A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

by on November 25, 2019 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I watched Mister Rogers this weekend. I grew up watching his show, and it really does feel like I got to see him again this weekend. Tom Hanks did a very good job nailing his mannerisms and voice. The movie begins and ends with the beginning and ending of the TV show, and we see many scenes from it all through the movie, all acted out by Tom Hanks. And in the credits we see an actual scene from the actual show. It took me longer than I want to admit to realize that.

The main meat of the movie is based on the real life story of a reporter tasked to do an interview of Mister Rogers, and of course he doesn’t believe the guy really is as nice as he seems. And Mister Rogers spends the movie talking to him, on and off, just the way he does to all the children he talks to everyday. And that shows the secret of the show that made it work. Because as Mister Rogers talked to the children, he also talked to the adults watching with them. He talked to us about our feelings, about how to express them, and how to face them. How children deal with them, and how adults deal with them. And how we deal with forgiveness.

It was a good movie. I loved it. I got to see Mister Rogers again.

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Pacifica

by on November 24, 2019 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

One issue Hawaii had during the Second Great Depression was insufficient production of critical products. Hawaii had been dependent on imports of everything from food to military supplies for generations. It didn’t have enough land to grow food, and it didn’t have enough industry to support the economy. The economy collapsed. There is no other way to describe what happened when so many tourists stopped flying to Hawaii. And food shipments from the Mainland dried up as well. One thing they did have going for them was a veritable wealth of fish in the oceans, and their fleets set sail every day to provide the basic essentials their people needed to live. The boats kept their people from starving, but many Hawaiians became utterly sick of food that came from the ocean. Steak and hamburger have been luxury foods on the islands ever since. Seafood in Hawaii is in highest demand by the tourists now. Most natives would rather eat something that grew up on land, whether that land is natural or one of the many manmade islands scattered throughout Hawaii.

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Pacifica

by on November 23, 2019 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Governor Mahana proved extremely popular as she took Hawaii deep down the path into sovereign territory as many other American States were doing. If the Federal Government could not pay its bills, the States had to step up. Some failed to do so and chaos reigned. Hawaii succeeded, and many soon began using a name out of history. The Kingdom of Hawaii. Governor Mahana did not partake in such grandiose pronouncements, but she also did not seek to stop the name’s usage. And as she won election after election over the years and decades that followed, people slowly began to call her Queen Mahana. In the end, the State Legislature modified the State Constitution to make it official. The Kingdom of Hawaii lived once again, and it drafted Governor Mahana to serve as its first new Queen. And as Hawaii built colonies throughout the stars, it became the Star Kingdom of Hawaii, with Queen Mahana at the helm until the day she chose to retire. Yes, she chose to retire, and that set a precedent for the Queens that would follow.

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Pacifica

by on November 22, 2019 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Hawaiian Crown Fund is an amazing venture started during the Second Great Depression. Mounting losses in tourism alarmed the citizens, which gave Governor Mahana the freedom to nationalize the old Crown Lands and levy monthly rents on the new tenants to make up the loss in external revenue. This money went into the Crown Fund, a portion of which was paid out on a monthly basis to every confirmed citizen of Hawaii to help them keep the lights on and food on their tables. The Crown Fund has expanded over the centuries to pay for basic medical care and other social services, and countless businesses owned by Hawaiian citizens found their start with low interest Crown Loans. Careful management helped it fund the creation of new islands and taller buildings, and the Palmyra Elevator reached orbit thanks to the Crown Fund. New colonies in the Solar System and beyond were started by monies earned by the Crown Lands, and the hearts of many of those colonies are Crown Lands in their own rights, the rents of which cycle back into the Crown Fund for the future generations of Hawaii and her colonies. Two things make the Crown Fund truly special in Hawaii. First, is that any benefit or dividend handed out from the Crown Fund is utterly and totally exempt from any tax assessors. And second, the Crown Fund is personally administered by the Hawaiian Head of State, not the legislature.

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Pacifica

by on November 21, 2019 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Kingdom of Hawaii’s Crown Lands were confiscated during the overthrow of the last Queen, but the native Hawaiians never forgot. The various royal families and native rights groups fought in the courts and congress to return the lands, and found many allies. But while the American federal government eventually would pass a resolution specifically naming the overthrow illegal, the movement to actually return the lands never fully materialized until the Second Great Depression. Governor Mahana faced a sudden drop in tourism dollars that threatened to destabilize their entire economy, and the old Crown Lands had always been some of the richest and productive lands on the islands. They made a lot of money, and Governor Mahana wanted that money to go to the people of Hawaii. So she used her emergency powers to nationalize every acre of confirmed Crown Land, and required the new tenants to pay rent for the land that went into the new Crown Fund, which would be set aside to help the Hawaiians survive the economic chaos to come.

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