Hawai‘i recognizes 48 years of statehood today and political leaders on Kaua‘i and one of the most outspoken kanaka (an indigenous person from Hawai‘i) in support of independence from America will commemorate the day in contrasting fashion. Ron Agor, vice
Hawai‘i recognizes 48 years of statehood today and political leaders on Kaua‘i and one of the most outspoken kanaka (an indigenous person from Hawai‘i) in support of independence from America will commemorate the day in contrasting fashion.
Ron Agor, vice chairman of the Kaua‘i Republican Party, and Linda Estes, chairwoman of the Kaua‘i Democratic Party, will give thanks, stressing Hawai‘i has become a much better place for residents since Aug. 21, 1959, when then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation making it the 50th state.
Though the actual date is Aug. 21, Statehood Day is recognized today.
Mark Boiser, a Vietnam veteran who claims he is not an American citizen and is a sovereign citizen of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, said he will blot out Statehood Day.
“You don’t celebrate statehood, because we were never a state,” Boiser said. “I hope the United States will speak the truth tomorrow, and give us a chance to govern ourselves,” he said yesterday.
Hawai‘i cannot be part of the United States, he said, because America illegally overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and illegally annexed Hawai‘i in 1898.
Statehood Day underlies the ongoing conflict between those who support statehood and those who long for the return of the Hawaiian kingdom.
Supporters will point to the benefits of statehood — untold amounts of federal funds to the state, a strong military presence and a strong commerce system.
But sovereignty advocates say a resurgence of interest in the Hawaiian culture in the early 1970s and stepped-up efforts since then to protect and perpetuate it have shaken the foundation of statehood, and that in time, a Hawai‘i ruled by the kanaka will come.
Statehood Day is a state holiday that is observed on the third Friday in August.
Agor said statehood has provided a sturdy foundation for the growth of commerce in Hawai‘i and the expansion of a public school system helped produce future leaders of the state.
“I am a firm believer in the American way,” he said.
Estes said the governor was selected by a U.S. president when Hawai‘i was a territory. With statehood, residents can better control their lives by electing a governor they want in power, she said.
Through the political system that was created by statehood, Hawai‘i’s congressional delegation has brought back to the state untold amounts of federal funds that have improved the quality of life in Hawai‘i.
While many people applaud statehood, the kanaka maoli hope of breaking away from control of the United States would lack the same benefits, she said.
Boiser said statehood has no benefit for the kanaka and that it is “really for the United States and the white man.”
The kanaka, he said, “don’t believe (they) are citizens of America” and that the United States forced citizenship on them.
“The 70 percent who voted for statehood were not the kanaka,” he said.
A Vietnam veteran, Boise said he served proudly in the U.S. Navy between 1966 and 1970, but became disenchanted with America and what it stood for when he rediscovered his Hawaiian roots.
“When I was in the Navy, I was too young to understand the truth of life,” he said.
From his point of view, the truth of life was the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, the annexation of Hawai‘i in 1898, the establishment of a provisional government dominated by plantation interests, the creation of a territory and statehood.
Hawai‘i’s bid for statehood was a trip on a long and bumpy road.
In 1919, Prince Kuhio Kalanianaole, then Hawai‘i’s non-voting delegate to the Congress, proposed a statehood bill in the 65th Congress. But that bill failed, as did another one he introduced in 1920.
Hawai‘i congressional delegate Victor Houston introduced another bill for statehood in 1931, but that bid failed as well.
An unsuccessful bid in 1935 prompted a Congressional investigative committee to visit Hawai‘i that year.
During hearings, congressmen brought out negative reasons in explaining why statehood should be put off.
Some reasons offered were: Hawai‘i was too far from the Mainland; the lack of a significant middle class; and the large number of residents of Japanese ancestry.
Statehood bills, however, continued to be introduced in 1947 and 1950, but amid the communism hysteria of the 1950s and concerns by southern legislators of U.S. territory like Hawai‘i with a large number of non-white residents, those bids went asunder.
The struggle for statehood took a firmer hold in 1959, as Congress considered statehood for Alaska as well.
The United States was comprised of only 48 states when Republican President Eisenhower took office in 1953.
He had endorsed the idea of statehood for Alaska and Hawai‘i when he ran for president in 1952, but he had to wait several years to get support from Congress.
Challenges developed for Eisenhower when he recommended immediate statehood for Hawai‘i to Congress, but delayed statehood for Alaska to work out the administration of military installations there.
Because of his concern about the need for the federal government to maintain control of defense installations in the territory of Alaska, Eisenhower threatened to veto compromise legislation for simultaneous admission of both the territories of Hawai‘i and Alaska.
Some southern lawmakers also questioned the patriotism of Hawai‘i residents, partly because of the territory’s largely non-white population, namely Asian.
Following his election as the non-voting Hawai‘i delegate to Congress in 1956, southern leaders charged that Burns’ election confirmed Hawai‘i was a breeding ground for communism.
Burns, who was described as the father of the modern Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, had lobbied for statehood.
In the 1950s, he was credited with building a coalition of organized labor and Japanese-American groups to strengthen the state’s Democratic Party.
Burns later served as the second governor of Hawai‘i from 1962 to 1974.
The Territorial Legislature, which had been controlled by the Republican Party, helped create the Hawai‘i Equal Rights Commission to challenge discriminatory action against Hawai‘i based on race.
While 94 percent of Hawai‘i voters in a 1959 statehood plebiscite supported statehood, the U.S. Senate debated the admission of Alaska and Hawai‘i.
Sovereignty advocates have said Hawaiians at that time voted against statehood but that their vote was not considered.
According to one Web site, the kanaka maoli accounted for only 16 percent of the island chain’s population at the time of the plebiscite vote.
Following the certification of the election results, President Eisenhower signed a proclamation on Aug. 21, 1959 declaring Hawai‘i to be the 50th state.
Residents built bonfires, neighborhoods held parties, and cars blared their horns that day.
William F. Quinn and James K. Kealoha also were sworn in as Hawai‘i’s first elected governor and lieutenant governor.
But as one Web site touting independence puts it, statehood is not an absolute, as an anti-statehood rally, was held on the grounds of ‘Iolani Palace on O‘ahu on Aug. 21, 1999, which marked the 40th anniversary of statehood.
The palace was at one time the official residence of King Kalakaua and Queen Lili‘uokalani, who were the last in a long line of ruling Hawaiian royalty. The palace is now an historic landmark.
The event was held long ago, but the number of supporters of independence only grows with each passing year, Boiser said.
“We’re not going to give up.”
