Hawaiian Soveriegnty

1 September 2005

I strongly suggest you completely withdraw your support of S. 147, which I am upset with you for supporting. The bill would grant sovereign status to the native Hawaiians and I fear it is, in this case, unlike the American Indians, one step toward secession because there are independence movements that are alive and well within Hawaii. The Akaka bill grants them a boost in their journey toward independence. If we feel what we did in 1893 was wrong we should just grant them the ability to secede from the union.

The American Indians were very different from the Hawaiian situation. They only wanted access to government, which is all Akaka claims his bill grants native Hawaiians. This bill sets up a contest between the generally elected government and the special class created by the bill and it is not good to give recognition to a movement that is attempting to undermine a duly elected government.

I suggest that we find out what percentage of all Hawaiians support the Sovereignty measure before we go forward with a vote. If it is a majority we need to be careful in approving such a measure, but if it is a minority than we are letting minorities make decisions for everyone. I have nothing against the native Hawaiians, but allowing two governments to operate within the same area at the state level is a problem. One is the duly elected government and the other is this governing body that was created by the Congress to appease a group of people and will directly contest the former. Who do we recognize as a federal government when we carry out the federal-state relationship? Who gets the grants?

If this is what we need to do to get Gov. Lingle reelected and win a majority in the Hawaiian legislature forget it. This is dangerous. When we play with fire we always get burned and usually pretty badly. The Akaka bill is fire and the result is a really bad burn because I feel that it will lead to battles between the sovereign body created by the bill and the elected government of the State of Hawaii. I am concerned about the results of this legislation and therefore I strongly urge you to withdraw your support completely.