Hawai`i (The Big Island) April 08, 2009
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Illegal overthrow link
The false impressions embedded in the Associated Press article by Mark Niesse entitled "Hawaii celebrates 50 years after statehood bill" (Hawaii Tribune-Herald) were bad enough, but the slick Madison Avenue-style slogan, "Hawaii: the 50th State of Mind," on Hawaii Public Radio wounds me even more.
It seems to me that there's an aspect of professional responsibility to truth that is being overlooked.
When will the media get past glossing over "the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom" to do some sharp investigation into the illegality of one country (the United States) motivated by its own special interests conniving to overcome one of its international colleagues (the Hawaiian Kingdom) and stealing its nationals! Has that fact been forgotten?
There is plenty of authoritative documentation out there to facilitate research.
The United Nations Security Council has in its files since 2001 the "Complaint Against the United States of America by the Acting Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom Concerning the American Occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom," for example.
Elinor Langer of "The Nation" did a good historical review of the situation in 2008.
But the general media in Hawaii and abroad in the U.S. continues to sweet talk its way, using some kind of boxed-in formula to maintain "balanced" perspective, as though it's OK to press the 50th star on the flag and the virus will go away.
Say, HPR may have a point. "Hawaii: the 50th State of Mind." Amnesia.
Keahi Felix
Keaau
Response: April 11, 2009
Statehood benefits
This is to comment on a letter from Keahi Felix of Keaau. The writer goes on long and stridently about the "theft" of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893. I'm curious what this person feels was lost when Hawaii became a state.
Let's assume that the event had never occurred and Hawaii had remained independent. The writer assumes, I suppose, that Hawaii would have continued to provide its citizens with the idyllic life-style they had enjoyed up to that point.
In the late 19th century, all the major powers and all the lesser ones were scrambling for oversees colonies. How long would one think tiny, powerless Hawaii would have evaded being gobbled up by some nation less benevolent than the U.S.?
Japan? Russia? France?
What flag might fly over the islands now? What if Hawaii had been a sovereign nation in 1941 (or even 1933, when Japan began flexing its might in the Pacific)? Would you now be bowing to the rising sun flag?
Suppose the U.S. released Hawaii. What are the chances that the infrastructure would stay at its present level of repair? What about the payments and benefits that so many receive from the U.S. government? How instantaneously do you suppose Hawaii would become the world's newest Third World nation?
When you think about it, Hawaii has a lot in common with banana republics. It has two things to offer the world: tourism and agricultural products. How long do you think that coffee and macadamia nuts would sell oversees and tourists continue to flock to the islands once they started being taxed to pay off all the things needed to keep things as they are now?
Are the separatists naive, or do they cynically think that in case of independence they would become the new ali`i?
Dennis Chappell
Pueblo, Colo.
Response: April 18, 2009
Hawaiian recovery Link
In reference to the information supplied by the letter-writer from Colorado, Dennis Chappell, on April 11: The way I see to act most effectively in supporting the rights of the Hawaiian Kingdom and its citizenry is to continue to educate myself in Hawaiian legal and political history. That way, I have assurance that I'm dealing with facts, not conjectures.
The would've, could've, should'ves have value only in setting contrast.
The writer's response to my letter of April 8 shows that he and I not only have differing views of the Hawaiian-U.S. political relationship, but a different way to establish the foundations of our respective positions. Our starting points clash because facts belong to one, conjectures to another.
Both of us are dealing with a complex situation that calls for astuteness of mind and hardiness of involvement in righting a historical wrong.
Recovery of U.S.-Hawaiian Kingdom equality impacts everyday lives, and connects us to the undercurrent of energy that calls forth humanity's finest instincts.
I believe that no eraser technique that attempts to disregard the past status of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a free and independent member of the community of nation-states (1843) with declared neutrality (1854) as a buffer to other nations' wars can do away with laws that are inherent on this planet and the beings on it.
And likewise, since 2000 in Lance vs. Hawaiian Kingdom (Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague, Netherlands), no eraser technique that avoids investigating the legitimacy of that same irrevocable status today can be of use in attaining the frictionless interdependence of nations that people long for.
Grounded scholarship, teaching and solidarity on many levels are advancing the correct interpretation of history and re-establishing the legal equality that exists between the Hawaiian Kingdom and the United States. Achieving recovery can thus become a beautiful thing.
Keahi Felix
Keaau