In Can, No Can! Making Changes, Hawaiian-Style, longtime Hawai‘i state senator and world champion surfer Fred Hemmings offers a calabash full of ideas for the future of the Islands, including a sprinkling of “random thoughts” and yes-or-no options from a local boy’s perspective. “A dear friend, Chubby Mitchell, was a graceful surfer and a man of aloha,” Hemmings explains. “Whenever I’d get frustrated by something, he would look at me and say, ‘Freddie, if can, can. If no can, no can.’ All these years later, I surmise that this pragmatic outlook on life contributed significantly to the aloha of bygone days.”

The book is compilation of Hemmings’s essays, letters, legislation, statements to the press and news clips spanning the years, including hot-button items still as relevant today as they were then. Says Hemmings, “I always have believed that there are good solutions to Hawai‘i’s problems and that there’s usually a better way to do things. Unfortunately, we in the Islands get caught up in the dilemma expressed by, of all people, Albert Einstein, in the mid-20th century. To paraphrase Einstein, ‘Doing the same thing and expecting different results defines insanity.’ Maybe it is time to do some things differently in Hawai‘i.”

This book is a customized version of the Professional Package, with increased print run.

Can, No Can! Making Changes, Hawaiian-Style is available via our online store and at local bookstores

Cover spread and interior pages: