HOW NATIVE HAWAIIANS FEEL ABOUT FEDERAL RECOGNITION AND THE OVERTHROW OF THEIR COUNTRY -
Let's pretend I visit your house. You offer me food and rest. I decide to stay.
Then, I order you and your family around, use your things and rearrange the rooms. I take down your photos and religious symbols, replace them with my own and make you speak my language.
One day, I dig up your garden and replace it with crops that I can sell. You and your family must now buy all of your food from me.
Later, I invite my father and his buddies over. They bring guns. We take your keys. I forge a deed and declare my father to be the owner of your house. I bring more people. Some work for me. Some pay me to stay in your house. I seize your savings and spend it on my friends. You and your family now sleep on the porch.
Finally you protest. Being reasonable, I let you stay in a corner of the house and give you a small allowance, but only if you behave. I tell you, "Sorry, I was wrong for taking the house." But when you demand your house back, I tell you to be realistic.
"You are part of this family now, whether you like it or not," I say. "Besides, this is for your own good. For all that I have done for you, why aren't you grateful?"
