What wonderful news–Maui’s W.S. Merwin is to be named poet laureate today by the Library of Congress.
We met William and his wife, Paula, not long after they moved to Maui. Attentive to what was going on in his new home at the time, he was doing research for an article about the protest landing on Kahoolawe that had taken place in January 1976. It and subsequent protests were very much in the news over the next couple of years. William sought me out for an interview as a participant in that first landing. We hit it off, and it led to an ongoing friendship. I couldn’t be happier about this latest, well-deserved honor.
For those interested, I ran across this lengthy 2005 interview with William from The Paris Review that is well worth reading.
And pick up a copy of the latest Honolulu Weekly for a description of what’s happened to the men and women who used to deliver Honolulu’s competing daily newspapers and now bring the Star-Advertiser to homes and street corners, in Alia Wong’s piece, “Killing the messengers?”
You might also want to jump back to Weekly editor Ragnar Carlson’s explanation of his paper’s new schedule, based on the move of its printing to Maui. It’s long on observations about the impact of David Black’s new newspaper monopoly.
Another bit of timely reading–a recent profile of Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann from Mormon Times, in which Hannemann describes basing his political style on his Mormon faith.
In this period of history where the constitutional separation of church and state is being undermined, I’m not comforted by this:
“I can tell you that every decision I make, I pray about,” said Hannemann, who’s often asked how he reached various conclusions.
He also said he often tells his staff to pray about decisions.
“I made it clear from day-one that this will be a prayerful administration. This administration will always seek guidance of the Lord.”
In any case, it’s another bit of interesting reading.
Finally, if you haven’t been following the fallout of Rolling Stone’s story that took out General Stanley McChrystal, you might want to check out these stories from The New Yorker and from Rolling Stone.
Now I’m off for an uncharacteristically early (for me) 7 a.m. morning presentation to the Rotary Club of Metropolitan Honolulu. I wouldn’t have agreed to this except for the persistent pleas of a friend who refused to take “no” for the final answer. So off I go to catch The Bus.
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Nikki,
Not sure who you are criticizing. If you read my post at the top, you will see I recognize the right of people to turn to prayer and their religious beliefs for guidance. Where it crosses the line is when they TELL their staff to pray, as reported in the Mormon Times. And when they say the ADMINISTRATION will be a “prayerful administration.” and “This ADMINISTRATION will always seek guidance of the Lord.”
NO! The “administration” is composed of city employees, with the top ones serving at the pleasure of the Mayor. Just as an employer or supervisor should not use their position to gain “consensual” sex from a subordinate, neither should a boss put pressure an employee to engage in the boss’s religious practices or beliefs.
If Mufi derives certain values from his religious beliefs, for example humility, honesty or charity, it is OK for him to urge City employees to follow those values, provided he does not say they should follow them BECAUSE Jesus wants them to.
But Mufi appears to equate his administration with himself and treat city employees as an extension of his will rather than employees of the public.
Individual religious beliefs? Fine, if they make you a better leader, go for it. Imposing religious policies or practices on public employees? Wrong, wrong, wrong.
You shouldn’t need to use much “nuance” to understand the distinction.
Well Mufi was out in force for the 4th of July – and all those City employees marched…..I am sure that they are not worrying about the church affiliation, nor the admonishment to pray. As far as the Mufi outburst to the Professor, it’s too typical to be a lie….and this town is too replete with ears and eyes for such outbursts from our Mayors – and “we” all put up with Frank until he wanted to be Governor. So – my suggestion is that Mufi will be Mufi – and we won’t see him in the Governor’s puka because at the end of the day, that behavior is OK for a Mayor, but it doesn’t cut it for a Governor.