`Bring it on’
By ddepledge
The most heartfelt discussion in the state Senate floor session on Tuesday was over the bill for the state to recognize native Hawaiians as an indigenous people.
Senators of native Hawaiian descent – state Sen. Gilbert Kahele, state Sen. Malama Solomon, state Senate Majority Leader Brickwood Galuteria, state Sen. Pohai Ryan, state Sen. J. Kalani English, and state Sen. Clayton Hee – spoke movingly about what the bill could mean for Hawaiians who have fought to preserve their language and culture in their home land. They spoke of the importance of forgiveness, healing and reconciliation.
But the discussion also had a cutting edge. Solomon said she did not want her daughter to be brought up in a Hawaii with the weight of the overthrow still hanging over her head. Ryan said the remedy for injustice was long overdue. English said he hoped passage of the bill might finally convince the state House – and the Abercrombie administration – to support using both Hawaiian and English in state documents, an idea passed several times in the Senate.
Hee said that during conference committee, state House Majority Leader Blake Oshiro warned that somebody might file a lawsuit against the bill if it becomes law. Hee wondered whether Oshiro – who is gay – would have had the same worry about the civil-unions bill passed earlier this session and signed into law by Gov. Neil Abercrombie as Act 1.
Just as the majority leader of the House, in conference, said: `Somebody going to sue.’
Of course somebody going to sue. If this legislation wasn’t important, nobody would sue. It is because it’s important.
But could you imagine my thoughts when listening to the House majority leader that somebody going to sue? After we passed Act 1? Somebody going to sue? Of course, because Act 1 is important legislation.
And no wordsmith of the new law of this importance could prevent (conservatives like) Bill Burgess, Kenneth Conklin, (Thurston) Twigg-Smith, from filing a lawsuit.
Bring it on. Bring it on. Because the facts of history will not change, the feelings of the indigenous will not change, and this issue will not go away.
Political Radar
May 4th, 2011 at 8:18 am
It’s very sad for Hawaii that this bill has passed. Mahalo to Senator Sam Slom, the only one of 76 legislators who had the guts to vote against it.
The bill by itself actually does very little, but it sets in motion a process whose expressed purpose is to break apart Hawaii along racial lines.
The bill does two things. (1) It hangs the label “indigenous” on all persons who have a drop of Hawaiian native blood, regardless whether that label is factually or historically correct. (2) It authorizes a 5-member committee to begin a process of enrolling all such “indigenous” people who wish to sign up for a “members-only” club, provided that they have participated in at least one other ethnic Hawaiian membership group (such as attending Kamehameha Schools, signing up for the OHA-sponsored Kau Inoa racial registry, or being a lessee or applicant for Hawaiian homelands).
But eventually, if Klub Kanaka gets created, survives court challenges, and elects leaders, then it will begin making demands to take away land, money, and jurisdictional authority that currently belong to all the people of Hawaii. There will be an adversarial competition as the tribe says gimme, gimme while the State tries to defend its land and power. There will be more and more racial strife, and more and more lawsuits. Hawaii will be forever divided. Humpty Dumpty cannot be put back together again.
There is hope that the process will wither and die. That’s what happened with the Hawaiian Sovereignty Elections Council and the Native Hawaiian Convention. Delegates were elected, a convention was held, two conflicting constitutions were written, but in the end the whole process simply died without much of a whimper.
See my webpage commentary about SB1520 at
http://tinyurl.com/3rzjdrf
And see my book “Hawaiian Apartheid: Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State.” 27 copies are available in the Hawaii Public Library system, and portions of it are online at
http://tinyurl.com/2a9fqa
The comments on the floor of the Senate illustrate the racial divisiveness of this bill, especially Clayton Hee’s vicious “Bring it on!” For my reply, I quote the statement of a proud American who led a rebellion against the ruthless killers who had hijacked an airplane to use it as a weapon: “Let’s roll.” The analogy is a good one. Ten years ago it was Islamists who hijacked airplanes for use as weapons to blow up buildings in pursuing a religious and ethnic ideology. Today it’s the “Hawaiian Caucus” who are hijacking the state legislature with a bill whose ultimate result and stated purpose is to blow up unity and equality in the State of Hawaii.
May 4th, 2011 at 10:41 am
If this bill passes, will Native Hawaiians be allowed to open gambling casinos on native lands?.
May 4th, 2011 at 10:53 am
This is a very special matter to me too. Not being born on Oahu but being raised there this small island has entered my soul and has been with me on my long journey over our globe for way to many years away from home. It burns steadily and at times it over comes me and I can feel the island in me. But I am not what one would call native for my skin is only browned from the sun. So as I have since childhood, I will fight my way towards recognition as a son of Oahu with anyone. No matter what language one speaks, no matter where one was born, the islands decide who is Hawaiian and not some senator far away. I say yes to keeping the language alive, I say yes for keeping the Hula alive, I say yes to keeping the original plantage alive. But as in all matters we should not over do it and go and call only those who have heritage Hawaiian. For in me burns in my soul the fire of pele and no one can put it out. No law, from either side of this conflict. Let us remember what being Hawaiian is.
May 4th, 2011 at 11:52 am
“Solomon said she did not want her daughter to be brought up in a Hawaii with the weight of the overthrow still hanging over her head.”
But meth? That’s OK:
Malama Solomon’s meth connection
http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/main/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1226/Malama-Solomonrsquos-meth-connection.aspx
May 4th, 2011 at 7:57 pm
Nice, Conklin states that Native Hawaiians in the Senate are comparable to Al Qaeda. What, Ken, there was no Nazi analogy you could have made? Sheesh.
Then Andrew Walden chimes using yet another pseudonym. Given how opinionated he is on his blog, I thought Walden would display more courage than that in a larger forum. Nope.
May 9th, 2011 at 9:55 am
Thank you for sharing the excerpt from the senate. I am grateful for the legislators who have the ability and courage to speak and act to defend the Hawaiian people.