Posted on 08/17/2005 11:07:13 AM PDT by NathanBookman
The Senate is poised to sanction the creation of a racially exclusive government by and for Native Hawaiians who satisfy a blood test. The new race-based sovereign that would be summoned into being by the so-called Akaka Bill would operate outside the U.S. Constitution and the nation's most cherished civil rights statutes. Indeed, the champions of the proposed legislation boast that the new Native Hawaiian entity could secede from the Union like the Confederacy, but without the necessity of shelling Fort Sumter.
The Akaka Bill classifies citizens by race, defying the express provisions of the 14th Amendment. It also rests on a betrayal of express commitments made by its sponsors a decade ago, and asserts as true many false statements about the history of Hawaii. It should be defeated.
The Akaka Bill's justification rests substantially on a 1993 Apology Resolution passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton when we were members of the Senate representing the states of Washington and Colorado. (We voted against it.) The resolution is cited by the Akaka Bill in three places to establish the proposition that the U.S. perpetrated legal or moral wrongs against Native Hawaiians that justify the race-based government the legislation would erect. These citations are a betrayal of the word given to us--and to the Senate--in the debate over the Apology Resolution. ... The U.S. Constitution scrupulously protects the liberties and freedom of Native Hawaiians. It always will. Native Hawaiians have never been treated as less than equal by the U.S. Their economic success matches that of non-Native Hawaiians. Intermarriage is the norm. Sen. Inouye himself boasted in 1994 that Hawaii was "one of the greatest examples of a multiethnic society living in relative peace." In other words, e pluribus unum is a formula that works. We should not destroy it.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
I'm confused. Is this an issue of the citizens/people of Hawaii.... or is this the play of idiotic politics there?
Sometimes people aren't properly represented, ya know?
Just thinking... hmmm?
My impression of Hawaii, admittedly from only one three-week vist there, was that it was the future in its diverse society: Caucasian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Samoan, all together. I have to say that the staff at the hotel where I stayed didn't seem too warm towards blacks tho.....
It's basically a bill granting special rights for Hawaiians (Samoans) based on race...Should this ring a bell?
Another Clinton aplogy! That idiot spent eight years going around the world apologizing for every imaginable wrong. Too bad he was too busy with that to address terrorism and OBL!
The "aloha spirit" you hear much about has its origins in the Hawaiian culture, no doubt about that. However, it was also promoted by the blending of other cultures and ethnicities as a matter of practice - we all HAD to live and depend on each other. The staff at most hotels are constantly taught and reminded about promoting the aloha spirit and their job performance reflects an evaluation for that. I don't know of any "excepted" ethnicity in Hawaii since there are no minorities in Hawaii - we're all minorities. In fact, part of the problem with the "Kaka Bill" is that it is causing friction within families because most local families is a blend of many ethnicities, including Hawaiian.
I just wish people could put that crap aside. Most folks I worked with from Hawaii were first rate and friendly. I went to Tech School with about a dozen members of the Hawaii Air National Guard. They seem to get along with everyone and I enjoyed being around them. Just mutual respect among professionals. I just don't to see some clowns piss on that and make otherwise decent people resentful and bitter.
The driving force behind the sovereignty movement - whatever the final interpretation - is GREED, fed by the power of politics. Millions in US taxpayer money is being spent on certain Hawaiian entities for the purpose of swaying public opinion using unsubstantiated claims and false history. Any opposition to the "Kaka Bill" or attempt to discuss it in the open is immediately attacked as racist by well funded and staffed organizations, principally the Office Of Hawaiian Affairs. OHA has also been the primary opposition to a State Constitutional Convention which should be held every 10 years. OHA was organized at the last State Constitutional Convention over 30 years ago. OHA doesn't want the people of Hawaii to act on what OHA has become. Recent surveys, attacked by OHA, claiming slanted questions, show the vast majority of Hawaii residents oppose the "Kaka Bill".
Aloha no ka'kou!
Rush was talking about this today.
Racism? In Hawaii!? I am shocked, SHOCKED! to hear it!
"Aloha no ka'kou!"
And a Aloha Pacalolo to you!
That won't work for the same reason the monarchy was overthrown in the first place - Too much money being made by American businessmen.
Ummm, there is no "C" in the Hawaiian alphabet. the correct phrase would be "Aloha da Kine"
d;^)
The Akaka bill is a major step toward Hawaiian independence. Akaka himself said so on NPR today.
For the US Congress -- and especially the Bush Administration -- to approve this bill is simply insane. But that's exactly what seems to be happening. Incredibly, the Bush Justice Department has recommended only a few changes to the Akaka bill (such as guaranteeing that US military forces could be stationed in Hawaii), rather than opposing it.
What on earth is wrong with the Justice Department?
...the Akaka Bill, betray this nation's sacred motto: E pluribus unum. They would begin a process of splintering sovereignties in the U.S. for every racial, ethnic or religious group traumatized by an identity crisis. Movement is already afoot among a few Hispanic Americans to carve out race-based sovereignty from eight western states because the U.S. "wrongfully" defeated Mexico in the Mexican-American war.
Atzlan!
Bush would sign a leaf if it blew onto the Oval Office desk.
-Dan
The only problem with that is that "Mexico" is a political and not a racial entity.
If, in 1846, Mexico had any political claim to those lands, it was only because the Republic of Mexico became the successor state to the Spanish Kingdom's possessions previously conquered from the Native Americans by the white Spanish Conquistadors.
When the United States in turn conquered the land from the Republic of Mexico, the descendants of those original Native Americans stayed with the land and are now Americans.
What Mexicans are now claiming is that a Mayan or an Aztec descendant has a right to the ancestral lands of the Apaches, Navajos or Comanches based upon their prior conquest by white Spaniards because they, the Mexicans, come from a republic that is the political successor state to part of the former colonial empire of the Kingdom of Spain .
That's a rather "imperialist" claim if you asked me.
If the Mexicans want to reestablish "race-based sovereignty", let then reestablish the Aztec Nation in central Mexico or the Mayan Kingdom of Uxmal in the Yucatan.
"The apology falsely declared that Native Hawaiians enjoyed inherent sovereignty over Hawaii to the exclusion of non-Native Hawaiians. To the extent sovereignty existed outside the monarch, it reposed equally with all Hawaiians irrespective of ancestry.
The apology falsely maintained that Native Hawaiians never by plebiscite relinquished sovereignty to the U.S. In 1959, Native Hawaiians voted by at least a 2-to-1 margin for statehood in a plebiscite.
Finally, the Apology Resolution and its misbegotten offspring, the Akaka Bill, betray this nation's sacred motto: E pluribus unum. They would begin a process of splintering sovereignties in the U.S. for every racial, ethnic or religious group traumatized by an identity crisis. Movement is already afoot among a few Hispanic Americans to carve out race-based sovereignty from eight western states because the U.S. "wrongfully" defeated Mexico in the Mexican-American war."
I'm half Dutch,1/4 British,and 1/4 Blackfoot Indian.I want three states,damnit!!!
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