• 2008 King Kamehameha Day celebration canceled • Still stolen property • Hawai‘i belongs to its people • Our nation tortures 2008 King Kamehameha Day celebration canceled The King Kamehameha Day Celebration Committee is sad to announce that the 2008
• 2008 King Kamehameha Day celebration canceled
• Still stolen property
• Hawai‘i belongs to its people
• Our nation tortures
2008 King Kamehameha Day celebration canceled
The King Kamehameha Day Celebration Committee is sad to announce that the 2008 King Kamehameha Day Floral Parade and Ho‘olaule‘a will be canceled due to the lack of participation. We are grateful for those of you who have graciously participated in the past years.
If anyone is interested in participating in next year’s celebration, you can contact us for information at kingkkauai@hotmail.com
W. Kahanu Smith
King Kamehameha
Celebration
Kaua‘i Commissioner
Still stolen property
Gordon Oswald’s letter disturbs me (“Focus on Hawai‘i of today,” Letters, April 18).
It’s like saying, “I’m a good guy, so it’s alright that I steal your belongings and make them my own. It’s better than some bad guy stealing and making it theirs. I have it now, get over it. It’s for your own good. You wouldn’t know how to take care of it anyway.”
Oswald, you and your kind had from the time of the overthrow till now to set things right and take care of this island and have failed miserably. No matter how much time, money and effort you put into fixing stolen property, the fact still remains that it is still stolen preoperty.
How long in your book does it take for unlawful possession of properties and chattel to become legally owned?
Dominic Acain
Kekaha
Hawai‘i belongs to its people
I enjoyed the two items about Hawaiian history (“Equality of Hawai‘i’s people worth defending,” Guest Viewpoint, April 16; “On revising Hawaiian history,” Letters, April 17) .
I want to make the somewhat obvious point that Hawai‘i now belongs to the people of Hawai‘i. It is a sovereign, democratic state that is allied with 49 other states for common protection from outside invasion. Because very small states like ours still get two Senators, we actually have more than our share of power in these United States, given our small population.
We could have arrived at this point by a million different paths. While reading our history is quite interesting, let’s not be confused between the paths taken and the destination reached.
Let’s stop arguing about paths taken for a minute and ask ourselves, do we like the destination we reached? Does it bother you that any adult citizen of Hawai‘i can vote? Does it bother you that with enough votes, we can change most any of our laws and even change our state constitution? Does it bother you that our government is not a dictatorship of a bloody tyrant or one of his descendants? Does it bother you that this state is not more racist?
I suppose I am a product of my culture, but I, for one, happen to like Democracy and equal opportunity for all races.
Mark Beeksma
Koloa
Our nation tortures
The United States of America has a government that directly plans and executes torture.
Our leaders not only condone, but plan torture, not indirectly by rendition or in some foreign nation’s prisons, which is bad enough, but by direct plan and intent.
Not only is this immoral, improper and against what our leaders have told us, it is a crime. It should outrage every American. It is a stain on the reputation of our country.
Do the civilian leaders of our country think we as citizens have in some way empowered them to take such actions? Or, is this the result of needing to find a way to stay in power?
If we as a public see the proof and do nothing, are we implying to some degree that we approve of torture?
What possesses one human being to plan, order and submit another human being to torture?
Torture is inhumane.
Torture is known not to work. The victim obviously wanting to stop the torture agrees to say whatever his or her torturers want.
Torturing by our nation tends to, although wrongly, legitimize torture against our troops and citizens by other nations or groups. Our military forbids torture for this and other reasons.
I believe Congress should hold hearings on this and expose those responsible.
I do not want the world to think my country acts like the very terrorists we are condemning and fighting.
And, I do not like a government that repeatedly tells us one thing while it repeatedly and directly does the opposite.
Scott Robeson
Hanalei
