Refuge vote sad day for the environment

Life of the Land is saddened to learn that Sens. Akaka and Inouye both voted in favor of despoiling one of the most pristine ecosystems on the planet — the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska.

My heart sank when I read that our senators ignored their constituents' pleas to preserve this special place. We have met with members of the Gwich'in and the Inuit tribes and discussed the impacts that such a project would have on the calfing grounds of the porcupine caribou, on which the Gwich'in depend for subsistence hunting. There is no way, even with advanced technology, to drill for oil that is environmentally friendly.

As Mark Herdon wrote in an article entitled "An Oil Man Treks ANWR": "After visiting ANWR — seeing that coastal plain myself — I realized that there are a lot of lies being told about this place. It is not a vast wasteland. It is achingly beautiful, and if you value wild places, the refuge could be considered a sanctuary or a cathedral."

It's a sad day for the environment. Opening up new virgin areas of Alaska will have long-term negative impacts. Global warming is a real and serious issue.

The Senate vote for Arctic drilling continues the myth that fossil fuels are the answer. Renewable energy is the answer.

Moloka'i purchase threat to way of life

Are we so naive to believe the Tommy Bahama-clad woman from New York spent $3 million or so on 1,048 acres of Moloka'i simply to "have a place to watch the whales go by"? No one would buy that amount of undeveloped land and keep it that way because that would be a real waste of profit, wouldn't it?

Over the last few years, I have seen our Islands turn into a playground for the very wealthy who come from somewhere else, build their vacation mansions and monstrosities, and drive up property values for the regular people who live here and work very hard and struggle to just make ends meet. It breaks one's heart to see a lifestyle we all knew in earlier days become pushed out by the very few who don't care as long as "they got theirs." First-time buyers cannot get in the door to buy a simple home or apartment, and it will only get worse.

Sure, this is America, the land of capitalism and freedom, but something has become very skewed in our values. It has, sadly, become very American to think that more and bigger are better.

This was the most special place to grow up, and it's heartbreaking to see Hawai'i become like Beverly Hills. Once we lose that unique quality of this place, we will never get it back, but what concerns me most is average people's inability to make it here anymore, when this is the only home they have ever known.

Akaka bill violates international law

We ku'e (reject) the Akaka bill pending in the U.S. Senate.

Whereas, the United Nations in U.N. General Assembly Resolution 66(1) on Dec. 14, 1946, placed our homeland, Ka Pae 'aina (Hawai'i), on the U.N. List of Non-Self-Governing Territories eligible for decolonization;

Whereas, we, descendants of the nationals of the Hawaiian Kingdom independent state founded in 1810, who thrived in Ka Pae 'aina prior to the unlawful United States military invasion of 1893, and U.S. military occupation and purported annexation in 1898, in violation of treaties and international law, have not been afforded the opportunity, unlike the peoples of other territories named on the said U.N. List, to exercise our full right of self-determination under international law, including the option of full independence;

Whereas, the United States itself formally recognized, in U.S. Congress Joint Apology Resolution (PL 103-150) signed by U.S. President William J. Clinton on Nov. 23, 1993, that we kanaka maoli people, who constituted the overwhelming majority of the nationals of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893-1898, have never directly relinquished our inherent sovereignty nor our national lands to the United States;

Therefore, we, the undersigned kanaka maoli and other Hawaiian kingdom national descendants, hereby respectfully request his excellency the secretary-general of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, and call upon her excellency the secretary of state of the United States, Ms. Condoleezza Rice, to inform U.S. Senate President Richard Cheney that the U.S. Senate's consideration of the Akaka bill (the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005), which purports to determine our political status, which we alone may determine, is a serious breach of international law, such that the U.S. Senate must immediately cease and desist from considering said bill any further.