Thursday, April 13, 2023

Lilith and a history of violence in Hawai`i

"I keep thinking it's Saturday," I say to the young man at the cemetery gatehouse. He's bearded, wears a knit cap, leans on the desk, iPhone in hand. As usual. He smiles, says he wishes it were. On our way out of the cemetery, I say it's closer to Saturday now, but we're not there yet; he smiles. On second thought, I say Lilith and I found the grave of the young guy who was killed by police a couple years ago. Way back toward the edge of the cemetery, near where Lilith likes to find mongooses. Iremamber Sykap. "Remember him?" 
 
The tall white guy in the back says, "oh there are so many young guys here, stabbings...lots of Micronesians." "There's a large group of graves over there," I point up hill. "Was that covid?" "It happened during covid, but lots of different stuff. A tough group; they used to come here at night and we couldn't get them out. Drug dealers. Even sold drugs while they were over there." The young man whose back is to the older man (they're both facing me) raises his eyebrows.
 
 
[There is a lot of backstory to this story. Micronesians came to HI as nuclear refugees. See this article for more: https://www.civilbeat.org/.../jonathan-okamura.../ ]

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