Free Hawai`i

HEARINGS ON AKAKA BILL SHOULD BE HELD IN HAWAI`I

Maui News - March 20, 2010

There will always be those with differing opinions on the Akaka Bill, as the March 14 Viewpoint "Passing Akaka Bill will keep Hawai`i Hawai`i" illustrated. In its 10-year history of insurgency, misinformation is most definitely a problem.

The Viewpoint writer quotes opinions from individuals in Washington, D.C., and laws that were enacted by foreigners based on Hawaiian ethnicity. This does not mean the prejudices and racism committed against Hawaiians did not/does not occur. It means stop all this twisting and spinning of the facts.

Native Hawaiians via Hawaiian Homes Act is an American created word that, within its legal context, is based on ethnicity and omits Hawai`i's political history.

Thousands of miles of ocean separate us from the American continents. Free of the espoused notion, these Hawai`i Islands and their people were never indigenous to the United States.

In the 1840s, Kamehameha III secured international recognition as an independent state - equal and external to the United States of America - a fact and achievement no indigenous tribe of the Americas and Alaska has ever attained.

Proponents claim the Akaka Bill is not raced based. The Glenn Beck-Rush Limbaugh type-of-opponents don't want the bill because it takes from the haves and gives to the have-nots. I oppose the bill based on my national origin, where blood quantum and ethnicity are not an issue.

What do you want? Demand hearings are held in Hawai`i.

Foster Ampong
Kahului, Maui