Hear From the HSBA President

It has now been six months since I became HSBA President. Each month we have been hearing from a different part of the Bar, including, from our Executive Director, Cathy Betts, and from Richard Priest, President of the Maui County Bar Association. We hope to bring more voices to you later this year. I thought I would use this month’s e-newsletter to reflect on the 250th Anniversary of the founding of our Nation. For those of you old enough to remember the 200th Anniversary, it was an exciting time, with many celebrations both nationally and locally. From my recollection, back then it was very different than it was this year. Perhaps it was my age back then, or perhaps the mood of the Country is different today.

Our Declaration of Independence begins with the following: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” There is much to unpack in these two sentences, and there are different views on the historical context of these statements, and who benefitted and who did not. But this column is not the place for that discussion.

After setting forth a long list of grievances, our founders stated that the colonies were free and independent. Not that they should be, but that they were, free and independent. It was the power of those words that made them so. It is in the written word and the belief that words have inherent power when used to assert a just position, followed by action based upon those words -- that is the “Rule of Law”. Actions alone do not create the baseline for society. It is words that are carefully thought through, massaged, and then finalized in a specific order and with a specific tone and purpose, that lays the foundation for actions that follow those words, that lead to the end results. This is what lawyers do. Put words into action. We use words to advocate for or to protect our clients. In the everyday work that we do, we should remember that words matter.

Going back to the founders, at some level, they were saying that enough is enough. Given the current political climate in our country, we must ask ourselves, is it time once again to say, enough is enough? On a smaller scale, however, occasionally, we too should stop and ask ourselves, is it time to declare that enough is enough, in whatever we are engaged in. If so, then perhaps it is time to make your own declaration, be it big or small. As I stated in my first e-newsletter, “Time is short. Do not waste it.”