Author Archives: Ian Lind

I was about 10 when this beauty drove in

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I first posted this back in 2020 while we were all hunkered down as Covid worked it’s magic.

I just ran into it again, and thought I would share it a second time with a few slight edits. That car is too classic!

I remember it being very exciting as we waited for my dad to get home after buying a new car, which at that time he did every 4-5 years.

At that time, he was manager of a San Francisco-based hotel and restaurant supply company, Dohrmann Hotel Supply. I guess he thought the car made him more managerial? Or maybe he just thought it was cool, as I did.

I believe this was probably the day he took possession of this new Ford Fairlane and brought it home for the first time. I think it was a 1957 model, but could be wrong. I was too young to drive, so I just had to look. And, of course, I was assigned to wash it now and then.

Note the asphalt driveway, which was considered a big step up from the original crushed coral. It lasted another 30 years (with repairs) before being replaced by concrete courtesy of a crew that had poured a concrete driveway on a large new home next door and it was just enough to replace my parents’ aslphalt.



After my parents died, Meda and I supervised a complete renovation, sticking mostly to the original size and shape of the house except that we enclosed what had been an open carport, and also extended the front of the kitchen and living room out severa feet to allow a kitchen larger than the tiny cell my mother cooked in for about 70 years. I’m sure she would have considered the expense unnecessary and wasteful. Theirs was a different generation.

And here’s the house at it looks today. The large bird of paradise plant is still there outside the front door.



Civil disobedience in Waimea 52 years ago in support of Hawaiian rights

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Saturday, May 18, 1974.

It was another iconic moment in the modern history of Hawaiian activism captured in my photos.

Here’s how I described it a number of years ago.

May 1974. Two years before the first protest landing on Kahoolawe. George Ariyoshi was serving as acting governor after the death of Gov. John A. Burns, but would have to run for the office in the election later in the year. Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians were becoming increasing restive and politically active, with long-term problems of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands becoming key issues for many.

And then there was Sonny Kaniho, Air Force veteran and Pearl Harbor shipyard pipe-fitter. Kaniho, originally from Waimea, had been on the Hawaiian Homes waiting list for nearly two decades without being awarded any land, while watching large parcels being leased to some of the state’s largest landowners.

Perhaps an unlikely activist, Kaniho began a campaign of civil disobedience. In April 1974, Kaniho issued a public statement claiming land that had been leased to Parker Ranch in the name of the Hawaiian people waiting for land leases. The Parker Ranch lease had lapsed, and Kaniho stepped up to oppose its renewal, and used direct action in an attempt to rally support for those Hawaiians who had been waiting for land while large areas were leased to corporate interests.

I was lucky enough to be invited to join Kaniho and supporters a month later when he moved to occupy this piece of pasture land in Waimea on the island of Hawaii.

This was the scene when a Kaniho and a number of supporters removed the fence and walked into a 375-acre parcel of ranch land in Waimea. The land was described as being located mauka of Manawea Gulch on the Kohala Mountain Road about a half mile Hamakua of Puu Kawaiwai.

Hawaii Police Officer Leningrad Elarionoff later arrived on the scene and notified the group that they were trespassing and would be arrested if we did not leave. No one left, and he proceeded to issue citations to 18 people who later received summons to appear in Waimea District Court in August. After retiring from the police department, Elarionoff was elected to the Hawaii County Council.

Following a two-hour trial held on August 6, the trespassing charges were dismissed after it was determined that the month-to-month permit under which Parker Ranch controlled the parcel after expiration of its lease had itself expired. Judge Norman Olds then ruled Parker Ranch had no standing to bring the trespassing charges, and threw out the case.

Left to right: Moanikeala Akaka; Raymond Pae Galdeira, leader of The Hawaiians; Mary-Mae Unea, chaplain for The Hawaiians; Sonny Kaniho; and Jim Letherer, a civil rights activist who famously walked on crutches the entire 54-mile length of the Selma-to-Montgomery march in support of voting rights led by Dr. Martin Luther King. He settled in Hawaii in 1970, according to a Honolulu Advertiser story at the time.

Civil Beat shines light on continuing HPD secrecy

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Not surprisingly, Civil Beat’s Sunshine Blog took another look at the continuing failure of the Honolulu Police Department and the Honolulu Police Commission to provide the level of transparency and accountability common in police departments elsewhere in the country.

Today’s Sunshine Blog column reported on the discussion of the department’s current attempt to renew its accreditation by Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) at a recent meeting of the police commission. But while introducing the matter of accreditation, HPD cut off any potential for substantive discussion of CALEA standards by refusing to answer any questions, claiming they are proprietary and, therefore, confidential.

So the public is supposed to be satisfied with the department claim to be complying with secret standards that are not subject to public review or comment?

An old friend, Jahan Byrne, appeared by telephone at the commission meeting to comment on his three decades of efforts to bring some sunshine to HPD’s policies and standards, first as a student at UH Manoa, and now 30 years later as a business executive living in Oakland.

Civil Beat then took the initiative and dispatched a reporter to look at a copy of the CALEA standards (available at HPD with the requirement that no notes can be taken and no copies made), according to the Sunshine Blog. The reporter, Caitlin Thompson, then contacted the CALEA program manager for the region that includes Hawaii, who flatly denied HPD’s claim that the standards are confidential and can’t be made public.

This descended into mutual finger pointing, with HPD trying to avoid responsibility for complying with the Sunshine Law by kicking all questions back to CALEA, while CALEA denying it requires HPD to keep the public from seeing what “best practices” the department says it will be complying with.

And the commission? Although a couple of members expressed skepticism about HPD’s shuck and jive routine, there was no indication the commission was ready to put its collective foot down and demand direct answers from HPD.

It this going to continue for another 30 years?

A short personal note

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This is addresseed to regulars who stop by this site from time to time.

I have just discovered a medical issue that I have to deal with. It came up with minimal notice and took me by surprise.

While I’m trying to push the diagnostic process along, and trying not to scare myself by searching online for potential worst case outcomes, I might be a little erratic with posts here.

Hopefully it will be resolved soon.

The best I can suggest is that you subscribe, if you haven’t already. That way you should get an email notice each time I post.

So please bear with me while I sort things out.