Can a Person Make a Difference in Hawaii?

One often wonders during particularly difficult times in Hawaii (and the rest of the world), why don't the very successful people who grew up in Hawaii return there and lead that society out of its difficulties?

Why don't the successful entrepreneurs like Guy Kawasaki or Steve Case operate their successful empires out of Hawaii and provide employment for the local folks as they do elsewhere -- or for that matter, why doesn't President Obama, become the governor and treat Hawaii special and above even his other home state of Illinois?

The rather interesting insight I had running for public office in Hawaii, was in meeting many people face to face and finding out that not a few people thought that a proper candidate for their vote, was one who would shamelessly grovel and do any manner of humiliations to "win" their approval -- and so one quickly realizes, why should I ruin my life in that way? Sometimes the cost of winning, is no bargain, and that seems increasingly the price one pays for becoming a decent public officeholder. One chooses fools to be their bosses -- and any and the biggest fools at that.

So can one blame Sarah Palin for saying "Enough?" That is also the price of fame in entertainment, sports, and business -- that increasingly many are choosing to forgo, or not take up in the first place -- if they are clear in what they truly want, without assuming the baggage that usually comes with it. But for many, especially those who have never achieved or had anything, they think any sacrifice is a price they are gladly willing to pay -- because success is so far out of their reach, that they never have to reckon with the consequences and realities of that eventualities becoming real.

It is easy to fantasize about all those things -- if one never has to actually deal with the realities. But for such people, their fantasies and realities become much more fragmented, disjointed and unconnected -- until they have these life-changing epiphanies one frequently sensationally read and hear about -- before they disappear into oblivion.

That seems like a high price to pay and maybe the ultimate price to pay for turning one's back on public life -- especially in Hawaii. But those who live the happiest lives in Hawaii, are invariably those who have decided that is the perfect place to be "nobody" -- but that is not everything they find fulfilling in their lives. The worst life seems to be to remain "somebody" in Hawaii -- because one knows that would invariably be all bad until one is hopelessly lost and destroyed.

So if one wishes to expand those possibilities of life beyond the socially acceptable union jobs in their rigid status quo and hierarchy, one inevitably and invariably has to go elsewhere -- and let those remaining, who could not imagine living elsewhere, do the best they can to make that society as good as it can be.

But every great civilization has realized that if you want the best and the brightest to come there and call it home, you can't persecute and exploit them unmercifully as though they have no other options -- because such people have the most options, and will go where they are the most honored and valued -- and not remain where they are the most abused and taken for granted. They are not fools.