WE MUST DO WHAT GOVERNMENT CAN'T

"The American public just like your teenage kids, aren't acting in a way that they should act. " U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said, regarding greenhouse-gas emissions.

Hawaii acts like a spoiled child when it comes to taking care of our oceans. We want our Daddy, Uncle Sam, to fix our problems.

The first line of an Advertiser article in May titled, "Ancient tradition may be way to save reefs," said: "Hawaiians had it right."

Of course, Hawaiians had it right; they lived in the now and acted for the future.

Hawaiians in their ahupuaa saw it as their duty to care for their resources, the mountains and the reefs, which was the Foodland of their time. To Hawaiians, there is a spiritual and physical connection to the äina and it's an obligation to maintain that connection through mälama äina and mälama kai, care for the land and sea, because if we take care of it, it will take care of us.

"We," all of us, must assume that same obligation, now more than ever. Join an environmental club at school in your community. Stop lobbying Daddy. Legislation takes years to pass, but picking up rubbish on the beach takes a second. Laws are vague, but actions are concrete. Grow up and get out there, the world isn't waiting.