Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 11, 1 November 2007 — Clegg testimony [ARTICLE]

Clegg testimony

In your October issue, Rowena Akana ("Hawai'i's hijacked Civil Rights Advisory Committee") criticizes the testimony that I delivered in August before Hawai'i's State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In that testimony, I argued that the Akaka Bill is unconstitutional as a matter of law and divisive and unfair as a matter of policy. Ms. Akana mischaracterizes my testimony in a number of respects, but rather than address them all, I would just suggest that those who are interested read my testimony for themselves and make up their own minds. It is posted on the Center for Equal Opportunity's website at: www.ceousa.org/index. php?option=com_content&task=v iew&id=438&Itemid=83. Readers with additional questions are weleome to email me at rclegg@ ceousa.org. More troubling is Ms. Akana's laek of civility. She calls those who disagree with her "bozos" and says that in the hearings I "look[edj like a fool." Now, now. Worst of all, she calls those who oppose the Akaka hill "racists" - not onee,

not twice, but three times in her short pieee. In response, I will just point out that it is the Akaka hill - not its critics - that would use a one-drop rule to create a favored racial group. Roger Clegg Center for Equal Opportunity