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Noam Chomsky, �The Common Good�

Started August 25 - Finished August 25, 2004; 193 pages. Posted 09 October 2004

This is part three of a 25-part story about Hawaii. The
story begins here. Other parts you�ll have to find yourself. So there.

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My father lives in one of those government-housing places that are
cropping up everywhere. Of course, as this is Hawaii, they do things a little different. Originally set up for elderly and disabled people, his apartment is much different from the one my mother resides in. Her place has a bedroom and a living room, and looks pretty much like you would expect a one-bedroom apartment to look like.

Not my dad�s place. His space looks like a bungalow for a campground, complete with the high ceilings and all wood structures. There is no bedroom/living room motif, instead giving you a medium sized rectangle. Stick the refrigerator in one corner, the bed in the other, and whatever crap you happen to have you can sort out yourselves.

After living on Kaua�i for seven years, he�s decided that he wants to live on an island that has a transit system that operates past five in the afternoon. He put in a request to move to Oahu, and, being the guy who doesn�t like to wait for things to happen, packed all his stuff in boxes, so he could move at a moment�s notice.

Of course, as he�s had no connection with the real world for the last 20 years or so, he didn�t think he�d still be waiting four months later. Which is exactly what happened.

We enter, and there are boxes piled in the corner. Other than these boxes, the place is empty, save for a crappy couch and coffee table, which he�s leaving behind. There�s no silverware. No dishes. No cooking utensils.

Fine by me.

We unload our stuff, and make a trip to the nearby supermarket. Chips and snack food is all we need, right? After all, it�s a vacation! Steinlager is on sale as well, and I pick up a twelve pack.

Back at the house, I load up my army shorts with various beer bottles. I know this area and I want to show The Girlfriend the cliff sides. We walk a half-block until we�re at the beachfront.

The Girlfriend can barely speak. In a low whisper, she manages to say, �it�s perfect.�

I thought she�d like this.

Then she looks over the cliff face and points out, with some sadness, all the strewn garbage and broken beer bottles. She�s a great person, but sometimes she can be such a hippy.

We walk further down the cliff side, and the trash factor eases up � bored kids hiding from the cops looking for a place to drink aren�t known for traveling great distances. We climb down the face and she starts searching the tide pools as the waves crash over the side.

Normally, my concentration is on the ocean, and the power of them slamming on against the rocks, shooting white sprays of water fifteen feet in the air. I sit on a natural coral bridge and do just that, opening a beer as I sit down. (And in case any fucking hippies are reading, I�ll have you know I brought a bag to carry my empties. Oh, and fuck off, hippy.)

But watching her is infectious. Soon I�m right alongside her, peering into pools and pointing out various tiny aquatic creatures that were unfortunate enough to have been slammed up over the cliff face and are now stuck on the surface, hoping that another wave will set them free before the sun evaporates their new home.

Eventually we move along, hiking along the cliff face and maneuvering around the edge. At one point the trail becomes impassable, and we trespass through a coffee plantation until we can make it to the edge again.

There�s a reason for this hike, and it soon becomes apparent. The cliff side ends, and the ocean meets a riverbed. And we have an entire beach that�s not reachable by car. Of course, since people are lazy and this isn�t in any guidebook, we have the entire beach to ourselves. There�s a difference between The Common Good, as Chomsky says, in what people know about and expect, and things that are good for the exact opposite reason. This is one of those things.

The Girlfriend looks at me and grins. �Are there places where you can skinny dip?� she asks me.

Did I mention how much I love The Girlfriend?


Rating: Worth used.

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