Latitude 20.04°N Longitude 155.71°W

The Dilemma of Being Hawaiian American

Latitude 20.04N, Longitude 155.71W is a Hawaiian story told through snapshots and snippets of the lives of fabled and fictionalized family members named Lindsey, Beckley, and others. Through them, I recall bits and pieces of Hawaiis rich and glorious past, everyday folks living ordinary lives doing extraordinary things. I hope you, as the reader, will be able to relate to and find the tie that binds us as Gods childrenone planet, one people, one purpose. A wide swath of time is covered in this book of short chapters from the creation of the Hawaiian Islands (eighty million years ago), to the landing of our people at Waiahukini (AD 300), to the arrival of James Cook (1778) and the first New England Missionary Company (1820), to the establishment of sugar and pineapple plantations and cattle empires (1800s), and to the political trade winds that blew across the archipelago; and from chiefdoms to unified kingdom (1819), to provisional government (1893), to republic (1895), to territory (1900), and to statehood (1959). Holly Birch and Mister John are focal characters. Latitude 20.04N, Longitude 155.71W is history written in shorthand in a fun, interesting, and dynamic way. I started this journey with that intent. I hope I have achieved my intention. You be the judge. Always with aloha . . . Bob Lindsey.