Hawai`i (The Big Island) March 21, 2009
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Nothing to celebrate
I write in the spirit of tough aloha to underscore that the Hawaiian Islands are a nation-state. That is its statehood. Not American. As a member of AntiStatehood Hui 2009, I am opposed to the 50th Anniversary Commission's celebration of U.S. statehood. We protested the commission's opening event March 18 at the Capitol in Honolulu.
From the start in 1893, U.S. intervention into the affairs of the Hawaiian Kingdom has been flawed. It began with an act of war against a country with which it had sound treaties. Those treaties still exist.
More political infractions have followed, e.g., disregarding Hawaiian Kingdom neutrality and manipulating an illegal annexation during the Spanish-American War, 1898; imposition of U.S. citizenship upon Hawaiian nationals through the Organic Act, 1900; and now the introduction of the Akaka "from native Hawaiian to native American" bill. At this point the debris of false information, including the illegitimacy of the 1959 statehood plebiscite, has taken precedence over factual evidence.
The U.S. may be in control as a belligerent occupier, but the Hawaiian Kingdom's right to exercise its sovereignty has not been extinguished. Although held in abeyance, the prerogatives of nationhood that include internal administration of its own laws and government, and external respect of its status by other nations, these can be restored. The U.S. is not above international law.
A mission of education, action, and non-violence underlies all that the ASH-AntiStatehood Hui is doing to expose the figurehead that is the "State of Hawaii."
Personally, I feel that beyond considerations of legal issues that could be given to support our position is the simple recognition of the place in our heart of 'aina as the mother country. We want to grow the organic truth of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Keahi Felix
Keaau