I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.". That's exactly how I feel about Hawaii.
Someone recently asked me what it was like living in Hawaii. You see, I lived there from February of 1974 through November of 1977, with my parents and siblings. I was also stationed there from 1982 to to 1984 (I forget which months) while I was in the US Marine Corps.
In 1974, my family moved into a 3-bedroom house northwest of the city of Kapaa, Hawaii, on the island of Kauai. I spent part of the 8th grade and three of my high school years there. What I experienced was nothing like I had ever experienced in my life. The local people were bigots. We were considered "haoles" (which means strangers) because we weren't locals. Haoles were treated horribly. I doubt much has changed since. They even had an unofficial "Haole Day" which was the last day of school. A haole didn't go to school on the last day unless he or she wanted to get beaten up.
It wasn't just the students, it was a pervasive attitude throughout the islands. To this day, I believe that Hawaiian schools are far inferior to the schools anywhere else in the US. Most people there speak "Pidgeon English", which is worse than ebonics, and they write like they speak. My last year of high school back on the mainland was difficult because I picked up the language and had to rid myself of it.
I didn't spend much time there when I was stationed there in 1982. I was based at Kaneohe Bay on Oahu, but I was deployed most of the time. When I wasn't, I lived in an apartment in Kailua. I didn't interact with the locals… I knew better.
