Posted on: Sunday, June 5, 2005

Students lauded for advocacy

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

Two Kamehameha Schools students took top honors yesterday at the third annual Guardians of Liberty and Justice Youth Awards ceremony at the state Supreme Court.

Co-winners were junior Maxine Anderson, 17, and senior Lehua Farrar-Ivey, 18, who shared a $1,000 award for starting the Gay Straight Alliance and working to get the group formally recognized at the school.

In presenting the awards, sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai'i Foundation, Chief Justice Ronald Moon commended the students for their dedication and courage in highlighting important civil-rights issues that have promoted appreciation and acceptance of diversity.

"I have no doubt that their decisions to pursue the actions taken were met with much resistance, not only from their peers, but from adults as well," said Moon.

Farrar-Ivey, who will be attending the University of Puget Sound this fall, said she had never considered herself a leader and wasn't sure she really did anything special in standing up for the individuality of students who might otherwise be excluded because of their sexual orientation.

Maxine Anderson's award was accepted by her mother, Denise Anderson, who said: "I'm very proud of my visionary daughter."

She read a note for Maxine, who was unable to attend the ceremony.

"I'm so glad I got to be part of this great movement to spread tolerance in places were there was none," said the note.

But it was the Big Island's Myles Cockroft, 18, a Pahoa High and Intermediate School graduate bound for Boston University, who spoke most forcefully about what he termed the current attack in America on the Bill of Rights.

Cockroft won a $500 finalist's prize for his initiative in challenging a school policy requiring students to wear photo identification badges.

Historically, said Cockroft, citizen's civil liberties have been usurped by the government during times of extreme crisis and times when the country has been at war, such as when the government maintained martial law in Hawai'i throughout most of World War II.

Now, he told the gathering of about three dozen people, a new and ominous wrinkle has been added.

"In this case, the Patriot Act is being justified by the war on terrorism, which is a whole new kind of war because instead of being a war on a country or a place, it's a war on an improper noun," said Cockroft, who gained a reputation at school as the "go-to guy" regarding student rights.

"And as such, it's a perpetual war — which is perfect for taking away your civil liberties, because it's a war that will never end until they want it to. And by 'they,' I mean the Bush administration. Sorry."

Most perplexing to Cockroft is the lack of outrage from the public about the erosion of basic freedoms.

Part of the blame, he said, goes to the media for neglecting to report on the assault on civil rights; the reason is for-profit corporations, which don't want to rock the boat, own and control the country's news outlets, he said.

But "the strongest threat to civil liberties doesn't come from the Patriot Act, or the war on terror, or the media. It comes from our own minds if we allow ourselves to be taken in."

It falls upon his fellow students just starting out to stand up for their rights, to fight back and to question authority, he said. Otherwise, Cockroft said, the next generation may not have civil liberties to defend.