By Ken Conklin

On Friday June 8, 2007 a group of ethnic Hawaiian organizations and individuals staged a protest against the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii in front of the building where its office is located. The event had the outward appearance of a 1960s-era street demonstration by “little people” using guerilla street-theatre tactics (prayer and folk songs) to protest at the headquarters of a powerful corporation or government agency.

But in fact it was a form of intimidation by a group of extremely wealthy and powerful race-based institutions complaining that a small local think-tank dares to challenge their “right” to exercise racial exclusion and their demand to expand their already-existing racial supremacy by establishing a race-based government.

The event was also interesting because it clearly showed the active cooperation of major institutions seeking passage of the Akaka bill, assembling under the leadership of Hawaiian secessionists demanding that the 50th star be ripped off the American flag. The institutions seeking passage of the Akaka bill, present at this event, often claim that the bill would not foster secession. Many secessionists, including some present at this event, protest against the Akaka bill because they think it would interfere with eventual secession. Yet this event brought all of them together in solidarity to protect an Evil Empire against think-tank thoughts that challenge its belief-system and lawsuits intended to dismantle it.

The Evil Empire is described in a 302-page book published March 1, 2007 entitled “Hawaiian Apartheid — Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State.” The cover shows an American flag with its 50th star ripped off, and the Great Seal of the State of Hawaii broken apart. The cover, detailed table of contents, and entire Chapter 1 (“The Gathering Storm”) are available for free at
http://tinyurl.com/2a9fqa

The $8-15 Billion Kamehameha Schools was one of the “protesters.” It was represented on the sidewalk by its highly-paid CEO Ms. Dee Jay Mailer and its highly-paid media spokesperson Ms. Ann Botticelli. For proof of the presence of CEO Mailer, and her short speech at the event, see transcript of TV news broadcast and photos, below. Kamehameha enjoys an enormous tax exemption as a charitable trust. Federal law imposes severe limits on political activity by tax-exempt charitable trusts as a condition for retaining tax-exempt status; but somehow Kamehameha Schools (Bishop Estate) has always played a major role in politics both in Hawaii and nationwide. See Samuel P. King and Randall W. Roth, “Broken trust: greed, mismanagement & political manipulation at America’s largest charitable trust” (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006). A large website providing background information and documentation is at
http://brokentrustbook.com/

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs sent staff from its monthly newspaper so that a report could be included in the July edition (however, the July edition turned out not to mention this incident). Alu Like sent representatives. Alu Like recently celebrated its 30th anniversary as the first federally funded racially exclusionary Hawaiian institution after the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1921; its original purpose was to provide vocational training for ethnic Hawaiians but in recent years it has expanded to other areas including a Native Hawaiian library and an internet archive of Hawaiian-language newspapers from the Kingdom and Territorial periods.

The madrassa-like University of Hawaii Center for Hawaiian Studies was represented by its highly-paid chairman, Professor Jonathan Osorio. Mr. Osorio is also a professional entertainer who gives night-club performances singing Hawaiian-language songs while accompanying himself on his guitar; and he also is a paid consultant and lecturer in the tourist industry. At this “protest” event he led the singing of “Kaulana Na Pua,” a song composed in January 1893 to protest the revolution that overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and to pledge support to ex-queen Liliuokalani (an armed counter-revolution was attempted in January 1895 led by racist firebrand Robert Wilcox). Today’s sovereignty activists use this song both as a bitter reminder of past “injustice” and a rallying cry for restoration of Hawaii as an independent nation.

The Democratic Party of Hawaii gave permission for the “protesters” to use its printing equipment to print various materials, including flyers. This fact illustrates the political connectedness of the protesting institutions and individuals — they could easily have used other facilities, but it seemed perfectly natural and ordinary for them to seek and receive such a favor from the most powerful political party in the history of Hawaii.

Some of the protesters entered the building where GRIH has its office, and distributed notices to all the other tenants in the building informing them of the reason for the protest. The notices also may have had the effect of disrupting the activities of those other tenants and perhaps causing them to suggest to building management that it might be wise to ask GRIH to move out for fear of similar incidents in the future. The people leading the protest have many long years of experience as environmental and anti-military protesters and as political strategists, so it would not be unreasonable to suppose that they intended to cause trouble with the neighbors. The protest leaders also have previous experience taking over and occupying administrative offices, including the President’s Office at the University of Hawaii.

Ikaika Hussey, leader of this event, was a student activist at the University of Hawaii and a writer for the student newspaper. He was elected as a delegate to the State of Hawaii government-funded Native Hawaiian Convention whose stated purpose was to develop one or more proposals for race-based political sovereignty. The convention had two factions, with a minority favoring the model of a nation-within-a-nation (Akaka bill) and a majority favoring independence. Hussey became the public spokesman for the independence faction, which was the only faction left standing by the time the convention faded away due to lack of additional government funding. In 2000 Hussey ran as a Democrat for the state House of Representatives (taking a candidate’s oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States despite his clear intention of violating it). Two e-mails from Hussey are copied below, one calling for people to participate in the protest of June 8 and the other reporting on what happened.

Also present at the protest was Dr. Kekuni Blaisdell, a medical doctor and professor emeritus at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine. Interestingly for someone who advocates blood-nationalism, his medical specialty is the study of blood diseases. Blaisdell is the godfather of the Hawaiian independence movement. He has attended numerous international conferences, especially in Pacific island venues, pressing foreign diplomats to support Hawaiian independence. Also present was Blaisdell’s long-time friend and colleague in the independence movement, Lynette Cruz. Cruz has a Ph.D. and is a professor of anthropology at Hawaii Pacific University. Her dissertation was on the history of the sovereignty movement; and she is extremely active in running many sovereignty rallies, organizations, and TV programs.

It seems strange that no newspapers and only one TV station reported on the June 8 event, although all were presumably invited by these very experienced media-savvy protesters. TV station KGMB had a crew at the event. It broadcast a very short report about the protest on both the 6PM and 10PM news on June 8, including footage of Kamehameha CEO Dee Jay Mailer standing with protesters and expressing a sentence or two in support (see transcript and photos below); but the station’s website has no record of news about the event having been broadcast. Perhaps the “establishment” institutions like Kamehameha School, OHA, etc. decided it might cause trouble for the Akaka bill if they were seen publicly working in concert with the secessionists. Of course the event was videotaped by secessionist activists using equipment from the public access cable TV system “‘Olelo”, so eventually there might be a program on cable TV.

The immediate excuse for the “protest” was an e-mail that had been sent a couple weeks previously from attorney David Rosen to two friends, one of whom was GRIH chair Richard Rowland, asking whether Rowland was aware of any potential clients for a new lawsuit Rosen was planning against Kamehameha Schools’ admissions policy. That e-mail was forwarded by Rowland to some of his friends, and found its way to a large number of Kamehameha alumni and Hawaiian activists who were angry and outraged that another lawsuit was apparently getting started. Kamehameha had just settled a similar lawsuit at the last possible moment while the Supreme Court Justices were considering whether to accept the lawsuit for a review of the 9th Circuit Court’s 8-7 decision upholding the admissions policy. The “Hawaiian community” had breathed a sigh of relief that its racially exclusionary policies had survived the latest legal challenge, and now they were once again faced with the possibility of another challenge.

Haunani Apoliona, Chair of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, had used three consecutive editorials in the OHA monthly newspapers of August, September, and October 2006 to attack what she called “The Nutgrass Conspiracy.” The title of her trilogy was a clear reference to the Grassroot Institute, which she named in her editorials as a leader of a vast rightwing conspiracy (reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s famous diatribe) against Native Hawaiian “rights.” Another OHA trustee also editorialized against GRIH. The OHA trustees had demonized GRIH in their newspaper with a circulation of 60,000. So now, when the e-mail addressed to the head of GRIH was sent to hundreds (perhaps thousands) of Hawaiian activists, the stage was set for dramatic action. See “Nutgrass Network Conspiracy — OHA trustees put forward a conspiracy theory to attack civil rights activists who dare to oppose their nutty, racist agenda” at:
http://ohanutgrassconspiracy.htm

On June 27, 2007 the leftist “alternative” newspaper “Honolulu Weekly” published an article by Travis Quezon which included the previously unreported fact that the “host culture” public charter school “Halau Ku Mana” had sent students to participate in the June 8 protest. Travis Quezon’s slanted story about the June 8 protest against Grassroot Institute of Hawai‘i portrayed a David vs. Goliath situation, with the kids from Halau Ku Mana Charter School as David and the GRIH as Goliath. But Quezon got it backwards. On January 25 Star-Bulletin reported the $8 Billion Kamehameha Schools granted $4.8 Million to Halau Ku Mana and 11 other “public” charter schools. In June kids from HKM showed up to protest against GRIH over the appearance that the head of GRIH might refer an attorney to potential plaintiffs for a civil rights lawsuit against Kamehameha’s racist admissions policy. Highly paid Kamehameha CEO Dee Jay Mailer gave a speech at the protest, standing next to an “Official Use Only” van. See photos below. Duh! Connect the dots. So who is David and who is Goliath? Why are kids from a taxpayer-funded public charter school being used on a Friday morning as pawns in behemoth Kamehameha’s political power play to stifle free speech by a small think-tank that dares to question Kamehameha’s racist policy?

The following items are included on a webpage about the June 8 “protest”, at
http://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/GRIH060807.htm

1. E-mail from secessionist Ikaika Hussey on June 7, 2007 mobilizing the anti-GRIH event of June 8.

2. E-mail from Ikaika Hussey reporting after the event, describing what happened and including contents of the flyer.

3. Transcript of news report broadcast on KGMB9 TV 6 PM Friday June 8. (See also photos captured from the news broadcast, near the bottom of this webpage)

4. Commentary by Jere Krischel, Senior Fellow of GRIH, posted on a GRIH blog on June 10.

5. “Takin’ It to the Streets” Commentary by Brandon Bosworth, director of publications at GRIH, posted on a GRIH blog on June 13.

6. Brief comments “Thanks to the SS Corps” by GRIH head Dick Rowland, posted on a GRIH blog on June 13.

7. Link to webpage containing the 4 editorials by two OHA trustees in the OHA monthly newspapers of August, September, and October 2006 attacking “The Nutgrass Conspiracy.”

8. Link to webpage explaining how the Akaka bill would empower the secessionist movement. The webpage provides proof that some important long-time secessionist leaders favor the Akaka bill, and that Senator Akaka himself strongly hints that he also favors secession as a long-term goal and clearly states that the bill would not interfere with secession.

9. Link to webpage explaining important attitudes, beliefs, and goals shared by both the Akaka bill supporters and the secessionists.

10. Link to webpage describing terrorist-like disruption of Statehood Day celebration in August, 2006 led by some of the same protesters who were present on June 8, 2007 including Kekuni Blaisdell, Lynette Cruz, and Ikaika Hussey.

11. Newspaper report describing the e-mail from attorney David Rosen to GRIH head Richard Rowland asking whether Rowland might know of any potential plaintiffs for a new lawsuit against Kamehameha.

12. Photos captured from recording of KGMB9 TV news broadcast June 8, 6 PM.

13. Photos taken by protesters to showcase their protest of June 8, 2007 at the GRIH office.

For details of the above-listed 13 items, see
http://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/GRIH060807.htm