Fall 1998 Home   Newsletters

Winter 1998

Spring 1999

President's Message (Jean Aoki)
Changes to the State Excise Tax? (Astrid Monson)
Member Survey
Coordinated Community Response System to Domestic Violence (Val Kanuha)
Fairest Among Thousands (Betty Smith)
Making Democracy Work: Campaign Finance Reform (Toni Worst)
Wetlands & Agriculture: Public Interest and Public Benefits
League Local News - Hawaii County
League Local News - Kauai County
League Local News - Honolulu League
Education Committee (Mary Anne Raywid)
General Election Statistics for 1996 & 1998
Population Explosion: 6 Billion People in 1999
Scorecard on Gambling Positions
Model UN Project (Helene Hale)
State Board Actions
Web Page

Fairest Among Thousands

(This poem from Leaguer Betty Smith was read at the Candlelight Vigil held in remembrance of the victims of domestic violence on Oahu on October 20, 1998. There were approximately 600 people there including about a hundred police officers in uniform.

It is being published in Feelings Magazine, entered into "The International Showcase of Authors", published in The National Library of Poetry, and being entered on The World Wide Web of Poetry".)
 

In Life's Garden there is a rare

And beautiful flower blooming,

With a fragrance called Heaven Scent

The precious seed from this flower

Is taken by the wind,

And the wind finds a place that is desolate

Where no other flower grows

Only the wind knows where these secret places are,

And gently plants these seeds,

Where they will never be forgotten,

Because these seeds came

From the heart of this rare flower

In Life's Garden for all to see

This miracle flower's bloom

Is immortalized, and knows no season

No week or thistle has dared to grow where this flower grows

Take my hand and let us walk together

And yes, let us tend this flower

That grows in Life's Garden, and call it by

The sweetest of names

And let that name be called FRIEND


Dedicated to all the victims of domestic violence and to all battered women

and to all battered children - everywhere

By B. Pauline Smith

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