Prisons, Prisons Everywhere

The following was submitted to Honolulu Star Advertiser for publication in 'Island Voices' on May 25 2014.
Photos were not included. [Posted here June 3 2014]

Prisons, prisons everywhere
by Richard Morse--non-patrician candidate for governor, 2014

Perhaps the scariest issue of the StarAdvertiser yet was Friday--5/9/14. With 3 or 4 articles related to the topic of 'prisons', it might have been called "The Jailers Edition."  The front page header:

"Internment site sought for national park", reveals the National Park's plans to resurrect a dark, regretful chapter of our history--internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

The plan, apparently, is to build an actual prison camp at the actual site--Honouliuli Gulch. The intent, to quote the article, is: "the federal government wants to recreate the old Honouliuli Internment Camp in Kunia so that others can learn from past mistakes."

Monsanto, according to the article, will make a generous gift of state agriculture lands to the federal government for the project.

Is it me, or is this idea really creepy?  Isn't the usual routine for memorials, of this type, to erect an embossed stone monument, and maybe operate a little museum on the side? If we want realistic reminders of historic "mistakes", why not daily re-enactments of the attack on Pearl Harbor? Or how about occasional bombings of Nagasaki...just as a reminder...of past mistakes?

Later in the issue, (page A19 'Island Voices") Palikapu Dedman spotlights our dysfunctional prison system and  Senate Resolution 120 SD2: "Requesting the Department of Public Safety to enter into public-private partnerships for new correctional facilities." Of course, "correctional facilities" is politically-correct jargon for "prisons."

In Resolution 120 SD2, the Senate suggests that a string of new privately-owned prisons across our islands would be "in the best interest of the State as it serves and benefits the economic, social, and public safety interests of its citizens."  Call me 'paranoid', but, frankly, the very idea of a rash of privately-owned prisons across our aina, contrived 'to serve the economic and social interests of citizens of the state' scares the hell out of me. Toss in a few concentration camps, run by the feds, and fear yields to panic.

This is probably an Internet hoax.
 But it works well with this fantasy

But, hey, on the brighter side, suppose we get into the spirit of it. Why let a perfectly good opportunity go wasted on the National Park Service?
I mean, what tourist wouldn't pay $150.00 for the thrill of being interned in a authentic concentration camp for a night? The state could form a P3 with Blackwater to run it; just to intensify the authenticity of the experience. And since Monsanto is already in the mix, the State could partner with them too. For a mere fifty bucks extra, "visitors" could receive a semi-lethal dose of agent orange...a potential sideline for our modern farmers, and a win-win all the way around.

According to the article, the internment-camps project has the support of our prominent elected officials, naming Brian Schatz, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and Neil Abercrombie; which, if true, raises the question: "Have our politicians all gone mad?" The fact that Monsanto is so willing to donate "their" land to the effort is little assurance that this project is altogether being done in good faith. 
Beware; the devil in the details.