Jill Tokuda: “At this time I invite all of my colleagues who have ties to Maui, who have been to Maui, or who stand by our community…”

“At this time I invite all of my colleagues who have ties to Maui, who have been to Maui, or who stand by our community to join me here in the well of the Chamber. Louise Abigail was 97 and an active grandmother that lived in the Hale Mahaolu Eono independent living complex. Tony Takafua was just 7 years old and was with his mother and grandparents. They are the youngest and the oldest victims of the wildfires; the difference in their ages spanning almost a century, yet connected by one cruel fate. On August 8, Maui and Hawaii Island were ablaze with 11 separate fires. Spurred by 80-mile-per-hour winds, fire ripped through our town of Lahaina in just 17 minutes, tragically taking the lives of 115 people with dozens more still unaccounted for and thousands displaced and grieving. It would be easy enough to speak of our pain and our grief; the hands I have held, the stories I have heard. I have come to know all too well what death and destruction smells and feels like and how the sadness continues to cling with you long after. Instead, I will focus on something just as important: Hope. When I first went back to Lahaina, the absence of color, of structure, of anything familiar is what hit me. As I returned there, including with the Speaker and other Members of the House, whom I want to thank for the support made clear by their presence, I noticed something amidst the rubble: Life.…”