The Akaka Bill would impose a "Native Hawaiian Governing Entity" on Hawaii in a major way and the rest of the USA in perhaps a minor way. What is to be formed is a new government that has nothing in it. Nothing. It is to be an empty government vessel inside of which is a sucking vacuum demanding people land, money, law, and power to fill it up.
Fuel for this vessel will be provided by lobbyists and government brokers anxious to influence and manage the creation of this new entity. Looming large among these power brokers will be the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Kamehameha Schools, Bishop Estate, Indian tribes and their casinos, and many other groups and organizations. Others, now unknown, will be crawling out of the woodwork chasing money and power.
Each Hawaii County will find it necessary to post full-time monitors and lobbyists to watch over the committee which will be working out the details. So will Alexander & Bandwin, Castle & Cooke, Bank of Hawaii etc, etc. The Hawaii Legislature will watch carefully and nervously. So will Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and the French owners of First Hawaiian Bank.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
It seems to us that our nation has no business whatsoever imposing this new government entity on our state without our expressed opinion by statewide vote of the people. That was done before we entered the U.S. in 1959 and it should be done before the Akaka Bill becomes law.
Current proponents of the Akaka Bill cite the support of the governor, state Senate and House and Hawaii's national delegation as overpowering evidence that the people of Hawaii favor this new Native Hawaiian Governing Entity. We do not think so. We could be wrong, but so could they. Let's find out for sure.
We request the Hawaii Senate and House pass a resolution proclaiming that they withdraw earlier support of the Akaka Bill until it is voted upon by the citizens of Hawaii in a statewide referendum or plebiscite.
We want you to Let Us Vote
SPECIAL REQUEST
There is a new Web site up on which you can register your belief that there should or should not be a vote of Hawaii's people before the Akaka Bill is passed. As presently written, it imposes a new and separate government on the state.
Click here -- http://luv-hawaii.org/ -- to go to the site. Just scroll down, put in basic information and click submit. Then get your family to do the same.
Then, think of at least five friends and ask them to express their opinion. There is a place to register comments. Please do so.
As the number of participants grows, we will publish results and share the facts with policymakers to include occasionally some comments (without of course identifying the author).
Please ask your friends to enroll family and friends.
And, for all, please do promptly. One of the things we are going to do is measure our networking efficiency by tracking website activity for the next 10 days. After that we will take further actions.
Richard O. Rowland is president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
HawaiiReporter.com reports the real news, and prints all editorials submitted, even if they do not represent the viewpoint of the editors, as long as they are written clearly. Send editorials to mailto:Malia@HawaiiReporter.com
LET US VOTE ON THE AKAKA BILL