Attack Pedestrians

[Kaonohi]

Chopped short posts.

Thank you, Helen. I am particularly long-winded (must be my Portagee 12.5%) and often get frustrated with drop-out. Plus, I'm disabled, and my typing is S L O W.

Good tips. Notebook, copy to post.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

[Kaonohi]

Re: Attack Pedestrians

What to do.

We can't run them over. No. Bad karma, and all that.

Can't flip them off, (road rage will become pedestrian rage, and they can grab nearby bricks/rocks/etc.)

So what CAN we do?

Smile at them.
Smile at them as you would an autistic child.
Smile at them as you would an idiot savant, or an incompetent.

These are people with a grudge - against the world. They feel disenfranchised. They imagine that "you," even though they don't know who you are, have robbed them of their entitlement, even though they may be more well-off than you!
The uneducated disenfranchised.

These are the people who drive slower than other traffic in the left lane - just to show you they can do so and get away with it, even though it is against the law.

These are the people who walk in front of your car and give you stink-eye, or even flip you off, even though you stopped before you hit them.

They steal flowers from your yard, steal tools from your carport, ignore laws, and make you suffer - just because they can, and they can get away with it.

It's a social phenomenon, I have finally realized, and as much as I have targeted my Portagee part-brothers/sisters, it has nothing to do with ethnicity, but everything to do with upbringing, education, parenting, and social class.

Class. They have none.

They are bullies, plain and simple.

They are the epitome of the term haole. They are without aloha, and they don't understand the concept of aloha. They belong in Hawai`i as much as the South American mosquito does. And we cannot eradicate them.

I do not know the answer, they are ubiquitous. They are arrogant, stupid, aggressive,... and we are helpless.
They ignore the laws, so new laws will not make a difference.

Pedestrian laws give pedestrians right-of-way 'in a crosswalk.' This seems to me to be a new phenomenon - brought on by the new pedestrian rights (which were sorely needed), and misinterpreted by the uneducated idiots.

Like the 'slow vehicles keep right' laws... ignored, misused.
Law states that vehicles in the left lane must move right if a car behind them is moving faster --- right.... Even a TV newscaster on live TV didn't know that, as she drove the speed limit in the left lane and filmed drivers honking horns, flashing lights, etc., to ask her to move. (Was that Paula Akana? I forget)

I must center myself, and remember my aloha. Yet aloha is not one-way, it is reciprocal. We must remember that one-way aloha brought our kingdom down. However, we must extend the invitation, the 'olive branch,' to stay true to our roots, to express our natural love.

Question is: "What do we do when our Aloha is slapped away?"
We did not become strong by allowing others to bully us.

[oggboy]

Re: Attack Pedestrians

Braddah, you sure was one Portuguese, Hawaiian??? Now days no can tell cause get all kine mix race, remember!. May be look Portuguese/Hawaiian, but!, you don`t know. Remember, how much race we get here, and how Hawaiian, Tongan, Samoan, Tahitian, Marshalles, all get brown skin. Mix it up with another race, well, your in the melting pot of the Pacific. Even get Caucasians with Hawaiian.

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Attack Pedestrians

That was a good post, except for the haole part. Kinda ruined it.

[cyleet99]

Re: Attack Pedestrians

Whooo! So to follow the haole line, that means the lifeguard was the haole and DH and I were the Aloha Crew. I'm likin' that!

[Nords]

Re: Attack Pedestrians

They are the epitome of the term haole. They are without aloha, and they don't understand the concept of aloha. They belong in Hawai`i as much as the South American mosquito does. And we cannot eradicate them.

Geez, I can't keep up with the current definition of this term.

Now when one of my friends refers to me as "that big haole guy", am I supposed to be offended or is it just a physical description of my skin color?

Maybe it's insulting to group wayward pedestrians in with the haole...

[cyleet99]

Re: Attack Pedestrians

I'm sooo confused....

Do I want to hear "You Pedestrian!!!" yelled out as they drive by?

Or do I want to hear "You Haole!!!" in that oh-so-sweet tone of voice?

Hmmmm.

Just don't call me "You Pedestrian Haole!" Now THAT would hurt my feelings.

I promise not to walk out in front of anybody on the North Shore. Now I can't promise that at Ward Center or Ala Moana!

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Attack Pedestrians

In this thread, you first say this:

This was first evident when a group of locals walked across the street in front of a bus

...and this:

Locals. Mostly portagee-hawaiian mixed, or portagee-XXX mixed locals.
Tourists forget, but mostly in town and Waikiki, where we expect it.
Plus, when they do it, they are apologetic! Not arrogant.

But you follow it up with this:

They are the epitome of the term haole.

You wanna turn off your flashing red light for a while, and spend some time in front of your mirror, brah? Your seven-pointed eyeball seems a little out-of-focus today.

[MyopicJoe]

Re: Attack Pedestrians

Human vision is interesting. It works nothing like video cameras, which capture every detail perfectly. Rather, our vision has a lot of "gaps" which our brain fills in with what it thinks should be there. It's trading off accuracy for speed, so we can quickly spot danger.

The biggest threat to a driver in a car is another car, not you, the pedestrian. Even if the driver is looking in your direction, you might not even register on their radar. Many times I've had pedestrians surprise me by "appearing out of nowhere". As Random mentioned, you need to make eye contact.

Of course there are drivers who know you are there and try to "squeeze past".


As a pedestrian, my general philosophy is to let the cars pass. I figure it's faster for everyone involved, myself included. It takes more time for a car to slow down, and you still have to wait make sure it's absolutely safe before you cross. Once a car passes me, I don't have to worry about that one.

[Kaonohi]

Re: Attack Pedestrians

K-den. My secret is out. I'm one a-hole.

Whatever. Racially I'm part Tahitian, French, Portuguese, Polish, and Mongolian. So racially I'm Haole, no matter how you look at it. Only my heart is Maoli, and I guess that doesn't count.

And yes, I use the term Haole like the indigenous Hawaiians did - to describe someone who was a foreigner - someone who didn't understand the cultural underpinnings of a land founded in 'aloha' and 'pono.'

I suppose I'm out of line, and I apologise to any and all I have offended.

No excuses; I am responsible for everything I say and do.

Yes, I do get p'd off. My neighbors steal flowers from my flower farm. I get typecast and targeted because my skin is not brown. People I did not know and had no contact with have (1) thrown a rock through my car window, cutting me and damaging my car and (2) pulled up alongside my car and hit it with a hammer.

This is not the Hawai'i I remember when I was younger. This is not the Hawai'i I was taught to love and respect. Pardon me for being offended.

Honestly, I am the farthest thing from a racist or nationalist. I do not judge people by the circumstances of their birth. I do, however hold people accountable for their actions. It was unfortunate that in doing so I targeted certain groups which did not deserve to be blamed for the actions of individuals.

I can't promise I'll never do it again, but at least for now the eyeball is re-focused.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Attack Pedestrians

but at least for now the eyeball is re-focused.

I believe you, and thanks.

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Attack Pedestrians

That was a good post, except for the haole part. Kinda ruined it.

He was referring to the root of the word:

Back to basics...

Ha = breath of life
ole= No

Haole = None breathers.

Probably because the first Haole were Caucasians, today that term has become synonymous with Caucasian.

Sadly today there are far too many people with bad attitudes who lack the spiritual breath of life - and they come in all skin colors.

Speaking as a pedestrian, I try not to tempt fate with cars because it's going to hurt if I lose.

That's how I look at it. I'd rather jaywalk with no traffic then cross legally when there's cars around.

As a driver, I know it's far to easy to watch for other cars and not even "see" motorcycles, much less pedestrians. And then there's the risk you might be hidden behind the "A" pillar of the car. (I'll let the forum boaters explain why you watch out for objects that maintain the same relative bearing.)

As time goes on and their luck runs out, there will be fewer people behaving that mindlessly.

You'd hope, but they don't seem to be dying off.

I'm a believer in what goes around comes around. Normally I'm happy to give that a helping hand. Except in this case. I hope idiot pedestrians will cross paths with equally arrogant drivers so they can both learn.

Whenever I cross I'm always looking. Too many people fix their eyes only at the other side of the street instead of scanning either side of the crosswalk.

Look both ways - all the way across.

In a nutshell: Traffic laws that favor pedestrians embolden them in a situation they cannot win.

I agree. It redefines the meaning of "dead right".

As has been discussed previously, there's no "time limit" that I'm arbitrarily setting for composing posts, nor is it "easily fixed."

If you set your login to "remember me" you never have a problem.

Also if you click "Preview Post" periodically, that helps too.

[Kaonohi]

Re: Attack Pedestrians

He was referring to the root of the word:

Probably because the first Haole were Caucasians, today that term has become synonymous with Caucasian.

Sadly today there are far too many people with bad attitudes who lack the spiritual breath of life - and they come in all skin colors.

Actually that is the way I think of the term, and in those instances where it is used as a derogatory rather than a descriptor, the user is saying roughly the same thing.

The evidence that this is the original meaning of the word, however, is inadequate. Closest translations to the original meaning would be 'stranger, outsider, transplanted, not originally from here.' When used that way it's very inclusive, and is used to identify any thing or person that is not Hawaiian.

FWIW, myths and theories about the origin of the word exist:

For example: Europeans extended their hands in greeting instead of embracing and sharing breath (honi), therefore, they must not have breath to share..., so 'ha - a`ole' = haole. No. A nice myth but linguistic studies don't support it. Other Polynesian languages have their equivalents, and it means 'stranger, etc....' Plus haole koa doesn't mean European koa or white koa or koa without breath or spiritless koa, it means an introduced plant that is similar to koa in some ways.

Another thing to consider is that a negative connotation may have developed due to the fact that Europeans brought new diseases, mosquitoes, guns, etc., and some of them took advantage of the Hawaiian people, who were naive to the ways of the world, concerning money, land ownership, etc. Europeans were the first "others" the Hawaiians had to complain about.... (Except, perhaps, for Menehune; the days of traveling between Hawai`i and other Polynesian islands having long passed.

Thanks for the support and clarification - hope you don't mind the quick linguistics and history lecture.