Poka Laenui

86-649 Puuhulu Rd.

Wai`anae, HI 96792

March 1, 2000

Aloha Kakou:

The Rice decision was correct, as far as a decision which embraces the U.S. Constitution. The real question is, why must the decision be embraced from within the U.S. Constitution? And that's where the rub is!

What am I talking about? The real controversy is the old controversy - its that story of the C's against the I's. It's about the Cowboys against the Indians, the Continental Mentality against the Islands Reality, the Colonizers against the Indigenous Peoples.

Fundamental questions are only now being explored. The justices of the court in their majority decision declared, "When the culture and way of life of a people are all but engulfed by a history beyond their control, their sense of loss may extend down through generations; and their dismay may be shared by many members of the larger community. As the State of Hawaii attempts to address these realities, it must, as always, seek the political consensus that begins with a sense of shared purpose. One of the necessary beginning points is this principle: The Constitution of the United States, too, has become the heritage of all the citizens of Hawaii." All we need to ask is WHY?

The answer is simple. Because we continue to have thieves sitting in judgment of themselves, using their own standards, constitution, culture, mythology, and military, to determine their complicity in the great injustices bestowed upon our people and to dictate the terms of reconciliation.

I grant, for the sake of argument, that the members of the Supreme Court, all of them, are honorable men and women. They believe in the grandeur of their constitution. They abide by the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you!" But the failure in this thinking is that they are not the others. They move from the foundation of their own history, their own definition of culture, their own mythology which gives them their basis of what is right and what is wrong. But they are not us. They don't know what we would want others to do unto us. They do not hear.

This Rice decision is good, for it has given us, again, another opportunity to clarify our relationship with the United States of America. What should be the future of Hawai`i - within or without the United States of America? Shall we have our native Hawaiian people now even more fully embraced within a constitution written for a continental people? Shall we have the Bureau of Indian Affairs substitute for our Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Department of Hawaiian Home Lands? Shall we step in tune with the drumming which emanates from the U.S. Congress? Shall we be dictated by a people an ocean and a continent away because we continue to fear our own freedom and the possibility that we may not be able to measure up to the intellectuality, the industriousness, the connivance of the Americans? Shall we say YES for the sake of "unity" and become American Indians - Native Americans? We see self-styled "leaders" creeping and crawling closer to the promise of American relief under the banner of the U.S. Constitution, and the Congress. But what is there to find under that banner? Not our dignity, not the respect of our culture, not the honor of our ancestors and our nation! We can already see what they want done under that banner. To make us a conquered people, once proud, noble, independent and self-sufficient. They want us kow-towing to a foreign people who toss us crumbs every budget cycle. Is this what you want?

Or shall we begin to follow the original path of our ancestors, the path of Pono?

The purpose and the passion of Lili`uokalani, of Kalakaua, of the Kamehamehas, and of the many others, Ali`i, Kahuna, and Maka`ainana, today, cry out even more profusely in the call for Independence. Of for a voice loud and commanding, beckoning us all to our sovereign devotion of independence - Ku`oko`a, for our national house under a common roof of Aloha, a house with a room for indigenous peoples, and a larger, shared room for Hawaiian citizens of all color, religions, and races.

Our ancestors have deeded to us a promise far greater than what lies under that American banner. It is not a promise of power or of profit. It is a humble promise of Pono.

Let us do justice to ourselves, to one another, to the memory of our ancestors, to our mo`omo`o and our pulapula. Let us find our partnership among those who share the common national, cultural, genealogical, environmental, and peace ancestry of Hawai`i and work hand in hand with one another in bringing forth this Pono in Hawai`i. Let us be fearless in our drive for independence. Let us be fearless in our compassion for all human beings. Let us be fearless in our Aloha for all.

Partnership, cooperation, an unswerving dedication to truthfulness to our history, and a calm, clear, compassionate and certain vision of an independent Hawai`i just and humane - this is the dream to champion! Ahonui a lanakila.

Aloha `aina.

Poka Laenui