I was just a transplant for a while, thanks to the Navy - my youngest son was born on O'ahu.

But the few years I spent there taught me that Aloha is real. I know it sounds crappy, but I never shed a tear for natural disasters in the US, not until I saw the devastation in Lahaina. It wasn't so much just for the loss of life, but for the loss of community - and not just any American community, but the kind that embraces Ohana as the Kama'aina do. I only wish that more of us haoles understood what that really means.