No, that isn't the half-time score of game one of the National Basketball Association finals. It is the number of US Senators who voted against and for the bill commonly referred to as the Akaka bill.
As I predicted months earlier, it did not pass. The fate of this bill, intended to begin a conversation over the governance of the Hawaiian peoples, was sealed when conservative Republicans took power years ago. To be fair, even with Democrats, this would have been a difficult road to travel, but with Republicans in Washington, there is no hope that Hawaiians will receive justice from Congress.
Some say it may be foolish
to believe we will ever receive justice through a
ha'ole (literally, those without
"ha", the breath of life or
spirit foreign) system. I don't know if I would go that far, but the
MorningPaper rightly, I believe, opines that the bill was but a pawn to
be sacrificed by the Republicans in their campaign to get their
ultra-conservative base solidly behind them for the coming elections.
For example, it was over the last few days that Republicans forced a vote on a Constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage and a bill to repeal the estate tax. Two issues near and dear to Republicans. The Republican leadership knew what the outcome of the votes would be but wanted everyone on record so they could make political points with their base. So the timing of the Akaka bill vote was probably not a coincidence.
Having made their choice, it at least finally puts to rest the fallacy that our Republican governor, because she is a Republican, has the ear of Congress and the President (who also came out against the bill). Clearly, she has been duped by the Republicans in Washington and has now been thrown in the trash like yesterday's newspaper. Clearly, her selling out to the President by hiring his fellow Texas Republicans as tax payer funded "consultants", at extremely high pay and perks (in one case, I understand tax payers are paying for a consultant to fly to and from her home on one side of the island while she chooses to live on the other side, and by doing so, depleted funds for official travel for all employees), in pork barrel numbers never seen during any Democrat Party administration, has not and will not result in consideration of Hawaiian needs.
I have no idea what Hawaiians should now do. I do believe that if we do nothing, Republican ha'oles will continue to make it their mission to hurt us economically and spiritually to ensure we are never able to govern ourselves. I also believe, whatever we do, looking to Republicans, here in Washington Place or in Washington, D.C. is not the answer. Hence, we may need to, as some are saying, make this a state's rights issue by acting locally and beginning the process of self-governance without the approval of those currently in Washington.
Comments (1)
"Haole" has nothing to do with breath or life. In stories of Kamapua'a, he's referred to as a haole on the Big Island; it just means outsider or foreigner. This is a tired, old chesnut laid to rest by Mary Kawena Pukui long ago, but somehow still repeated, I suppose because of the comfort it gives those who prefer to see a lack of spirituality or understanding in haoles.
Hawaiians today have sovereignty that they never enjoyed under the monarchy, where only one person, the king or queen, was sovereign. Hawaiians, in concert with other ethic groups, do govern themselves now, as do all others in our republic; there's no plot among haoles to deny them their constitutional rights.
What "activists" in Hawaii say "sovereignty" they mean "hegemony", the ability to have the exclusive say on issues without the input or consent of others. Their arrogance is obvious to anyone who has witnessed their angry and abusive posturing about the sacredness of their pet ideas and the worthlessness of other views.
Hawaiian sovereignty would amount to disenfranchising all others: haoles, Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese and others without the "blood quantum" required under the Akaka Bill.
My grandmother and grandfather were citizens of the Hawaiian Kingdom, but only my cousins and nieces and nephews decended from native Hawaiians would retain the sovereignty they enjoy now as citizens of the US under the Akaka Bill or other sovereignty schemes.
I prefer to keep my family together under the US constitution.
Posted by Kaimukirat | June 9, 2006 9:53 AM
Posted on June 9, 2006 09:53