Letters to the Editor – 6/25/14

History lesson

Bob Jones notes that “The Secretary of the Interior is considering whether to propose an administrative rule that would facilitate the reestablishment of a government-to-government relationship with the Native Hawaiian community, to more effectively implement the special political and trust relationship that Congress has established between that community and the United States … Congress and the state of Hawaii aren’t going to recognize a Kingdom of Hawaii, and no international body has the power or tools of enforcement to make them do so.”

For the record, on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia, citizens of the U.S. instituted a move away from Great Britain by signing the Declaration of Independence. On June 30, 1887, in Honolulu, a pro-annexation group backed by the U.S. forced the 1887 Bayonet Constitution upon the Mo’i (King Kalakaua), transforming the Mo’i into a “rubber stamp.” On Jan. 17, 1893, in Honolulu, Lorrin A. Thurston, Sanford B. Dole and William R. Castle instigated the overthrow of Queen Lili’uokalani with U.S. military support from Capt. Gilbert C. Wiltse of the U.S.S. Boston, stationed at Pearl Harbor, and from U.S. diplomatic official Minister John L. Stevens, posted in Honolulu.

The “unholy three,” Thurston, Dole and Castle, descended from American missionaries, whose mission it was to “devise, adopt and prosecute ways and means for propagating the gospel among those who are destitute of the knowledge of Christianity.” The Calvinists of Hiram Bingham’s time drew their strength mostly from the Old Testament. Freedom and slavery dominated the Old Testament. American liberty fed on the mo’olelo (story) of Israel and Judah in the Old Testament. New England Puritans based their government on the “10 Commandments.”

Even though Bob Jones believes no international body may have the power or tools to force Hawaiian recognition upon the U.S., the lessons of 1776, 1887 and 1893 are a matter of record. Enforcement, then, will come from within, so that the homeland of Pa’ao, Kalaunuiohua, Ma’ilikukahi and Kamehameha I will one day be pono (proper) again.

Wayne Hinano
Brumaghim
Mililani

Same old …

Why does MidWeek continue to publish Jerry Coffee’s all-too-predictable column? No matter what the topic, he turns it into an occasion to bash President Obama.

Perhaps if Republican George W. Bush and his neocon pals had not purposely lied us into a war of choice in Iraq, a war Mr. Coffee fully supported, a war that opened a sectarian hornet’s nest, his attacks on this president might be more believable instead of the right-wing hate propaganda they are.

Alan Lee
Honolulu

dchapman@midweek.com