IF THEY CAN DO IT WE CAN TOO

In February, 2019 the city of Arcata, California removed a statue of William McKinley from the park in the center of the city. 

This too took several years to accomplish. 

The people of Arcata did it for the same reason as we want to - they did not want to honor someone who caused such harm to Native Americans and to Hawaiians. 

Yes, they knew about the fake treaty of annexation. In fact, their McKinley statue also held the fake treaty. 

And that played a great part in the city council's and the citizens (they voted) decision to remove the statue.

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM MCKINLEY HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI & KOANI FOUNDATION DIRECTOR KU`AHI WONG

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM MCKINLEY HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI & KOANI FOUNDATION DIRECTOR KU`AHI WONG

Aloha!

In addition to the on-the going nationwide movement to change inappropriate place names and to remove statues of racist individuals, there is ONE in Honolulu. 

Previously known as Honolulu High School, in 1911 it was renamed after the racist, imperialist U.S. President William McKinley who presided over the illegal annexation of Hawai'i to the United States. That was the high school I graduated from. As of the time of this post, I along with 2624 others signed a "Move On" Petition to restore it's previous name. The McKinley name from the school and the ki'i (statue) that stands in front, need to go.

Another statue of McKinley was removed from the center of the town of Arcata, CA on February 28, 2019. And in Alaska, the name Mount McKinley was changed to Denali as of August 2015.

I ask those who read this to PLEASE help us end racist imperialism in Hawai'i by supporting me and other like minded people in this effort. Your signature(s) on this petition AND sharing of this post is appreciated. I/we are hoping to also reach out to former alumni like myself (1964). Hea stay the URL: https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/restore-original-name

Additional information on the history of this issue and a lot more is posted on Facebook at - "Aloha Oe McKinley". 

Ku`ahi Wong
William McKinley High School Alumni
Director, Koani Foundation