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Support the Akaka Bill (S. 147)

26th July 2005, 10:17 am

Dear Barbara Boxer,

I feel very strongly that the Native Hawaiians have an inherent human right to self-determination and self-governance. I just listened to Senator Daniel Akaka speak on NPR about the difficulty he is having being seen by the Majority Leader and getting this bill to the floor. Apparently, the Republicans are holding this bill up.

Hawaii is built up with hotels, pollution is increasing with heavy traffic, and sea life is suffering due to excessive commercial boating. Because of these types of destruction, the ecology is shifting. The pace of life is feeling more and more like California. And Native Hawaiians are forced to live amongst such destruction without holding any power.

If they are not granted sovereignty, I fear that they will soon have no place to go that they can call their own. True Hawaiian paradise will be lost. This is why it is so important that land is preserved and set aside for the Native Hawaiians. I’m hoping that the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005 (S. 147) will be passed. Is there anything else we can do together to assure this?

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  • Lee

    lee_washington1776@yahoo.com

    Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, who chairs the Senate Republican Policy Committee, wrote a comprehensive analysis addressing his concerns over the creation of a race-based government for Native Hawaiians and the dangerous precedents that this bill would create. The paper is available at http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/Jun2205NatHawSD.pdf.

  • Lee

    lee_washington1776@yahoo.com

    Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, who chairs the Senate Republican Policy Committee, wrote a comprehensive analysis addressing his concerns over the creation of a race-based government for Native Hawaiians and the dangerous precedents that this bill would create. The paper is available at http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/Jun2205NatHawSD.pdf.

  • steve cooley

    Explain to me how native Hawaiians are different than natives like my homeboys of the Cherokee nation? I find the Republican party playing the race card to be amusing, honestly. All too much it seems like a smoke screen for the what I view as a continuation of the status quo for expansionist imperialistic rich white men whose only real motivation in this is to stall an uprising. The only kind of race you need to treat different, white man, is the one our forefathers committed a near complete genocide on: the native race.

    How would you feel if your native land was taken over by a whole race of people, killed you and your family off, and everyone you knew, and millions of people like you, all without any regard for your feelings or your riches, or your way of life? Or your culture, or your method of worship. Seriously, someone coming into your house, ripping you away from your TV, right in the middle of your favorite program, round you up, and all of your neighbors, friends, relatives, and make you _walk_ hundreds of miles to some barren patch of land and say “well, we’re not going to kill you, but you have to live on this ranch… thanks for the land, and all the resources on it. Later.”

    And then you toil for a hundred years to get ANY recognition by the new races’ government to acquiesce to the notion that millions of your people were killed and your house with your TV was straight up taken from you. Then they say “well, you know, I don’t see how you’re any different than me, and if we start making special considerations for you because you think you’re another race, then we all need to start forming race-based governments, and that’s just too endangering to my strong hold on power and control.. so, go back to the blanket, ok?”

    Get some empathy and wake up! Retribution is due, and native hawaiians still have a chance to retain some control over their history, culture, and future. Who are you to hold them down any longer?

  • steve cooley

    Explain to me how native Hawaiians are different than natives like my homeboys of the Cherokee nation? I find the Republican party playing the race card to be amusing, honestly. All too much it seems like a smoke screen for the what I view as a continuation of the status quo for expansionist imperialistic rich white men whose only real motivation in this is to stall an uprising. The only kind of race you need to treat different, white man, is the one our forefathers committed a near complete genocide on: the native race.

    How would you feel if your native land was taken over by a whole race of people, killed you and your family off, and everyone you knew, and millions of people like you, all without any regard for your feelings or your riches, or your way of life? Or your culture, or your method of worship. Seriously, someone coming into your house, ripping you away from your TV, right in the middle of your favorite program, round you up, and all of your neighbors, friends, relatives, and make you _walk_ hundreds of miles to some barren patch of land and say “well, we’re not going to kill you, but you have to live on this ranch… thanks for the land, and all the resources on it. Later.”

    And then you toil for a hundred years to get ANY recognition by the new races’ government to acquiesce to the notion that millions of your people were killed and your house with your TV was straight up taken from you. Then they say “well, you know, I don’t see how you’re any different than me, and if we start making special considerations for you because you think you’re another race, then we all need to start forming race-based governments, and that’s just too endangering to my strong hold on power and control.. so, go back to the blanket, ok?”

    Get some empathy and wake up! Retribution is due, and native hawaiians still have a chance to retain some control over their history, culture, and future. Who are you to hold them down any longer?