 9-79 for Varsity. They host Wai`akea today at 6 p.m. for Senior Night.
      Boys basketball teams also lost at HPA on Wednesday, Jan. 13. Tomorrow, they travel to Hilo.
      Wrestling and swimming teams are also attending meets this month.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

HAWAIIAN VOLCANO OBSERVATORY scientists continue their geologic tour or the Hawaiian Islands in this week’s issue of Volcano Watch focusing on O`ahu.
      “The island of O`ahu is composed of two volcanoes,” the article states. “Wai`anae, the western and older of the two, started growing from the sea floor around four million years ago. The birth of Ko`olau, which forms the east side of the island, probably occurred a few hundred thousand years later.
      “At Wai`anae, shield-building volcanism – the most active time of a Hawaiian volcano’s life – ended by about three million years ago and was followed by a brief, about 200,000-year-long, period of post-shield volcanism. Since then, erosion has carved steep cliffs and valleys on the volcano. While some of this erosion has been caused by water, catastrophic collapses of the island have also occurred, some of which shed debris north onto the ocean floor across a distance of 110 kilometers (70 miles)!

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory offers a geologic tour
of O`ahu this week. Map from USGS/HVO

      “Ko`olau, on the other hand, was vigorously active until about 1.8 million years ago. Like Wai`anae, Ko`olau has also been extensively eroded and has been the source of multiple huge landslides. In fact, Nu`uanu Pali may be the erosional trace of the scarp that marks one of the largest landslides in the world. The gigantic Nu`uanu slide extends across the ocean floor about 200 km (120 mi) northeast from O`ahu, and one of the blocks of debris in the submarine landslide measures over 29 km (18 mi) long and 1.6 km (one mi) thick!
      “The extensive erosion of Ko`olau has afforded geologists an unparalleled opportunity to view the interior of a Hawaiian volcano. For example, investigations of ancient lava flows reveal that Ko`olau’s caldera is located in the Kailua area, and that the caldera continued to subside even after eruptions had ended (perhaps pulled downward by the weight of the solidified magma chamber).
      “Even more spectacular are the swarms of dikes – solidified sheet-like or tabular intrusions of magma – that define the volcano’s rift zones, parallel to the crest of the current Ko`olau Range. In some places, over half the rock is made up of these dikes. The exposures of Ko`olau’s rift zone provide a sense of what Kilauea's current East Rift Zone must look like about one km (0.6 mi) beneath the surface. Studying Ko`olau therefore provides insights into how active Hawaiian volcanoes work.
      “Ko`olau also hosts extensive rejuvenated volcanism, which marks the final stage of a Hawaiian volcano’s eruptive life – essentially a weak sputtering before the volcano goes extinct.
      “Rejuvenated eruptions on Ko`olau followed a pause of about one million years after shield-building ended. About 40 discrete eruption sites are preserved across the east side of O`ahu, including several extinct cinder cones that are now famous landmarks: Punchbowl, Tantalus, and Le`ahi (Diamond Head). The youngest of these rejuvenated eruption sites include Koko Crater, Hanauma Bay and Tantalus, which formed about 70,000 - 100,000 years ago. Le`ahi and Punchbowl are about 400,000 - 500,000 years old.
      “As on Kaua`i (the focus of last week's Volcano Watch), future rejuvenated eruptions on O`ahu are a possibility. Such eruptions could be hazardous, given that they would probably be at least mildly explosive, especially if they occur near the coast where magma and seawater can interact. The odds are remote, however, of such eruptions occurring during our lifetimes, or even those of many future generations.”
      See hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Ka`u's Pau Queen Lorilee Lorenzo hopes to be queen
at Pana`ewa Stampede Rodeo. Photo by Ron Johnson

KA`U PA`U QUEEN LORILEE LEE LORENZO hopes to become queen of next month’s Pana`ewa Stampede Rodeo. Lorenzo is selling tickets for the event that takes place Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 13 and 14.
      This large and diverse rodeo features Team Roping, Barrel Racing, Bronc Riding and Bull Riding. In addition, there are special events done only in Hawai`i. Cowboys and cowgirls will compete in Double Mugging and Pu`u Wai U just like their forefathers did in the early paniolo days of old Hawai`i.
      Pre-sale tickets are available for $6 each. Call Lorenzo at 896-5964.

KA`U RESIDENTS CAN LEARN about Kilauea’s lethal eruptions at this evening’s After Dark in the Park program beginning at 7 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.
      As a Volcano Awareness Month event, the program offers a companion hike Saturday at 10 a.m. Participants meet at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium.
      Free; park entrance fees apply.

Keiki will again line the coast at Punalu`u Saturday for the annual
fishing tournament sponsored by `O Ka`u Kakou.
Photo from Fred and Mary Ramsdell

REGISTRATION FOR SATURDAY’S Keiki Fishing Tournament is due tomorrow at noon. `O Ka`u Kakou asks participants to fill out forms available at local schools and businesses and online at okaukakou.org.

MARK YAMANAKA PERFORMS tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, sharing original songs from his CDs.
       Free; park entrance fees apply.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ATPAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.

Registration due tomorrow.
See okaukakou.org.

See kaucalendar.com/KauCalendar_January2015.pdf.

See kaucalendar.com/Directory2015.swf
and kaucalendar.com/Directory2015.pdf.

Ka`u Calendar News Briefs Monday, Jan. 18, 2016

Lethal Eruptions at Kilauea: It’s Not the Volcano’s Fault is the title of tomorrow’s After Dark in the Park program.
Photo from USGS/HVO

“KA`U COFFEE FARMERS ARE STRATEGIZING how to stay on their farms. Ka`u Coffee farming is a remarkable success story, and a recent sale of the land they farm has put their future in question,” Ka`u state Sen. Russell Ruderman said on his Facebook page. Ruderman and Ka`u state Rep. Richard Creagan attended a meeting yesterday to consider ownership options of Ka`u Coffee lands recently purchased by Colorado-based investment firm Resource Land Holdings. Stakeholders considered pros and cons of coffee growers buying the land, state ownership and creating a land trust.

Ka`u Coffee growers, lawmakers and other interested parties discussed 

options for land security yesterday at Pahala Plantation House.

     By buying the land, coffee grower John Ah San said, "coffee growers could be your own boss.” Hilo attorney Steven Strauss said in order for each grower to own a separate farm lot, they would have to be surveyed and costs of $25,000 per purchaser would be prohibitive. Several others said purchase costs would probably be too high for individual growers to buy the land, particularly if infrastructure for subdivisions was added.
    Strauss recommended that growers have someone begin negotiating with owners, finding out the asking price for the land to be sold in a large plot or individual lots. In the meantime, he also suggested that farmers find out the owners’ plans regarding abandoned plots that harbor coffee berry borers, which make their way into neighboring production orchards.
     Ruderman said RLH’s Hilo representative Jim McCully assured him that the company’s intent is to sell the land to growers “for a reasonable price.”
     State ownership could be fraught with problems, Ruderman and Strauss said. Ruderman said he has seen “good intentions gone bad,” with restrictions and requirements imposed by government. He said he would discuss the situation with state Department of Agriculture chair Scott Enright, who has said he considers making the purchase a line item in his budget to be an option. Ruderman said that would possibly be better than trying to pass legislation to acquire the land. He also said that it could be possible to give the farmers 35 year leases from the state at a reasonable rate.
     Strauss said government purchases traditionally tend to be geared toward large, rather than small, operations.
     Another option, a land trust would see value in the land as agricultural and plan to keep it as such, Strauss said. He said licenses give growers rights to use land but do not include conveyance of land interest. Also, with a trust, negotiations of terms would be “an open process,” he said. The meeting was sponsored by I Ola Na `Aina Momona, a nonprofit headed by Ka`u farm owner and coffee broker Malian Lahey. To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

KA`U ROYAL HAWAIIAN COFFEE & TEA CO. shared its long-term plans with Kirsten Johnson, of Hawai`i Tribune-Herald. Part of the plan is to change the company’s name. General Manager Louis Leong told Johnson that the name “is too long and too hard to put in documents.”
     Leong also told Johnson the company plans to grow coffee, tea, fruits and vegetables, with its first harvest in three to five years.
     The company plans to spend $20 million to build a coffee mill and a tea-processing plant Leong said. A visitor center and public tours of processing facilities are also envisioned. 

Ka`u Royal Hawaiian Coffee & Tea Co. bought land 
above Hwy 11 in Na`alehu for its ag project. 
Photo from Ka`u Royal Hawaiian

     “We formed a company just for this project, so it’s a brand new venture for us,” Leong told Johnson. “We’d like to add an (agricultural tourism) aspect to the project later on, after we build our coffee mill and tea processing (facilities), so we can introduce the tea culture to more people locally. Hopefully, we’ll have a very special commercial tea farm, and people can enjoy the harvesting and processing aspect of tea production.”
     Leong told Johnson the company hopes to lease land to farmers. “We’ve learned that after the collapse of the sugar industry, a lot of farmers have (to go) far to find jobs,” He said. “So if we can create opportunities and have workers in the farm industry, they don’t have to travel as far now.” To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

NORTHWESTERN HAWAIIAN ISLANDS celebrates 15 years of a major marine conservation milestone. 

     On Jan. 18, 2001, then President Bill Clinton issued a second Executive Order (EO 13196) ensuring permanent protection of preservation areas and conservation measures for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve set forth in EO 13178 in December 2000. Creation of the Reserve was the first large-scale marine conservation measure put forth by the United States, a historic act of protection for the coral reefs in three-quarters of the Hawaiian archipelago, and the largest in the world at nearly 140,000 square miles. It was also the second ever created since establishment of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in 1975. It paved the way for the later designation of what is now Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in 2006 and its inscription as the nation’s only mixed natural and cultural UNESCO World Heritage site in 2010. 

     At the end of the millennium, coral reefs around the world were in crisis, and many governments were struggling to understand and protect these crucial marine resources. Large-scale marine protected areas that encompass entire geographies and multiple habitats were seen as one tool to address various threats. 

President Bill Clinton, Buzzy Agard, Tammy and Isaac Harp, 

and Sylvia Earle at the announcement of the Executive 

Order establishing Northwestern Hawaiian Islands 

Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve. 

Photo from NHIUCRER

     Many conservation and cultural leaders in Hawai`i had long recognized the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a unique - and nearly pristine - place worthy of the highest protections and helped pave the way for President Clinton’s act. Among them were the late Buzzy Agard and Dr. Isabella Aiona Abbott, along with Isaac and Tammy Harp, `Aulani Wilhelm, Robert P. Smith, Tim Johns, Athline Clark, Linda Paul, William `Aila Jr., Vicky Holt Takamine, Bill Gilmartin, Dave Raney and many others that sought protection for the area and helped facilitate the dialog that led to creation of the Reserve.

     Fifteen years after that historic moment, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands has earned increased protections, gained Hawai`i its second World Heritage site, along with Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, and brought together state and federal agencies to protect the nature and culture of the area under a shared vision and unified management. The creation of NWHICRER spurred a movement, resulting in more than a dozen large-scale marine protected area designations around the globe, and managers working together to improve efforts and share these wonders – and their significance – with the world. 

     While coral ecosystems around the planet still face global threats – rising sea temperatures, marine pollution and alien invasive species – protection of entire marine areas is one step to preserving these resources for future generations.
     Today is the beginning of a year of anniversaries for protections of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

TODAY, THE NATION HONORS the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King visited the newly formed Hawai`i State Legislature on Sept. 17, 1959, where he spoke on Hawai`i’s accomplishments and the nation’s status in race relations at the time. 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited Hawai`i in 1959 and 

spoke at the House of Representatives.

     “I come to you with a great deal of appreciation and great feeling of appreciation, I should say, for what has been accomplished in this beautiful setting and in this beautiful state of our Union,” King said. “As I think of the struggle that we are engaged in in the South land, we look to you for inspiration and as a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice, what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country, and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice.
     “We have come a long, long way. We have a long, long way to go. I close, if you will permit me, by quoting the words of an old Negro slave preacher. He didn’t quite have his grammar right, but he uttered some words in the form of a prayer with great symbolic profundity and these are the words he said: ‘Lord, we ain’t what we want to be; we ain’t what we ought to be; we ain’t what we gonna be, but thank God, we ain’t what we was.’ Thank you.” To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

LETHAL ERUPTIONS AT KILAUEA: It’s not the Volcano’s Fault is the title of tomorrow’s After Dark in the Park program beginning at 7 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.
     As a Volcano Awareness Month event, the program offers a companion hike Saturday, at 10 a.m. Participants meet at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium.

REGISTRATION FOR NEXT SATURDAY’S Keiki Fishing Tournament is due on Wednesday at 12 p.m. `O Ka`u Kakou asks participants to fill out forms available at local schools and businesses and online at okaukakou.org.

Mark Yamanaka offers a free concert 

Wednesday. Photo from NPS

MARK YAMANAKA PERFORMS Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Yamanaka shares original songs from his CDs, Lei Pua Kenikeni and Lei Maile. Free; park entrance fees apply.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.