Who benefits from having the general population angry at Hawaiian groups who break the law and flaunt it?
Personally, I don't know who benefits. I have a suspicion. My suspicion is that the people who benefit are the same people who always benefit from business as usual in Hawaii.
On the other hand, it's pretty easy to figure out who gets hurt by keeping the sovereignty movement in disarray. The Hawaiians as a group are hurt because without a united front, their hope for a homeland is thwarted.
Individual Hawaiians frustrated at fighting a massive gelatinous bureaucracy they don't understand are hurt when they are sucked into futile illegal battles with the system. Just look what happened to former Campaign Spending Commission administrator Jack Gonzales, who decided that as a Hawaiian, he didn't have to pay federal taxes. He's in the federal big house.
Other Hawaiians have fallen in with mainland anti-government groups, which soon had them harassing federal judges and issuing bogus subpoenas. They, too, ended up in federal prison.
Hawaiians who feel they have to make a point by driving around in cars with "Sovereignty" license plates are hurt by racking up police arrest records, contempt citations and generating bad will with the public in general.
Do they need public goodwill? If they had a couple of Army divisions and the military means to liberate their homeland, they wouldn't need goodwill. But like it or not, they are involved as much in a PR battle as a legal one. And while having public goodwill on your side might not be necessary, it certainly doesn't hurt.
I think Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele found out that public goodwill is a useful commodity while he was sitting around in jail awaiting trial on charges he interfered with the arrest of a federal fugitive. Believe it or not, judges do take the public's feelings into account when deciding to release prisoners into the community. The tide of public feelings turned in Bumpy's favor after he had been branded a danger to the community and thus held without bail. A lot of the community felt that simply wasn't the case. The goodwill of the public toward Bumpy prevailed and he was released.
WHICH brings me to a scene I witnessed recently. A large sports utility vehicle that probably cost at least $25,000 came racing into a parking lot, causing one pedestrian to jump for the curb. The driver hopped out of the vehicle, swaggered into the building, swaggered back into the vehicle and went racing off. The driver clearly didn't feel compelled to apologize for scaring the bejeezes out of people walking through the parking lot. The last thing I saw on that apparently brand-new vehicle as it sped away was the "Sovereignty" license plate.
What point did the driver make? "I am Hawaiian. I am angry at the system. I can ignore laws. I can ignore basic courtesy. Stay out of my way."
What was the reaction of people who witnessed the scene? "The guy is a jerk. If this is what the sovereignty movement is about, screw it."
See, the thing is, there are a lot of non-Hawaiians who feel that the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom was wrong and that the U.S. government has a moral responsibility to make things right.
But that goodwill evaporates in personal anger when confronted by the actions of one jerk.
Clearly, the guy was trying to show courage, to prove he wasn't afraid of a system stacked against him. But courage doesn't always win the day. Sometimes it also takes dignity, class, unity and the goodwill of those around you.
