Since the renaming of this blog we have decided to take a different tack.
The purpose of this blog is to answer questions like these:
What rights do Native Hawaiians not now have?
If any, are they Rights or Entitlements?
Why do the deserve such?
In step with E Pluribus Unum?
There is mystery in history.
Which history is authentic?
Blount Report?
Morgan Report?
Native Hawaiian Study Commission?
The Apology Resolution? (This is a political act, not a historical evaluation.)
How would we know?
If the U.S. was cuplable for the 1893 overthrow which eliminated the monarcy why is there no demand for restitution from the U.S. Government? (??? This opens the door to — just give us sovereignty and go away?)
Why should current citizens and residents of Hawaii make restitution for something the U.S. Government supposedly did?
Why is there never any closure proposed to the Native Hawaiian demands? Are they demanding political appeasement? Has appeasement ever worked?
Are Native Hawaiian demands based on race or ancestry? (What’s the difference???) If so is there a U.S. Constitutional issue??
If you are 75 percent Irish ancestry and 25 percent Puerto Rican are you Irish or Puerto Rican? If you are 75 percent Irish ancestry and 25 percent Native Hawaiian ancestry what do you say your ancestry is?
Is it important and why is it important?
What if you say you are American regardless of your ancestry? What does that mean?
If you were told that your great-grandfather had been mistreated by the city of Potect, Texas would you devote the rest of your life to demanding that Potect pay you, apologize, and give you special priviliges? Or would you get on with your life and try to produce and prosper?
Is there a message here?
We encourage you to answer these questions and suggest additional ones, and let everyone respond. It is our belief that we will all gain.
If you try to drive your car with your eyes glued to the rear-view mirror and seldom look ahead, what happens?
(ror)
Native Hawaiian “birthright” suspect
Jan 16
Posted by jere in Commentary, Letters | Comments off
In a January 12th response to a January 9th article I wrote for the Honolulu Advertiser, the leaders of OHA claimed, “Native Hawaiians are the indigenous people of Hawai’i, and have the right to thrive in their ancient homeland.” I find this sentiment frightening in its consequences, contrary to the ideas of freedom, and based on false premises.
What we today call “Native Hawaiians” did not spring from the mountains of Oahu, or the beaches of Maui. As exemplified by the quintessential example of Native Hawaiian culture, the Hokule’a (now voyaging to Micronesia), Hawaiians were voyagers, explorers, and colonists from other islands in the Pacific and beyond. Their “ancient homeland” can be arbitrarily placed anywhere between Hawaii and the path they took from Africa, depending on which date one chooses. As with every people who have ever travelled to Hawaii, “Native Hawaiians” came from somewhere else – we are all immigrants here, separated only by the amount of time since our ancestor’s original arrival. To assert some special, distinct status, based on a single drop of blood before an arbitrary point in time, over all of ones’ peers who have lived together side by side for over 200 years is simply abject racism.
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