Anelas among us - good people and what they do (Ewa Beach: crime, how much)

[hunterseat]

Okay, okay, I had to look up the Hawaiian word for angel and you never know when you land on a Wiki site.

We've had a couple of things happen - the teenage girl used her debit card at Safeway (Ewa Beach) and got cash back - about $50. When she got home she realized she'd left the cash in the dispensing tray at the checkout. After much cussing her dad convinced her to call the store. Someone had turned the cash in to Customer Service.

Fast forward a month or so - just the other evening we picked her up and AGAIN in Safeway she left her TOO EXPENSIVE phone (which she bought and paid for and really got a great deal on) on a shelf where she'd been browsing (apparently with two hands). We were almost out of the parking lot when she felt its absence. We rushed back and again someone had turned it in.

Two instances of good people doing the right thing when it would have been so easy to pocket those items. YAY!

[PaliPatty]

Pardon me, but I've experienced many acts of kindness, no matter where I've lived or traveled. The examples provided by the OP are most certainly very nice but not, IME, limited to Hawaii.
"'Anela" abound (yes, the plural is 'anela--na 'anela---please don't add an "s," thank you). I've had someone call me when I dropped my wallet at the beach in LI, NY. Another person ran after me after I left my bank card in an ATM in California. I was offered an incredible act of kindness in NYC, beyond what I wish to share here. I could go on and on but, really....this behavior is not endemic to Hawaii. It is merely proof that there are good human beings everywhere. And there are, after all.
And frankly, you need to school your kid on personal responsibility or, at least, her ability to pay attention to what she's doing. My daughter kicked it up a notch after having her purse stolen in NYC (left it in the car) and has done well since then. Lesson learned.
I'll attribute this post to newcomer rose-colored glasses. A sweet post, no doubt with the best intentions, bent on showing how fabulous this island is. I understand the sweet intention.
Nonetheless, I've never lived anywhere (nor visited) where kindness does not predominate. S***heads exist, to be sure, but kindness predominates, even in the (OMG HOW EVIL!!!) NYC metro area.
If you want to leave a place, you seek to find crap. If you want to stay, you seek the good. If you want to justify your move, you seek to pile up the positives vs the negatives and seek to broadcast those positives.
It's all good, and mightily predictable, IME.
Sidenote: Not intending this to be pejorative. Just an observation. YMMV, and more power to ya.
Another sidenote: Just had my truck broken into, right in my carport. Not amused, by any means. Rampant break-ins of homes and vehicles in my town. Yay for those who are still basking in the rose-glow.
As for us? Researching home security systems, bulking up our motion-detection lighting, and locking up tight when we go out.
Aloha!!!!

[RugbyDave]

Slight tangential: I'm sorry, but I see nothing wrong with pluralizing an 'Olelo Hawai'i noun in English. For instance, any of us who have spent any time in Hawai'i have heard the following:

'Mahalos, man' or 'My keikis are crazy today!'

Not once have I ever heard anyone interrupt that person and say "actually, it's na keiki, please don't add an -s, thanks". We see this with 'pu-pus' and 'alohas' as well as 'keikis' and 'ali'is'. I see nothing wrong with it, especially if someone has gone to the trouble to learn the word in the first place. I actually speak the language, too. Now, if she were wanting to speak actual 'Olelo Hawai'i, then we would urge her to use the proper ka'i.

You're still good with me hunterseat, and glad you are finding the goodness in people around you!

[Iowaloha]

I think there are far more good people out there that outnumber the bad, we just focus in on the few bad experiences we have, and it's almost human nature to feel like that's the majority. I'm personally a believer of karma, and I just don't see how it's worth tempting karma to take someone's phone, or to pocket 50 dollars. Times are hard out there for everyone, and that person needs that money just as much as you or me. Heck, I've found a wallet before with 300 dollars in it. No identifying things at all in there. Literally an wallet that was completely empty with 300 dollars in it, laying in the street. I turned it in to the cops. After a while, they contacted me and nobody claimed it, so it was mine. Instead of keeping it, I started a "poll" on Facebook with four options of people to choose to donate it to (The local Coalition against Domestic Violence chapter got a nice anonymous 300 dollar donation!). I think we undervalue the "Pay it Forward" aspect in life too often.

Sorry, long rant. Anyway, moral of the story is, there's good in a LOT of places, we just need to compartmentalize the bad to realize how much good is out there on a daily basis.

[PaliPatty]

I do have to apologize a bit---just had my truck broken into and was in no mood to hear rosy comments about how wonderful everyone is here. Sorry about the virtual blue-pencil stuff, too.
To answer your question about how long I've been here? About fourteen years so the bloom is well off the rose. And how long have you been here?
The average transplant to Hawaii stays about two years and then it's off to a new adventure or back to the old one. The reasons they leave are as varied as the people themselves but most often cited are the isolation, low paying jobs compared to the mainland, the lousy schools, the expense.
The people here are generally very pleasant. But I must say that the petty (and not so petty) crime here is so out of hand. My neighbors had baby palm trees ripped out of their yard. Another neighbor had a little enclosed trailer full of radio-controlled model aircraft (locked, chained up---the chains were cut with a laser cutter) stolen from his yard. We all were hit with a massive attack of graffitti (cars, fences, walls) down our block a few years ago---black spray paint all over everything. Cute.
But yes, as in every place in the world, I think, the good outnumber the bad. We have wonderful neighbors and great friends here. I also have a great job and am nearing retirement. We're in this for the long haul, LOL---no plans to go anywhere else.
We still have fairly frequent visitors from the mainland staying with us for weeks at a time---last time was in May and more are coming in August. If I get to missing mainland type stuff I can just get on plane and get my fill and head back here---we were on the mainland just about a month ago, visiting family. But we're always smiling when we touch down at HNL and, for as far as we can see into the future (things can always change, of course), we'll be staying here. :-)
Now back to my coffee on this very pretty Windward day!

[KauaiHiker]

Tangent to the tangent:

Originally Posted by RugbyDave

I see nothing wrong with it, especially if someone has gone to the trouble to learn the word in the first place.

Why bother using an uncommon, introduced Hawaiian word with non-Hawaiian speakers who probably don't know it? To me that sounds a little fake, especially when admitting she had to look it up (so it's not like people are using it regularly in converstions). Anyways, the thread seemed funnier when I assumed it was a typo for "Anoles among us."

Still, it's always good to hear that honesty still exists out there. And I do agree with PaliPatty's point (though not tone) that it's good to remember that it's all over the world, not just in Hawaii.

[PaliPatty]

I got lambasted once by a rather militant Native Hawaiian for pluralizing "lei" with an "s." A coworker, she had great disdain for white folks from the mainland and didn't hesitate to show it, grumble grumble. But I did learn from it, LOL.
Anyone here remember the glory days of Haunani Kay-Trask? Wow---she went so far as to declare that no white person should even dare speak any Hawaiian word and if a Hawaiian heard someone doing so they should take it upon themselves to beat the crap out of them.
Don't hear much from her these days...I suppose she's still a professor at UH. She and her sister Mililani were quite the hate-spewing pair a few decades ago. I actually believe that she has many many very valid arguments but the hatred in her writings and speeches was so overwhelming. Some of her poetry is downright vitriolic. Sad.
Off topic, sorry.
Back to my coffee on this still incredibly lovely Windward day.... ;-)

[Dthraco]

Originally Posted by PaliPatty

I think, the good outnumber the bad.

I think *most* people want to do good. But the number who actually do it, the one's who are honest, real, mature and humble...very few of those.

Hunterseat's teenager got lucky and delayed a couple of hard to learn lessons. (IMHO) I believe Hawaii is no different from any other place when it comes to distribution of people who do the right thing because it is the right thing with absolutely no other reason 'guiding' them to do it.

[OpenD]

A buddy of mine dropped his wallet containing a large amount of cash in a cab in NYC last year, and got it back, intact.

There are good people everywhere, and there are bad people everywhere. It's naive to think otherwise.

[hunterseat]