Sunday, April 03, 2005

WHO WINS IN A FREE AND INDEPENDENT HAWAI'I ? - EVERYONE !

One of the biggest lies perpetuated today is that when Hawai'i achieves nationhood once again it will be at the expense of everyone else.

But no one will be kicked out; their businesses seized or their homes and property confiscated. Instead, everyone, Hawaiians and all others, will be citizens of the sovereign and independent Nation of Hawai’i.

The Hawaiian Nation included people of many ethnic backgrounds that were loyal citizens before the illegal overthrow and it will be so again.

The truth is a sovereign Hawaiian nation will need the contributions and talents of all of its citizens to remain viable in the world. Hawaiians would be no better than the very supremacists that overthrew and occupied them were they to divide people by race.

Hawaiians have always been inclusive, not exclusive.

How would this be accomplished politically given a civil war resulted the last time a state tried to leave the US?

Unlike the southern US states, the Kingdom of Hawai’i and its citizens never agreed to become part of the United States in the first place. Therefore a move for Hawai’i to secede from the US would be both unnecessary and inappropriate.

Much like removing the top coat of paint to reveal the one underneath, the US Congress, after consultation between Hawaiians and the US at the level of state to state, could simply enact a US federal law that dissolves the entity known as the “state government” in Hawai’i.

What would be left in its place is what has existed all along anyway without interruption – the Nation of Hawai’i. Only at that point, would it be appropriate for the citizens of Hawai’i to decide their future as it relates to a relationship with the United States.

Those possibilities would include –

Full Independence - Joining once again the family of nations in the world.

Free Association – Much like Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia.

Integration with the US – Becoming a state or a tribe of the US under federal recognition.

Did you know that when Ronald Reagan was president, one of the most conservative US presidents in recent times, his administration actually granted the Marshall Islands independence in 1986, which then lead to a free association relationship with the US?

Precedent for Hawaiian independence exists right now within US law as outlined above. There are no laws that exist today within the US to prevent the US federal government from dissolving a state government. It is only fear and ignorance that holds the status quo in place.