In the Democrat tradition of never letting a crisis go to waste, Oprah Winfrey demonstrated her lack of understanding of the Aloha spirit.

 

In Maui, she showed up at the War Memorial Stadium, an open-air structure now housing 1,000 refugees from the Lahaina fire, and passed out pillows, diapers, and other items she purchased from Costco and Walmart.

 

That was good.

 

What was not good was when she returned three days later with a CBS camera crew and wanted to tape the grief. To her surprise, she was turned away. Local camera crews were sitting outside the stadium, unable to go in, but she thought that she would be allowed in. Some of those now living in the stadium were not so impressed by her. 

 

One unnamed woman on a social media outlet said: “Virtue signaling and putting people who are traumatized and have lost everything on news to make yourself look important is really gross in my opinion. I know everyone thinks she’s such a saint for bringing a few pillows. She owns thousands of acres and is a billionaire. She could be setting up temporary housing for those displaced on her lands.”  

 

Oprah owns 2,000 acres on Maui, several houses, and an airplane hangar. Her act of passing out diapers from Costco pales next to what she has at her discretion. She has said she will make a financial donation but her reputation is already tarnished — some suspect beyond repair.

 

Donations are pouring in from all over the world, as are volunteers. Unless you live in Hawaii, you can't understand the Aloha spirit, where every child calls every woman "Auntie" and where everyone helps everyone else. They don't count on the government.

 

The local government did nothing for the first day and tried to prevent people from taking food and supplies to people still in Lahaina. The residents, when stopped, instead are using hundreds of their own boats to pick up supplies dropped off on the coast of Kihei and taking them ten miles up the coast to Lahaina, where friends wade out into the water to retrieve them. Even a boat from a company that takes tourists on whale watches has joined in to transport donations.

 

The alarms from Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, which has forty sirens on Maui, did not warn people of the fires. They are tested on the first Monday of every month and even used to warn of impending storms. But someone was asleep at the switch. The fire devastated the entire city of Lahaina in an hour. People died in their homes, in cars trying to escape on the single roads that lead in and out of the city. People died in restaurants. The winds at 80 mph were so strong the fire entrapped everyone.  

 

At last count ninety-nine people were dead and 1,200 missing. Some suspect the number of missing is much higher because of tourists visiting there and the large number of homeless who lived in Lahaina. Many of the dead will never be identified because the bodies were so badly burned.

 

The only crematorium on the island is not working because they have been waiting for a part they need. Bodies were piling up before the fire and now, those bodies that are still intact, are in Lahaina. There is still no electricity there and native islanders are growing angrier by the day as they claim White people are being put in available hotel space in Ka'anapali in larger numbers than natives. However, the largest population on the island is white, which explains how that happened.

 

People living in Hawaii have a legitimate cause to doubt the effectiveness of the politicians.

 

In 2018, someone wrongly set off the warning sirens of a ballistic missile attack. Then Gov. David Ige was informed within two minutes but was unable to shut off the false alarm for seventeen minutes because he forgot his password.

 

Now Gov. Josh Green demonstrated his Oprah-like lack of self-awareness as he showed up at the refugee site eating shaved ice. He also insisted that tourism continues on Maui because not all of the island was destroyed. Boats carrying snorkeling tourists can be seen near Lahaina, dodging bodies that are still floating in the water.