• Rumors won’t help • NASCAR patches Rumors won’t help Inaccurate information is the breeding ground for rumors. In the Sept. 30 letter “Get used to it,” the letter writer (as if worrying about my credibility while he is undermining
• Rumors won’t help • NASCAR
patches
Rumors won’t help
Inaccurate information is the breeding ground for rumors. In the Sept. 30 letter “Get used to it,” the letter writer (as if worrying about my credibility while he is undermining it) stated that I was embracing and aligning myself with a small group of Hawaiians whose goal is to return the islands to pre-annexation governance.
This is one of the widespread rumors that pop up frequently in Hawai‘i. The group is called the Lawful Hawaiian Government, also known as the Reinstated Hawaiian Government, with a working legislative body, a citizenry and a constitution.
While the citizens of this Lawful Hawaiian Government could live on the treasures provided by ke Akua from the shores to the mountains, they do not advocate a desire to change back to 19th century lifestyle. They can function in modern times too without the presence of U.S. military and without the American culture. I am very proud to belong to them. Actually I don’t even know any Hawaiian group that wants to return to 19th century lifestyle.
Rumors like this spread by the ignorant and the enemy of the Hawaiian people induce fear in non-Hawaiians. They fear of being exiled from Hawai‘i, being punished, or being forced to speak Hawaiian only.
How interesting is that the same Americans were the ones who cheered for the independence of the republics of the former Soviet Union and smilingly accepted how they solved the nationality issues — namely that they let the resident Russians stay if they took up allegiance for the new country, and they let them leave if they preferred to. It was an intelligent solution.
Why is it that the same Americans cannot presume the same intelligence from the Hawaiians in case they regain their independence? Would they cheer for Hawaiian independence? It is time to realize that these rumors are organic parts of the perception management policy of the USA — to demonize the opposition and to embellish the status quo.
Hawaiians deserve better, because they have a dream for their country and for their nation. Where are the dreams of the Americans — not for themselves, but for their country and their nation?
As to my being Hawaiian, I have to admit that I don’t make the genocidal “blood quantum” imposed by the white men on Native American Indians, Alaska Natives and Hawaiians; instead the Hawaiians were the ones who called me first “you are one of us.”
I don’t make public attacks and the letter writer’s objections to my using the words “U.S. occupation,” “slaughter,” “murder” and “killing” made me think of rephrasing my sentence. How would it sound: writing instead of U.S. occupation, “the protective U.S. umbrella assuring the happiness of the Hawaiian people”; instead of slaughtering, “millions of Native American Indians expired due to adversely administered euthanasia by American settlers”; instead of killing, “over 100,000 Iraqi civilians were taken out of circulation”; instead of murder, “200,000 Japanese civilians were exposed to the life terminating heat and radiation of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki”?
Thanks — it is not my style!
János Keoni Samu’ Kalaheo
NASCAR patches
Last year’s town hall meetings and this year’s Tea Party are, for me, classic examples of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
Simply put, these Cornell University researchers found that the unskilled suffer from illusory superiority, while the highly skilled suffer from illusory inferiority. In other words, stupid people don’t realize they’re stupid and are very confident in their beliefs, while smart people tend to believe that other people are at least as intelligent as themselves, thus, underrating their own intelligence.
Americans are angry. Conservatives are angry at Obama for trying to turn America into a socialist, fascist, Marxist, Nazi, Muslim, homosexual, godless country. Christine O’Donnell, the Delaware Tea Party/Republican nominee for senator was very angry three years ago at scientists who had created mice with “fully functioning human brains.”
I’m angry with Obama and a Democratic Congress for basically giving up the fight for middle-class America before it even began. The watered-down healthcare and finance reform bills prove only one thing: The super-rich, ruling-class has won again. And they’re attempting to push the victory home in the next elections.
In 1886, the Supreme Court allowed corporations to become “a person.” Last January, the court basically said that there was no limit on corporate money buying whoever they wanted in Congress. And oh boy, the money’s a-flowing.
Multi-billionaires like the Koch brothers are hoodwinking hard-working, conservative Americans again. They’re betting on the fear and ignorance of the American people. I, for one, will continue to support individual, truly progressive Democrats who are not corporate shills.
I also propose a Constitutional amendment: All members of the Congress who receive corporate money are required to wear NASCAR-like patches of the corporations and banks who own them. At least Republican, always-orange-tanned John Boehner was being honest when he was handing out checks from the tobacco industry on the floor of the House, while it was in session.
Phil Higginbotham, Kapa‘a
