WHEN WILL HAWAI`I BE ABLE TO CELEBRATE ITS INDEPENDENCE ALSO ?
The Honolulu Advertiser - Monday, July 4, 2005
In the words of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, and from the pen of Hawai'i's last ruling monarch, Queen Li-li'uokalani in 1893, while imprisoned in 'Iolani Palace by American soldiers and businessmen (taken from the book "Hawai'i's Story," Mutual Publishing, 1990), let us ponder America's freedom and independence, in contrast to Hawai'i's unsuccessful quest for a similar goal: freedom from unlawful rule.
Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776:
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ...
"But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
Excerpts from "Hawai'i's Story" (pages 373-374):
"Oh, honest Americans, as Christians hear me for my down-trodden people! Their form of government is as dear to them as yours is precious to you. Quite as warmly as you love your country, so they love theirs. ... It is for them that I would give the last drop of my blood; it is for them that I would spend, nay, am spending, everything belonging to me. Will it be in vain? It is for the American people and their representatives in Congress to answer these questions. As they deal with me and my people, kindly, generously, and justly, so may the Great Ruler of all nations deal with the grand and glorious nation of the United Stated of America."
- Queen Lili'uokalani, 1893
Shana Logan
Ka'a'awa
