EDITORIAL
Race, culture and legal questions highly complex

Some Hawaiians were more than a little perplexed this week when U.S. District Judge David Ezra offered up a bench lecture on the intricacies of the Hawaiian hanai system and its place in legal and social history.

Ezra was presiding over a session that led to the approval of a settlement that will allow a non-Hawaiian student to continue his education at Kamehameha Schools.

The settlement means the boy's family and their supporters will drop a legal challenge to Kamehameha's Hawaiian-"preference" admission policy.

The boy's mother was hanai'd, or adopted, by a Hawaiian family and under "ancient Hawaiian law" that would make her Hawaiian, Ezra said. That was the mother's belief in deciding to apply her son to Kamehameha, he noted.

Some Hawaiians were outraged, saying Ezra had no business telling them what hanai means or does not mean. Others said the theory makes considerable sense.

This does raise interesting questions about whether "Hawaiian" is a genetic or cultural definition.

The point here, however, is that even on this one issue, opinion is so emotional and divided that agreement seems almost impossible.

Imagine the task of settling larger issues, such as Hawaiian entitlement programs, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and even the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

But settle we must. Somehow, as a society, we must work our way through this thicket of history, culture, race and law in a way that honors Hawaiians and the constitution under which we live.