nairb

An Independent Hawaii?

This morning's NPR reported on the effort of a movement in Hawaii to return the Kingdom of Hawaii to an independent country. The story cited a 1993 apology declared by the US Congress the 100 year anniversary of the 'illegal overthrow of the Kingdome of Hawaii'. This is some crazy stuff. He is the meat of the apology.

UNITED STATES PUBLIC LAW 103-150

103d Congress Joint Resolution 19
Nov. 23, 1993

whereas...

SECTION 1. ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND APOLOGY.
The Congress -

(1) on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on January 17, 1893, acknowledges the historical significance of this event which resulted in the suppression of the inherent sovereignty of the Native Hawaiian people;

(2) recognizes and commends efforts of reconciliation initiated by the State of Hawaii and the United Church of Christ with Native Hawaiians;

(3) apologizes to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the people of the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on January 17, 1893 with the participation of agents and citizens of the United States, and the deprivation of the rights of Native Hawaiians to self-determination;

(4) expresses its commitment to acknowledge the ramifications of the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, in order to provide a proper foundation for reconciliation between the United States and the Native Hawaiian people; and

(5) urges the President of the United States to also acknowledge the ramifications of the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and to support reconciliation efforts between the United States and the Native Hawaiian people.

So now there is a group (http://www.hawaii-nation.org) that wants to return to Hawaiian independence. There is some interesting reading here.

What to do?
I think the US should now apologize to us Native Americans and remove themselves from our land, currently referred to as the United States of America. I am sure that former Soviet republics would be willing to give back our 7.2 million if we agreed to give back Alaska. No harm no foul, right?

I think we all agree that invading others land is seen as a 'bad thing' nowadays. Then again we have come a long way toward civility. As a Native American myself, I can't imagine this land not being the USA. I think all would agree that it has changed significantly and generally for the better. "Change is inevitable, we don't have to like it but we do have to del with it" (Someone else's quote).

The wife and I watched the final Little House on the Prairie the other night. Its the one where someone bought up the town and forced everyone out. They blew up everything they had built. This allowed the new land owner to have the land, but not the town which they had worked so hard to build. Would we do the same in Hawaii? Would we obliterate the hotels, the infrastructure, the airport? They import 75% of what they use. Would we remove that? This would all be quite an impact. Think of the number of seamstresses alone that would be needed to remove that start from all of our flags. Maybe this could use some serious thought.

Of course most of what I say here is in jest. Some things just sound ridiculous. Besides, being from Texas, my own state has a similar group working towards Texas independence (http://www.nationoftexas.com).

posted by nairb @ 11:06 AM