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Hawaii’s World
IN wrapping up their Feb. 23 ruling that all the people of Hawaii must be allowed to vote for trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the U.S. Supreme Court's majority wrote: Cayetano’s concerns
on HawaiiansFirst | Second | Last of three articles
"When the culture and way of life of a people are all but engulfed by a history beyond their control, their sense of loss may extend down through generations and their dismay may be shared by many members of the larger community.
"As the State of Hawaii attempts to address these realities, it must, as always, seek the political consensus that begins with a sense of shared purpose.
"One of the necessary beginning points is this principle: The Constitution of the United States, too, has become the heritage of all the citizens of Hawaii."
Governor Cayetano, when we talked, asked me to be sure to read this decision in full.
He thinks it can be an important base for future dialogue. He is impressed by its succinct summary of the history of Hawaii, which he sees as more balanced than the Apology Resolution passed by Congress in 1993 on the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.
The court said it relied on the books "Hawaii Pono" by Lawrence Fuchs, "The Hawaiian Kingdom" by Ralph Kuykendall, "Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands" by Gavan Daws, and "Historical Statistics of Hawaii" by Robert Schmitt.
In no way does Cayetano suggest -- nor does the Supreme Court -- that wrongs were not done to the Hawaiian people.
The court ruled, however, that all the people of Hawaii, not just the 20 percent or so with at least a drop of Hawaiian blood, must work together on the solution. Even though Cayetano was the technical loser in the case known as Rice vs. Cayetano, he shares the view that Hawaiian remedies are a statewide concern.
He notes that his ethnic group, the Filipinos, experienced discrimination in the past, as did Japanese and other ethnic groups.
He was born in 1939. Somewhere around 1950 he and some young friends aged around 11 or 12 went to Kahala Beach via a public access path.
Even though they were well out in the water, a Caucasian property owner on shore called to them to get away, that they did not belong. They left the water but decided to picnic on the right-of-way.
Next, a police officer appeared and told them to leave because a resident said they were making too much noise. Now, by state Supreme Court decision, the beach is public to the high water mark.
In 1954, a Democratic coalition of labor and mostly Japanese Americans upset half a century of Republican domination in the territorial Legislature. This was immensely exciting to Cayetano, then 15. He saw the move on to statehood, attained in 1959, as part of the historic "melting pot" process of America described by Fuchs.
EVEN Hawaiian communities voted overwhelmingly, often by 15-1 or more, to ratify statehood, which included a compact to protect the Hawaiian Homes program.
Not until around 1970 were proposals first voiced that Hawaiians should seek independence from the U.S. or at least internal sovereignty within the U.S., perhaps along the lines of Indian tribes.
Cayetano is not necessarily against some form of internal sovereignty but he does have a clear guiding rule: "Whatever is done should not be done at the expense of non-Hawaiians."
President John F. Kennedy looked at Hawaii's mixed races and said Hawaii is what the rest of the world would like to be. The governor wants us to keep it that way.
Holo I Mua Special Section
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.
