In 1959, when Hawaii became a state and the topic of discussion on Oahu was the bright future of these islands, who would have thought that 60 years later so many signs of decay would be part of everyday life?

Maybe some did, but most had a vision of a stable, safe, fruitful future for Hawaii. Everything would only get better and better.

It’s hard to see things that way anymore. Maybe you can be optimistic about your own life, maybe things are looking up for your family, but it’s difficult to see Hawaii as a whole, or Oahu in particular, as having a clean, bright future ahead.

Who would have ever thought that we would get to the point where the chief of police would have to say the cops can’t investigate most home break-ins and car thefts anymore because they just don’t have enough officers in the department to do the full-service “serve and protect” thing? For too many years, before the current chief took over, the department wasn’t running at full force. What a shocking blow to the assumption of public safety.

So many hardworking strivers have to park their cars on the street overnight and worry in the dark about the car they could never pay to replace. So many people still cry over the jerks who broke in and stole grandma’s jewelry. There were 4,162 car thefts on Oahu last year and on l35 arrests. That’s a hard reality when you’d like to think you live in paradise.

Who would have thought, just 60 years into the future, there would be hundreds of people sleeping in downtown doorways and setting up tent cities in public parks? Who would ever imagine that many of those people would argue for their right to live whereever they please, however they please, and would push away offers of shelter and support services?

Who would have thought there would be a rail line snaking across the middle of the island dragging with it a pile of scandal and bad math? That neighborhoods built for local residents would become illegal tourist hostels and agriculture would seem like a nostalgic thing? That current talk of a brighter future now starts with fixing the mess of today?

Back in 1959, as Hawaii was looking ahead to decades of promise and progress, this newspaper ran a rather dour editorial saying that a healthy future required strong, earnest leadership:

“As a citizen, you are under no obligation to run for public office. But it is an act of good citizenship for a person to do so if he sincerely feels that he is qualified and is able to serve. The quality of government depends entirely upon the quality of the men and women who seek public office. If public service is left to the inept, venal, the special interest pleaders, we may expect government which is inept, venal or dominated by special interests.”

Hawaii is still a beautiful place, home to hardworking, earnest people, but if there’s one thing to point to as the root of current ills, it is a lack of strong leadership or the glut of the inept, the venal and the special-interest pleaders.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.