1997
Comments On Hawaii
Honolulu Weekly, Honolulu Hawaii, 1996:
The Power of Makua: A Healing Place
This is an important piece of contemporary Hawaiian history.
Its also one of the most well documented events in contemporary Hawaiian culture.
I spent some time with the community there reflecting on my Buddhist training. It would have been hard not to. I studied therapeutic communities in college.
What was happening at Makua was not only very Hawaiian, but also very powerful on a contemporary healing level.

Makua is a beautiful beach. Being  there is to enter a meditative state, even and serene.

I thought about  therapeutic communities I had studied And watched the dolphins and the sunsets.  I attended Makua council meetings. I was educated by the
people there. They made me swim the rough currents at Makua and when the time came did the interviews for the article,

There are at least four documentaries about what happened there. The survivor accounts are tremendous.  Considering the tremendousy traumatic  life
paths that drove them to the isolated beach, they were fantastic.

I learned a lot working with them.

The article itself is reflective of what I was thinking at the time.
There are several errors in the article. They are key. Sparky or “Sparks” Rodrigue’s name appeared as “Skippy.”
I know I did not write it that way.
David Rosa was identified as a veteran of the Viet Nam conflict, when in fact he was veteran of the Korean conflict.

It was the first story I wrote for The Honolulu Weekly.
I met then editor, Christine Whalen at the Maui Writer’s Conference where I had won a prize for my novel, "A Whal's Lament (at not being able to play
trombone.)"  
She gave me a shot at the Weekly and personally approved this story.  I got the cover. O’ahu is an island filled with great writers. It is very hard to network in
and get published. I am very grateful for her for letting me work.
She let me do stories about the Wai’anae Coast where I lived  and let me cover very local issues.
Laurie Carlson, the publisher, also has my eternal gratitude for this.


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Makua Fact Sheet

The following statistics were gathered at Makua Beach
by going from shelter to shelter on February 20-21,
1996. Living there at that time were 282 people
making up 63 households. Distribution according to
age is 59 individuals under 18,  205 were between the
ages of 19-55, those 55 and older number 13.

According to race and ethnicity, 233 were Native
Hawaiian, 13 were Pacific Islander, 12 were
Portuguese, 11 Caucasian, 9 Filipino, 3 Puerto Ricans
and 1 Japanese.

Duration of homelessness of the heads of households
varied from 3 who had been homeless for 1 year of
less, 23 from 1-5 years and 32 5 years and up.

Sources of income included Social Security, SSI,
Welfare, Veterans Benefits, jobs, and money from
family and friends.

Since September of 1996 members of the staff of
HCAP Leeward District Office met weekly with the
residents and a Makua Community Council was
organized. The residents had cleaned up the reef, the
beach and a fresh water river bed.

Near the Highway they made efforts to clean up trash
that could not be moved without heavy machinery.
However this area was used by businesses as a dump
and families from other parts of the coasts. Residents
and others who visit the beach frequently witnessed
City and County Trucks dumping trash there.

Residents made arrangements with drivers of the City
and County garbage disposal trucks going to
Yokohama Bay to pick up their garbage which they
gathered in bags and left in agreed upon spots on long
the Highway. However when the talk of eviction began
it was no longer picked up and the bags were torn
open by animals and the trash spread around.

At the time of the survey HCAP and Time OUt Service,
Inc have joined together to assist the residents of
Makua Beach to have a significant voice in planning
and implementing projects that address the housing,
economic, vocational, social and health needs. Time
Out Services has applied for Foundation and Trust
funding to assist residents to meet the following
objectives.

The Community was evicted in 1997.