Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 10, 1 October 2000 — Discussion Forum [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Discussion Forum

www. OHA. org

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs' discussion forum is at www.OHA.org. The purpose of the forum is to share different points of view on issues important to the Hawaiian community.ln the few weeks since its inception, lively exchanges have begun on federal recognition, sovereignty and the Forbes Cave. Divergent opinions have been posted by participants anonymously, using their real names or taking such online identities as Takspayr and Commoner. The forum is open to all. Participants ean access existing messages, post their own message or set up a new topic to be'discussed. To enter the discussion, go to www.OHA.org. ^ — — — . — — — — — — — _ — —

Following are excerpts from the current online discussion: Federal recognition Anonymous, 9-14 The Rice decision is not fatal to the HHCA of 1920. The Supreme Court decided that the State of Hawai'i used race for racial purposes since inventing OHA in 1978. In contrast. the purpose of the HHCA of 1920 is to rehabilitate Native Hawaiians — this isn't a racial purpose. This compelling govemment interest to rehabilitate native Hawaiians is to treat heirs of those dispossessed of ancestral land since the Māhele of 1848 — they happen to be Native Hawaiians. Congress ean and has used race as a criteria, and courts, including the Supreme Court, have upheld this use of race as a criterion. Second, the OHA voting scheme was struck down based on the 15th Amendment (not the 14th Amendment) prohibiting abridgement of a voting right based on race. Federal recognition Anonymous, 9-1 The Hawaiians needed the U.S. about 70 years ago when the buildup of world war two was coming of age. And if it wasn"t for the U.S. govemment and their presence all of us would be raled by a foreign nation. And none of you put up a fight about our presence either when you needed the govemment. So give up your laid back aloha spirit ways and conform to reality, there is no king in this state or this nahon for that

matter and its time you eam your plaee in this country like every other American and if you don't like it, then leave the country. Federal recognition Kahakii, 9-1 Anonymous (Sept. 1), you make no sense and haven't even been in Hawai'i long enough to give your opinion. You have no knowledge about Hawaiian history and intemational law. Hell, I think you don't even have any knowledge about Ameiiean history, because if you did you would tmly understand the tragedies that all aboriginal people faced in the past and presently. Instead you insist on exhibiting your egotistical arrogant attitude that contains no logic. Federal recognition Harry Palmer, 8-30 This is as pono as it's going to get with the Feds. The Feds will never allow succession-see the Civil War. Politics is the art of the possible. Too many have gone down in flames for their purity. Federal recognition Takspayr, 8-19 Every overthrow, every revolution, every eoup is 'illegal'. In fact, the American Revolutionary War with Great Britain is illegal from the point of view of the British. Shall we now realign ourselves with Great

Britain? The Monarchy or the Kingdom of Hawai'i was not only 'overthrown', its land, people and nation was actually conquered. It was at least a bloodless eoup. Hawai 'i and its people were conquered in as mueh as the Indians were; in as mueh as the land America won in the Spanish American War. No, America will not give back the Isle of Manhattan or Florida back to the Indians, neither will America give back the entire Southwestem portion of Ameiiea to Mexico. Nor will Ameiiea compensate every black person for slavery in Ameiiea. Federal recognition Tane, 8-25 The Ameiiean Revolutionary War was breaking away from the mother country, whieh is different to what you are referring to in Hawai'i's history. Minister Stevens was kicked out of South Ameiiea for his meddling and trying to annex them to the U.S. This proannexationist was then sent to Hawaii in a plot to overthrow the Hawaiian govemment and annex it to the U.S. President McKinley believed in expansionism of the U.S. into the Pacific area as the Westem powers were already invading it. Hawaii was a neutral country that secured treaties with those countries and others throughout the world. A British zealot tried to take the islands for England but the British reinstated our sovereignty, recognizing our independence and the treaties they entered into with us. The U.S. broke its treaty by sneak attack. ■