by Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D.
These four civil rights principles should guide Hawaii’s future. They are widely accepted but need stronger application. Good people should stand up publicly to proclaim them, and defend them against radical activists noisily demanding special rights based on race or religion. First I’ll state these simple, clear principles; then explain them.
1. Equality before God: All humans are equal in the eyes of God regardless of race.
2. Equality under the law: Government should treat all people equally under the law regardless of race.
3. Unity with America: Hawaii is the 50th State of the USA, whose laws rightfully have jurisdiction here.
4. Unity of Hawaii: The people and lands of Hawaii should remain unified under the single sovereignty of the State of Hawaii, not divided along racial lines.
1. Those who don’t believe in God, or believe in 400,000 gods, have other ways to say it. “All men [people] are created equal.” Don’t believe in creationism? Natural Law gives every human equal worth and inalienable rights. A beautiful Hawaiian creation legend says the gods mated and gave birth to these islands as living beings. Later the gods mated and gave birth to the first human from whom we all are descended. Thus humans are children of the gods and brothers/sisters to the ‘aina. Unfortunately some activists twist this legend to say only people with Hawaiian blood have this genealogy; therefore ethnic Hawaiians have a god-given right to rule Hawaii. Using religion or race as a basis to demand political power in Hawaii is just as unacceptable as jihad in the Middle East, fascism in Europe, or white nationalism in South Carolina.
2. Equal treatment under the law means there should be no special rights or government entitlement programs for one race preferentially or exclusively. Hawaii has many hundreds of such programs. They are illegal under the 14th Amendment equal protection clause, and morally repugnant as “institutional racism” comparable to Jim Crow laws in the old South. For each program, either open it so all races have access or shut it down. If “Native Hawaiians” are truly the most needy, then they will receive most of the help if help is given based on need alone. Article 12 Section 7 of the Hawaii Constitution grants special rights to Native Hawaiians for “traditional and customary practices” interpreted to include trespassing for shoreline access, religious practices, or gathering certain materials. The pono way to honor that provision while also honoring equality under the law is to extend the traditional and customary rights of Native Hawaiians to all citizens. In the Kingdom those rights were for everyone regardless of race (“hoa’aina” meant “tenant” not “native tenant”; “kanaka” meant race-neutral “person”).
3. The Hawaiian revolution of 1893 was done entirely by local men while 162 U.S. peacekeepers, present for fear of rioting or arson, were never needed. Hawaii remained an independent nation until 1898. The Republic was given full-fledged international recognition as the rightful successor government by Emperors, Kings, Queens, and Presidents of at least 19 nations, including Queen Victoria — all personally signed letters congratulating President Dole. In 1897 the Republic offered a Treaty of Annexation to the U.S., which the U.S. then accepted. Losing Senators complained that ratification by both House and Senate was not correct procedure for a Treaty. But neither Hawaiian secessionists nor U.N. has standing to overrule the method chosen by the sovereign U.S. to make its internal decision to ratify what the Republic of Hawaii offered. Yes we are Americans.
4. What Kamehameha hath joined together, let no politicians rip asunder. The people and lands of Hawaii should remain unified under the single sovereignty of the State of Hawaii, not divided along racial lines — no race-based government federally recognized as an Indian tribe.
* Dr. Conklin has lived in Kane’ohe since 1992. He is a retired professor of Philosophy. His book “Hawaiian Apartheid: Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State” has multiple copies in library branches and is also available from his website “Hawaiian Sovereignty: Thinking Carefully About It.”
TMT Mauna Kea U of Calif Regents Oral Testimony Given on 9/16/20
Sep 16
Posted by Ken Conklin in #MaunaKea, #TMT, Commentary, Hawaiian history, Hawaiian sovereignty, Native Hawaiians | Comments off
by Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D.
BACKGROUND: Hawaiian sovereignty activists have protested against the University of Hawaii proposal to build a thirty-meter telescope as part of the astronomy campus atop Mauna Kea. One of the major elements of their protest is the claim that Mauna Kea is a sacred place which TMT would desecrate — a claim sincerely believed by some but also asserted falsely for political advantage by many activists who have no religious beliefs or even conflicting beliefs. Several years ago they forcibly blocked the access road to disrupt a blessing ceremony customarily done when beginning a new project. Then in 2019 and 2020 a mob of hundreds of protesters forcibly blocked the access road to prevent construction from beginning, rotating mob members, building permanent tents and other facilities squarely on the road, and placing kupuna (elders) on their front line to dissuade police from enforcing the law. A timid, fearful, politically correct governor and mayor tolerated the year-long blockade until the COVID-19 virus forced everyone to go home.
The TMT project, like other observatories that have operated for decades, is funded by a consortium including universities on the mainland and around the world. The activists have sent their leaders to meet with the regents or boards of directors of some of those institutions to lobby them to withdraw from the project, thus undercutting its financial base. In response the University of California Board of Regents held hearings over the internet with livestreaming, and invited public testimony by telephone (to avoid infection from the COVID-19 virus). Below is Ken Conklin’s time-limited testimony from Wednesday September 16, 2020.
Aloha kakou,
‘O Ken Conklin keia mai ke ahupua’a ‘o He’eia, Ko’olaupoko, O’ahu, Hawaii.
I am Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D., a retired professor of Philosophy.
I have lived in Kane’ohe for 28 years, have studied Hawaiian history and the ancient religion in depth, and speak Hawaiian with moderate fluency.
Some ethnic Hawaiians oppose the TMT project because they claim Mauna Kea is a sacred place, and TMT would be a desecration of of it.
Here are three reasons why that claim should be rejected:
1. Most ethnic Hawaiians today are Christians. The real disrespect of ancestors and desecration of the ancient religion comes at the hands of ethnic Hawaiians who today abuse it as a mere pawn in their political chess game. The four primary native Hawaiian leaders, exercising self- determination on behalf of their people, officially abolished their old religion in 1819, when Kamehameha died, the year BEFORE the Christian missionaries arrived. They were King Liholiho Kamehameha II; Keopuolani who was Kamehameha’s sacred wife and mother of the next two Kings; Ka’ahumanu who was Kamehameha’s favorite wife and acted as co-ruler with Liholiho; and Kahuna Nui (High Priest) Hewahewa. They abolished the old religion by publicly violating an important taboo at a large banquet and then ordering the heiaus (stone temples) and wooden idols to be destroyed throughout all the islands. Today’s ethnic Hawaiians are welcome to invent any religion they wish; but cannot claim the old religion remains authoritative.
2. According to the most widely-recognized creation legend from the old religion, the goddess who gave birth to Haloa, the primordial ancestor from whom all ethnic Hawaiians are descended, was Ho’ohokukalani . Her name literally means “She who placed the stars into the heavens.” She gave birth to Haloa on Mauna Kea. Therefore Mauna Kea is exactly the right place where mother goddess Ho’ohokukalani should be worshipped by her descendants. Telescopes are today’s implements whereby Hawaiians today can worship their primordial goddess Mother who placed the stars into the heavens.
3. It would be unconstitutional for any governmental agency, including the Board of Regents, to adopt a religion as the basis for making laws or regulations. The First Amendment to our Constitution commands that there shall be “no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Neither the U.S. nor State of Hawaii nor State of California nor Board of Regents is allowed to elevate the ancient Hawaiian religion, nor any ersatz reinvented version of it, as the authority for making government decisions. No matter how much you may respect the ancient religion, no matter how much you may admire the modern people who reinvent that religion as a basis for their own political activism, you must ignore that religion when setting government policy for the shared use of Mauna Kea by all the people of our multiracial society.
Tags: #TMT