Wow, thank you for the comment! I actually stumbled upon this article randomly after my girlfriend asked me if I had ever been published. This was the first time I had ever been published at all, and I was pleasantly surprised to see such a nice comment after all this time. My skin is certainly thicker than it was back then. I was heartbroken to see my first publication marred by Internet warfare. I wish I hadn’t reacted so unfavorably and fueled the fire, but c’est la vie. Lessons are learned.
I have, in fact, been living in Hawai’i all this time and I love it more and more with each passing day. I’ve learned many things during my time here, surrounded by the sea. I wish you well, and I appreciate your kind words. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
(P.S. I’m sorry about your broken nose when you were 13. Sandy’s is scary. I’m sure many of my past critics would be very happy to know that, two and a half years later, I never swim there anymore. )

I appreciate the fact that you accepted responsibility for your lighthearted approach to Sandy’s. It most definitely is a break that requires the utmost caution, and yes, people get injured. I myself broke my nose there when I was 13 (got OWNED by a sneak attack wave). Still, I don’t think your writing, your writing style, or the content of your article was disrespectful to Hawai’i, her beauty, or her people in any way. I think, on the contrary, it’s irresponsible to attack those who have pure intentions and who truly are trying to learn about, grow with, and appreciate the beauty that is Hawai’i.

Yes, Hawaiians have a bone to pick, and many, like those on the side of the Sovereignty issue, which I would venture to say certain comment authors might be, gauging by the anger in his/her “attack”. But I think we also have kuleana in taking into consideration who and where we target our “barbs”. I just don’t think your article merited that kind of response.

I hope, over the time you’ve now spent in the islands, you’ve grown to love her and her people even more than you obviously did before. As far as I’m concerned, I sense the force is strong within you.

Also, the Japanese and the Aussies were riding the same colonial wave. The criticism isn’t America-centric but rather aimed at this broader colonial culture and it’s perpetuation today.

You don’t Lose your cool that often cause you probably don’t hang out with people that will call you on this stuff. But now that you’ve been called, and it’s obviously a sore point. Are you going to think about your role in colonization and try to do something about it, or are you going to duck your head and pretend this never happened?

I’m being serious here, are you going to look at why you got so angry and lost it? What it is about the buttons that got pushed? Or are you just going to chock it up to “Internet flame war” Cause there was a lot more gong on than that. You’re living in a colony, and people are becoming increasingly aware of the situation, and starting to work against it. So are you going to work for colonization or against it?

That said, I’m not going to change my writing style, so if you’ve read this and don’t like what you see, please avoid my articles in the future. We’ll all be that much less offended for it. There. Now I feel better!

-Christian

That theory is just as realistic as assuming that if Americans hadn’t shown up, the Aussies or Japanese wouldn’t have dominated these islands just as quickly.

Now. This discussion is over. I’m not going to fuel the flame any longer. You can take your racist aggression out on someone else’s blog now. I’m sorry I fail at being a colonial douche.