Sun shines on a new beginning

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•	Democrats challenged by mood at Capitol
•	Photo gallery
•	Hawai'i comments on its new governor
	Highlights of yesterday's Linda Lingle inauguration address (RealPlayer required): High bandwidth, low bandwidth
•	Full text of Lingle's inauguration speech

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Something almost magical happened at yesterday's inauguration.

It was an overcast day. The clouds weren't gray like rain was coming. The sky was just white with very little blue.

People wore hats to the ceremony, as if expecting sun. There were dozens of old-fashioned papale adorned with feather lei in yellow, pheasant gray and burgundy. Some wore straw hats with silk flowers. There were baseball caps and Lingle/Aiona visors. There were hats covered in wood roses and blond kukui nuts and lauhala shaped like hibiscus. There was a group wearing brightly colored silk hats to match their Chinese robes. There was even a man in a brown felt fedora and a woman with a hat completely covered with peacock feathers. Some of the men took off their hats and held them to their hearts during the prayers and pledge. But there was no sun to shine off the brims of all those hats.

Up on the third floor balcony, dozens of uniformed cadets from the Hawai'i National Guard Youth Challenge program stood waiting to do their part in the ceremony. Clear-eyed kids with names like Basilio, Kaai, Schmidt, Yi, DeMello and Laufou stood during the national anthem. They listened to the talk of the future, of education, of a new beginning.

Then, as the last benediction was being read, the clouds parted and the sun shone down, bright and strong, through the opening of the capitol atrium, directly down on all those hats.

As the prayer ended, the Youth Challenge cadets dropped flowers from the third floor of the Capitol. Purple orchids floated down like the softest rain. They came to rest on hat brims and laps. Elderly women and little children scurried to gather up the blossoms from around their feet. Girls stuck the flowers behind their ears and men tucked them into their pockets. Looking up into the shower of purple petals and bright sunshine, you could just make out the faces of the teens in uniform, grinning as they got to pelt and hurl flowers off the balcony, like they couldn't believe they were allowed to do such a thing.

And just as the colors were retired from the stage, the clouds returned, covering the sun, and the sky was cool and hazy once more.

Father Ronald Burke, one of the seven religious leaders to speak, had perhaps the most direct comments of the day. "Linda and Duke," he said, "You promised, over and over, to take care of us. And we believed you. Now you must fulfill your promise. You must truly become servant leaders."

There were prayers for strength, for clarity, for compassion, and for unity. And in that moment when the sun came out from behind the clouds and the kids with names like Aki and Vicente and Shook threw flowers into the air like so many good wishes, it seemed that anything, even a new beginning, might be possible.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.