On Anniversary Of Tragic Fires, Schatz Pays Tribute To Victims, Honors Survivors On Maui

LAHAINA – On the second anniversary of the devastating fires on Maui, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) joined Lahaina community members and state and local leaders to pay tribute to the victims and honor survivors. Earlier today, Schatz addressed community members at a memorial gathering in Wailuku.

“The path to healing and recovery since that awful day is uneven. Some people got right back on their feet. Many people are still not on their feet. There is no right way to grieve. But what's been extraordinary about the past two years is the community and the camaraderie that have underpinned everything since that terrible day,” said Senator Schatz. “People are showing up for each other in ways big and small, day after day. Not because they were asked, because that's what we do here in Hawai‘i. And because of their courage and resilience and hard work, we are starting to begin to see glimmers of hope. But is not a naive belief that things will automatically become okay. Hope is a decision. It's something that we have all had to engage with, even when we in our hearts, didn't even feel it. We had to project it. We had to commit to it. And that feeling, through all the struggle, has brought us to a real path to recovery.”

A transcript of the senator’s full remarks can be found below.

It is understandable. It is customary for this stage to have politicians talking. But today is not about us. Today is about the Maui community. And one of the most extraordinary collective efforts that Hawaii has ever seen. It’s been two years since the worst day of many people's lives here on Maui. 102 people taken too soon. 2,200 structures incinerated. Thousands of survivors had their lives turned upside down overnight.

And the path to healing and recovery since that awful day is uneven. Some people got right back on their feet. Many people are still not on their feet. There is no right way to grieve. There is no shortcut to a rebuild. But what's been extraordinary about the past two years is the community and the camaraderie that have underpinned everything since that terrible day.

People coming together to have each other's backs, whether it's opening the doors to neighbors or cooking a meal or someone just checking in on someone else's kids. People are showing up for each other in ways big and small, day after day. Not because they were asked, because that's what we do here in Hawai‘i. And because of their courage and resilience and hard work, we are starting to begin to see glimmers of hope. And I want to be clear about what I mean by hope. Hope is not a naive belief that everything is already okay. Hope is not a naive belief that things will automatically become okay. Hope is a decision. Hope is a muscle. Hope is a thing that everybody wakes up every morning to engage with. And Josh has done extraordinary things. And the mayor and the lieutenant governor and our local leaders and our congressional delegation. Everybody is doing good work, but everybody here watching, in person and online, has had a role in this recovery.

As we start to look at that data that indicates is this place coming back to life, I feel the kind of traditional hope that I'm almost scared to feel. That people are starting to move back. I come in at Honolulu airport, I saw the Lahainaluna football team arriving in Honolulu to go play Wai?anae this evening. Good luck.

Hope is not just a turn of phrase. It's something that we have all had to engage with, even when we in our hearts, didn't even feel it. We had to project it. We had to engage with it. We had to commit to it. And that feeling, through all the struggle, through all the disagreement, through all the valid criticism and the invalid criticism and everything in between, we are now on a real path to recovery.

Maui is starting to recover and Lahaina is starting to recover. We have a very long way to go. There are no victory laps. People are still in deep, deep pain, but we are on our way, and we will get there together. Aloha.

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