As Seen On The Bathroom Wall

This goes out to every single resident of Hawai'i who heard the siren call of "native" son Barack Obama's presidential election and subsequent visit back "home" to Hawai'i this Holiday season. We're not Stalkarazzi. Hawai'i has always been a place where people with high profile names could come to relax because we locals don't let crap like that slide.

We don't like being shoved out of the way by paparazzi trying to get a picture of someone's ass. We don't like having sand kicked in our face because some idiot with a camera is trying to capture a shot of someone in a bikini. We don't do stuff like that here, so quit it. And shame on YOU, Honolulu Advertiser, for telling your readers to take pictures of Obama and send them in, all to boost revenue sales on your website. You've never done that for any past visiting president nor celebrity alike, even those born and raised here, or those that live here most of the year, and there are many.

My true cause for concern and ire here stems not from the treatment that the locals will receive by those clamoring to get that precious, potentially Pulitzer Prize winning (in your dreams) shot - it's an issue as to the safety of the future president and his family that worries me. The news has been riddled with stories of people and groups plotting to kill him for something as simple as the color of his skin... and we have people taking photos of him in front of his vacation home. This isn't the invited press taking these shots, let me remind you. Yes, Obama invited the usual group of press corps, as is the norm. However, that infamous shot of him without his shirt on didn't come from one of them. How difficult would it have been for that cameraman to have been a man with a grudge, and instead of a camera in his hands, something more dangerous?

Sure, there are going to be people who question why I feel so strongly about this, and let me make it quite clear that yes, I would have made the same comments about Bush had these things happened to him, but frankly, no one really gave a damn about him; Bush has no star power which didn't invite much in the way of public interest outside of the White House. The reality that he will be the least popular President in history will definitely not go unnoticed by both his detractors and his supporters, but let it be known that even he deserves to be safe and be left alone.

Obama and his family have been kept virtual prisoners of their home because of this intense media hounding, and I'm truly saddened by it. He couldn't even say farewell to his tutu in peace, which violates everything we here in Hawai'i stand for. Live Aloha; you see those damn bumper stickers on just about every car here. A'ole pilikia to everyone who forgot what that meant when they stood and took pictures of him saying Aloha to his tutu. Shame on you.