Dr. Martin Luther King Vs. Queen Lili'uokalani

SUMMARY: Today's Hawaiian sovereignty activists try to link their cause to the black civil rights movement. The holiday on Monday, March 17, 2005 was simultaneously the celebration of Martin Luther King's birthday, and of the 112th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. Hawaiian activists joined with the local NAACP and other civil rights groups in the annual parade through Waikiki. The activists compare the ex-queen and Dr. King because both were imprisoned by governments they resisted. But it is both historically and morally wrong to compare the goals and methods of Dr. King with Queen Lili'uokalani. Dr. King had a soaring vision of a rainbow society unified in celebrating diversity under the protection of full equality. He used a powerful technique of non-violent resistance to unjust laws as a way to appeal to call forth the deeply buried good conscience of evil oppressors. Queen Lili'uokalani was an ethnic nationalist trying to reassert racial supremacy and monarchial control during a time of transition toward American-style democracy. She condoned the use of violence by allowing ethnic nationalist insurgents to hide rifles and bombs in the flowerbed of her private home in furtherance of a counterrevolution to restore her to the throne. The similarity between these two historical figures is superficial, based only on the fact that both were imprisoned and that the newly-deposed queen surrendered rather than fight. But the differences in their goals and methods are profound. Update: January 16, 2007 a major social event is held at the East-West Center in Honolulu, with admission charged at $12, featuring a panel discussion, film, and food; linking Dr. King, Queen Lili'uokalani, and Mahatma Gandhi. The E-W Center's website announcement and fancy accompanying flyer are provided below. See new webpage containing analysis and commentary for January 2007 at: "Was Liliuokalani Really Like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi? What really happened in the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy?":
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/MLK-Liliu.html

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COMPARING AND CONTRASTING REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. VS. QUEEN LILI'UOKALANI

SOME PUBLISHED COMMENTARIES AND LETTERS TO EDITOR by Ikaika Hussey, Ken Conklin, Thurston Twigg-Smith, David Rosen, Shayne Keith, and Honolulu Advertiser columnist David Shapiro; in chronological order spanning 5 years

HAWAIIAN SOVEREIGNTY ACTIVIST ANNOUNCEMENTS REGARDING PARADE AND FILM "The Queen and Dr. King"

REFERENCES to webpages regarding the overthrow; annexation; Republic of Hawai'i President Sanford B. Dole; today's historical revisionist ethnic cleansing of Hawaiian kingdom holidays; comparison of Fiji with Hawaiian sovereignty proposals; discussion of Hawaiian nationalism, black nationalism, chicano nationalism, and the balkanization of America

UPDATE REGARDING JANUARY 16, 2007 MAJOR SOCIAL EVENT AT EAST-WEST CENTER, CHARGING $12 ADMISSION; FEATURING PANEL DISCUSSION, FILM, AND FOOD; CLAIMING LILI'UOKALANI WAS JUST LIKE REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING AND MAHATMA GANDHI. EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT AND FANCY FLYER ARE PROVIDED

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COMPARING AND CONTRASTING REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. VS. QUEEN LILI'UOKALANI

Everyone knows that Monday January 17, 2005 is a national holiday. But which nation's holiday is it?

On January 17, 2005 we Americans celebrate the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That date also has special meaning for the people of Hawai'i, as we celebrate the 112th anniversary of the revolution of 1893 that overthrew the monarchy. Hawaiian sovereignty activists carry their banners in the King-day parade. They try to make Queen Lili'uokalani a hero like Martin Luther King. Is such a comparison valid? Was Dr. King merely an advocate for his racial group (like the Queen was)? Was the Queen a supporter of non-violence (like Dr. King was)?

"Celebrate" is indeed the right word for the commemoration of the overthrow, although perhaps "politically incorrect." Before returning to discuss comparisons between Dr. King and Queen Lili'uokalani, let's take a quick look at why the Queen's overthrow was a good thing. Without the overthrow and subsequent annexation, Hawai'i today might be a decrepit, corrupt monarchy like Tonga. Or we might be a semi-democratic nation like Fiji, whose laws guarantee racial supremacy for descendants of indigenous natives over descendants of Asian plantation workers. Let's recall that six months before the overthrow, the Queen's psychic medium successfully encouraged her to support a proposal for a national lottery to raise desperately needed cash for the government; and just one week before the overthrow the Queen's spokesman pushed through the legislature her revenue proposal for licensing of opium dealers. After the revolution the Provisional Government and Republic of Hawai'i, under President Sanford B. Dole, held power for more than 5 years as an independent nation, resisting demands from U.S. President Grover Cleveland to put the ex-queen back on the throne. Finally, after Cleveland left office, the Republic of Hawai'i drove a hard bargain with the U.S. for annexation. The U.S. agreed to pay off the accumulated debts of the Kingdom, worth more money than the market value of all the ceded lands.

On Monday January 17, 2005 the annual parade organized by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Coalition marched down Kalakaua Ave. through Waikiki. A group of Hawaiian sovereignty activists conducted ceremonies at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center (owned by Kamehameha Schools). The sovereignty activists then joined the parade as it passed by.

Since 1998 the sovereignty activists have been trying to link QL (Queen Lili'uokalani) to MLK (Martin Luther King). In some years, besides sharing the parade, a film has been shown on 'Olelo TV of a play staged at Honolulu City Hall called "The Queen and Dr. King" (although that film was not on the schedule for 2005).

Sovereignty activists often try hard to get publicity for their cause by linking with larger organizations and popular holidays. Of course, on January 17 the tail is wagging the dog. If Hawai'i were truly a nation, this date would be a national holiday with a large parade focused primarily on memorializing the overthrow. A small group of resident aliens celebrating MLK's birthday at the American embassy might be allowed to join when the parade passes by.

Is there a valid analogy between the American hero Dr. Martin Luther King, and the ethnic Hawaiian hero Queen Lili'uokalani? Hawaiian sovereignty activists, and a few African-Americans, seem to think so. But the similarities in fact are quite superficial.

True, they were both "imprisoned" by their enemies. But MLK was imprisoned in solitary confinement in a small, dirty, cold, wet, real jail cell, with snarling guard-dogs (and snarling guards!) nearby. QL was "imprisoned" in a huge second-floor Palace room that is larger than most people's two-bedroom apartments. Her quarters included a private bathroom, her own maidservant, and plenty of writing materials and sewing supplies (she composed music, and sewed a large quilt containing Hawaiian sovereignty symbols and political slogans).

MLK was imprisoned harshly for minor non-violent infractions, like parading without a permit. By contrast, QL was convicted of "misprision of treason" for knowingly allowing guns and bombs to be hidden in her flowerbed in support of an armed counter-revolution. In 1895 her friend Robert Wilcox led several hundred insurgents trying to put her back on the throne; men on both sides were killed. Thus QL was supporting violence, which MLK never condoned. QL was sentenced to five years at hard labor and a $10,000 fine (a huge amount in 1895). But she served only a few months, and paid no fine. Her "hard labor" was done with sewing needles while chatting with her servant. A few months later she was paroled, and then pardoned by her friend President Sanford B. Dole, who allowed her to organize a petition drive and travel to Washington D.C. to lobby against President Dole's most cherished goal of annexation. One petition allegedly containing 17,000 signatures demanded that Lili'uokalani be restored to the throne -- that petition was never presented to the U.S. Senate. But President Dole deserves great credit for his forebearance in allowing Lili'uokalani and her supporters, only two years after the armed attempted counterrevolution, to gather such a seditious petition and travel to Washington to undermine her nation's foreign policy.

Supposedly, QL surrendered temporarily during the 1893 coup because her highest priority was to avoid bloodshed. But actually, she surrendered "temporarily" for other reasons. (1) If she seriously believed the 162 members of the U.S. peacekeeping force were her most powerful enemies, then she remembered the Paulet affair of 1843 when the British government restored the Hawaiian King after a rogue British military takeover; and she hoped history would repeat itself. Thus, she was making a shrewd political evaluation rather than giving top priority to non-violence. So long as she didn't shed the blood of the Americans, she hoped the American government would undo what she cleverly claimed it had done. (2) But QL was much smarter than that. She knew the 1500 armed local people who belonged to the Honolulu Rifles had actually succeeded in overthrowing her, and the Americans were merely peacekeepers acting to prevent a riot as they had done on several occasions in previous years. By surrendering to the Americans rather than to the real, local victors, she could still hope that a far-away country whose President-elect was her friend would reverse the defeat actually inflicted by her close-up political enemies.

The collaboration between some politically leftist African-Americans and ethnic nationalist or racial separatist Hawaiians is really rather curious. If an independent nation of Hawai'i were to be restored, under the racial supremacy of ethnic Hawaiians, people of African ancestry would be second-class citizens just like people of European and Asian ancestry. But the TV show "The Queen and Dr. King" makes shockingly clear what the Hawaiian and African-American radicals have in common. Both view America as a white-dominated imperialist colonizing power that enslaved Africans and took over Hawai'i. Both see themselves as colored people, fighting back against white domination. Race is clearly the focus; hostility of dark against white is the emotion being stirred up.

Lili'uokalani was supposed to be Queen of all Hawai'i's people. Asian plantation workers (and growing numbers of entrepreneurs) were the largest group, followed by ethnic Hawaiians and then whites. Lili'uokalani often used the phrase "my people" in her speeches and writings. But she used that phrase to refer to her racial group rather than to all the people she ruled. That attitude was one of the main reasons for the overthrow, and a very good reason for celebrating her demise.

The genius of Dr. Martin Luther King is his harnessing of a deep spirituality that unifies all people regardless of race. MLK adapted Gandhi's non-violent resistance from the context of India and made it successful in America. MLK knew that by submitting non-violently to the violent racial hatred of his enemies, he would eventually force them to see the wrongfulness of their actions. He believed that even the worst racist has, deep down inside, an inherent goodness that will eventually come to the surface and turn him around from hatred and violence.

MLK was a hero to American Negroes (as African-Americans were called then) because he helped them achieve equal rights. But Hawaiian sovereignty activists do not want equal rights -- they already have equal rights plus over 160 racial entitlement programs. The independence activists seek to rip the 50th star off the flag by making Hawai'i an independent nation with racial supremacy based on "indigenous rights" as in today's Fiji. Supporters of the Akaka bill seek to divide Hawai'i along racial lines, creating an apartheid government with money, land, and power exclusively for ethnic Hawaiians. What the Hawaiian activists seek might resemble some of the proposals of the early Malcolm X or proponents of a Nation of New Africa; but it is nothing like Dr. King's soaring vision of brotherhood.

MLK was a hero for all the American people, because he helped bring out the best in us all. He set us on a path toward full equality in practice as well as in theory. He helped us unify America more closely. QL (like today's sovereignty activists) was a divider rather than a uniter -- she was merely an ethnic hero, who lost her crown because she sought power for herself and her racial group at the expense of all others. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King is justifiably considered a national and international hero for people of all races and all nations. His spiritual insight and political skill soar far above Lili'uokalani's. For further analysis see:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/MLK-Liliu.html

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http://kaleo.org/2000/01/13/opinions/1col.html **URL now dead**
Ka Leo [University of Hawai'i student newspaper]
January 13, 2000

A man and a nation
Dr. King's perseverence reflected in Hawaiian movement

By Ikaika Hussey
Ka Leo Associate Opinions Editor

January 17, 2000 is an intersection of two important and contrasting events, as we celebrate the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. and simultaneously mark the anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

It is heartening to reflect that Dr. King, an African-American leader, had he been allowed to live past his shortened life, would be supportive today of the Kanaka Maoli (native Hawaiian) movement for self-determination and nationalism. It is appropriate, then, that the celebration of his life will fall on the same day as our Hawaiian national day of reflection.

The holiday for Dr. King is a colonial American holiday, an imported celebration brought by the American occupation of Hawai'i since 1893. Nevertheless, he is a rich addition to our celebrations.

Dr. King and Queen Kamaka'eha Lili'uokalani were both avid practitioners of nonviolence — it was through our Queen's injunction to her people to choose nonviolence that we did not revolt against the American-led insurrection, but instead chose a strategy of civil resistance which we have adhered to for more than a hundred years.

It is this steadfast spirit of resistance which enriches the Kanaka Maoli experience. Our understanding of past injustice does not define us, but our reaction to that injustice. We have led a nonviolent struggle that has won us tremendous gains — the return of Kaho'olawe and the halting of development in Waikane, Waiahole and Kalama. And it is through nonviolence that our movement continues to grow, with an increasing number of non-Kanaka Maoli allies and increasingly effective political strategies.

Indeed, the confluence of African-American and Kanaka Maoli struggles on Jan. 17 highlights an often unremarked dimension of social movers and shakers — we have allies. The Kanaka Maoli Allies is a loose network of non-Kanaka Maoli individuals who support some form of Hawaiian sovereignty. The group gathers through an Internet e-mail listserv, and is advised by a group of Kanaka Maoli.

Mutual support is an important factor between social change movements. The Center for Hawaiian Studies has hosted Black and African leaders, including Alice Walker and Ngugi Wa Thiongo. Indigenous-rights activists work together in a vast assortment of networks, associations and formal non-governmental organizations. Dr. King himself found inspiration in Mohandas Gandhi of India.

What is most clear is that there is a constellation of individuals and associations who work at changing the world. Their work, so often lambasted in the media and misunderstood by conservative politicians, is really the foundation for our world. Voting rights, land rights, human rights, even democracy itself exist because someone came before us to change another person's mind, to change a system that persecuted and destroyed human dignities.

The other lesson is that there can be no end to these "revolutions." At no time does society suddenly become perfect; there must always be someone to fix the problems that are left over or which haven't been noticed yet as problems. Dr. King, Malcolm X, Lili'uokalani, Gandhi —- each of these persons would not have given up when their policies were in place. They would take a rest, look around, and see that there was still a person without food, someone still without a house. And they would get back to work.

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http://kaleo.org/2000/01/14/opinions/1col.html **URL now dead**
Ka Leo [University of Hawai'i student newspaper]
Letters to the Editor, January 14, 2000

Dr. King turning in his grave

Ikaika Hussey (Ka Leo, Jan. 13) wrote that Dr. Martin Luther King has inspired kanaka maoli (native Hawaiians) by his perseverance in the quest for social justice, and his example of nonviolent resistance to oppression. But Mr. Hussey is mistaken in his claim that Dr. King would support the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.

Mr. Hussey correctly observes that "Voting rights, land rights, human rights, even democracy itself exist because someone came before us to change another person's mind, to change a system that persecuted and destroyed human dignities."

Those rights enumerated by Mr. Hussey are the ones that Dr. King and African-Americans struggled so hard to achieve.

And those are the rights that the Hawaiian sovereignty movement is working hard to take away from the 80 percent of Hawaii's population who fail to have the proper racial heritage.

What I have heard from Mr. Hussey and many other sovereignty activists is a claim that only KM have the right to vote on establishing sovereignty for KM, and only KM have the right to vote and own property inside the resulting Kanakaland.

And the most absurd claim is that the new Kanakaland should include the entire present state of Hawai'i; which would mean that a million non-KM residents of Hawai'i would have their voting rights and property rights taken away.

Rule by people who hold power solely because of their race is exactly what Dr. King fought against. And when the race "entitled" to power is a small minority, it resembles the now-defunct apartheid system in South Africa.

I believe Dr. King would be disgusted at the proposals of some of the sovereignty activists like Mr. Hussey, and Dr. King would be especially horrified to hear his name used in support of such proposals.

The Kingdom of Hawai'i never restricted voting rights to kanaka maoli alone, and by the time of the overthrow, it was a multiracial nation where every ethnic group (including KM) was a minority. The racism of sovereignty activists, demanding power for KM alone, is very apparent. Dr. King is turning in his grave.

Ken Conklin

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http://starbulletin.com/2000/01/15/editorial/letters.html
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 15, 2000
Letters to the Editor

Would Dr. King support sovereignty?

Martin Luther King's birthday coincides with the 107th anniversary of the Hawaiian kingdom's overthrow. Would Dr. King have supported our modern-day sovereignty activists?

He and other African Americans struggled mightily to achieve equal voting rights, property rights and desegregation. Meanwhile, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement is working hard to take away those same rights from the 80 percent of Hawaii's population who lack the proper racial heritage.

Most sovereignty activists claim that only kanaka maoli (Hawaiian) have the right to vote on whether to establish a sovereign entity; only they have the right to vote and own property inside the resulting Kanakaland.

Yet the kingdom of Hawaii never restricted voting rights to Hawaiians alone. In 1893, it was a multi-racial nation where every ethnic group was a minority, just as now.

Power held solely because of race is exactly what Dr. King fought against. He would be horrified by what is happening in Hawaii.

Ken Conklin
Kaneohe
Via the Internet

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http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/2001/Jan/15/letters.html
The Honolulu Advertiser, Monday, January 15, 2001
Letters to the Editor

Dr. King offers Hawai‘i lesson on sovereignty

Why do we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday? He led African Americans struggling against oppression 40 years ago. More important, he led all Americans toward equality under law.

Year 2000 saw great progress toward equal rights in Hawai‘i. While loving Hawaiian culture, we are getting liberated from racial supremacy or apartheid. The Rice and Arakaki decisions confirmed we can all vote and hold public office regardless of race. The Akaka Bill's failure temporarily rescued us from officially dividing up Hawai‘i along racial lines. The Barrett and Carroll cases offer hope that we might desegregate racially separatist public institutions.

Hawai‘i is fortunate that numerous ethnic and religious groups pursue their proud traditions freely under a guarantee of equal rights. Dr. King had a dream. Hawai‘i has a multiracial, multicultural reality tending toward its fulfillment.

Powerful politicians and institutions want to make racial segregation and privilege the law. Civil rights advocates of all ethnicities should follow King's lead: Speak truth to power, use the courts and protest any attempt to divide Hawai‘i racially.

Let's celebrate our diverse cultures united in aloha and equality under law. Sovereignty belongs to everyone, so long as we protect and exercise it.

Ken Conklin
Kane‘ohe

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http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Jan/21/op/op10pletters.html
Honolulu Advertiser, Friday, January 21, 2005
Letters to the Editor

Dr. King stood for equal rights, not for separateness

In their recent coverage of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the local media devoted extensive coverage to certain Native Hawaiians' attempt to expropriate this holiday for their own selfish purposes. What the local media continue to ignore are the antithetical goals advocated by Dr. King and those seeking special entitlements and a separate government for Native Hawaiians.

The holiday named in Dr. King's honor recognizes the efforts to end slavery, discrimination in laws and in private contracts, segregation in education, housing and many other areas, bans on interracial marriage, lynchings and other physical brutality, and a host of other sickening practices and their lingering effects that were directed at blacks in our country for no other reason than their ancestry. It represents an effort to realize one of the highest ideals of our country — the belief that "all men [and women] are created equal."

To twist Dr. King's goal of "freedom and equality" for all as support for special rights for any race is shameful. Dr. King did not seek to create a "separate but equal" America for black Americans. In his "I Have a Dream" speech, Dr. King spoke of a united America where all children could walk hand in hand as "sisters and brothers" and have the same glorious opportunities granted by equality.

Dr. King and the civil rights movement he led sought to end racial barriers: "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." How is this dream reconcilable with prohibiting children from going to school with or living next to one another because of where their ancestors lived 229 years ago?

Finally, Dr. King distinguished himself because of the positive manner in which he advocated change: "... let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred ... (Instead, let us) transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood."

Let us unite Hawai'i in the same manner — not through special rights, but through equal rights.

David Rosen
Honolulu

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http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Jan/23/op/op20pletters.html
The Honolulu Advertiser, Sunday, January 23, 2005
Letters to the Editor

Lili'uokalani wasn't thinking of her people

Vicki Viotti's article on Jan. 17 quoted Mel Kalahiki as relating Queen Lili'uokalani's actions to those of Martin Luther King Jr.: " ... they both labored peacefully for the rights of their people."

There are apparently no bounds to rewriting history.

Even Queen Lil would have been embarrassed to have someone claim that she was working for the rights of her people as she went to the Supreme Court; for example, to gain personal title to the ceded lands or when she was proposing a new constitution that would have taken the vote for members of the upper house away from her people. She wanted the right to appoint that body.

Under Hawaiian monarchs, the good people of Hawai'i had few rights and little say in self-determination.

And by the way, the man who gave the queen her motto (mentioned by Kalahiki), "Onipa'a" ("steadfast"), was John Kaulukou, her longtime friend and publicly elected speaker of the House during the days of the republic. He was an outspoken advocate for annexation: " ... the best thing that could happen for Hawai'i, both for the native and foreign population ... I rejoice heartily that it has come," he said, not too long before the Hawaiian-dominated Legislature voted unanimously for statehood.

Thurston Twigg-Smith
Honolulu

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http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Feb/02/op/op10pdavid.html
Honolulu Advertiser, Wednesday, February 2, 2005

VOLCANIC ASH

King Day parade grousing was unbecoming

By David Shapiro

The annual parade honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of Hawai'i's most mellow events.

People of all ages and nationalities — church members and trade unionists, Freemasons and schoolchildren, politicians and Krishna devotees, military bands and assorted protesters — parade through Waikiki to remember King's great civil rights marches of the 1960s.

Then they enjoy a day of brotherhood and sisterhood at Kapi'olani Park, with uplifting speeches about justice and equality, feel-good music and great food.

It was disappointing to see this year's event soured by the carping of anti-Hawaiian zealots over the inclusion of Queen Lili'uokalani as an honoree along with King.

The 2005 King holiday fell on the 112th anniversary of Lili'uokalani's overthrow as Hawai'i's last monarch.

Parade organizers thought it appropriate to recognize that she, like King, is a symbol of freedom to her people.

But David Rosen, an attorney suing to nullify Hawaiians-only programs such as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, couldn't resist a cheap shot at this gesture of respect for our indigenous culture.

He accused Hawaiians of attempting to "expropriate this holiday for their own selfish purposes."

Then Rosen misappropriated King's "I Have a Dream" speech to insult African Americans and Hawaiians alike by using the great martyr's words to justify the trampling of Hawaiian native rights.

This was a ludicrous stretch even for a lawyer. There is no doubt as to which side Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have been on in the Hawaiians' struggle for self-determination.

Joining the grousing was Thurston Twigg-Smith, former owner of The Advertiser, who has made a retirement hobby of spinning his view of Hawaiian history and backing actions to strip Hawaiians of their indigenous rights.

Twigg-Smith claimed Lili'uokalani was thinking only of herself — not her people — when she went to court after her overthrow in an unsuccessful attempt to restore the Hawaiian constitution.

He displayed contempt for the Hawaiian people and their culture by disrespectfully referring to the revered monarch as "Queen Lil."

Twigg-Smith's grandfather, Lorrin Thurston, was a leader in overthrowing the monarchy, and his great-great-grandparents were among the first group of missionaries who landed in Hawai'i in 1820.

He's certainly entitled to stick up for his family's legacy, but his mean-spirited tone is unbecoming a man of his wealth and prominence in the community.

And Twigg-Smith is in no position to self-righteously scorn Hawaiian efforts to gain federal protection of their assets in OHA, Hawaiian Homes and Kamehameha Schools through the Akaka bill.

He owned a failing newspaper of little worth until Hawai'i senators, at his behest, helped lobby through Congress protective legislation that allowed The Advertiser to join business operations with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

After three decades of federal antitrust protection, in 1993 he was able to sell his newspaper that was once in danger of going belly up for $250 million — more than the total investment portfolio OHA had at the time to finance services for all Hawaiians.

Having profited himself from federal protection, it's disingenuous for Twigg-Smith to now suggest there's something inherently evil in Hawaiians seeking federal help to guard against unwarranted raids on their assets.

Still most difficult to fathom is what drives men who have so much to zealously endeavor to take from those who have so little.

"Why after 112 years is it necessary for these men to continue to defame Queen Lili'uokalani?" asks Patricia Anthony, president of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Coalition-Hawaii. "Have they not taken everything and now begrudge still more?"

Good questions.

David Shapiro, a former managing editor at the Star-Bulletin and a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net.

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http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Feb/15/op/op10pletters.html
Honolulu Advertiser, Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Letters to the Editor

Dr. King brouhaha misunderstood

In his Feb. 2 column, David Shapiro criticized me and another writer for our recent letters in this paper. Unfortunately, Mr. Shapiro ignored the content of my letter and instead attacked my character through a series of unsubstantiated statements.

The main point of my letter was that the goals of those advocating for Native Hawaiian sovereignty and race-based entitlements are not reconcilable with the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This was in response to the local media's focusing on Hawaiian sovereigntists in covering the King holiday. Contrary to statements by Mr. Shapiro, I did not suggest that Native Hawaiians should be excluded from the King parade, nor did I in any manner denigrate Hawaiians or blacks.

In quoting from Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, I merely pointed out that Dr. King had fought for a unified colorblind America. While Mr. Shapiro opined that Dr. King would have supported the claims of Native Hawaiian sovereigntists and entitlement advocates, he ignored the fact that Dr. King fought against elements within the civil rights movement (such as the Nation of Islam) who advocated a similar separatist agenda. In the end, Dr. King's vision prevailed and has been the guide for racial reconciliation within the United States for the past 40-plus years.

Nevertheless, Mr. Shapiro argues that Hawaiian sovereignty and Native Hawaiian entitlement programs are justified because of events that transpired more than a hundred years ago. What these advocates seek to obfuscate is the fact that Native Hawaiians have never been the subject of governmental or societal discrimination, and that race-based (as opposed to needs-based) programs have an undeniably detrimental effect on all of Hawai'i's citizens, including Native Hawaiians.

What is even more unfortunate (and contrary to Dr. King's teachings) is the manner in which the events of the past are now being used as a justification for animosity by Native Hawaiians against others. A Jan. 31 article in The Los Angeles Times described one of the effects of this hostility. In that article, a Marine was quoted as articulating an apparently prevalent sentiment among Hawai'i-based military personnel and their dependents that "[w]e're just not wanted [in Hawai'i] ... I can't wait to leave."

As someone who was born and raised in Hawai'i and is proud of our many and combined local cultures and history, I find these types of sentiments deeply disturbing. If there is anything that we should learn from Dr. King's teachings, it is that progress comes through a lively exchange of ideas. Vilifying those with opposing points of view does nothing but breed greater resentment.

David Rosen
Honolulu

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http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Feb/21/op/op10pletters.html
Honolulu Advertiser, Monday, February 21, 2005
Letters to the Editor

Shapiro didn't show semblance of balance

David Shapiro's Feb. 2 column was a typical "if you don't like the message, just shoot the messenger" mentality that is prevalent in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. It is obvious throughout the opinion piece that Shapiro is pro-Hawaiian sovereignty and also for the Akaka bill, calling two individuals opposed to both as "ludicrous and mean-spirited."

But surely after all the name-calling of those who do not see things his way, Shapiro could have maintained a semblance of balance, but he just couldn't control his own self-appointed sovereignty agenda, saying that the Akaka bill was merely a "Hawaiian effort to gain federal protection."

Nothing could be further from the truth. The Akaka bill is clearly the federal creation of a Nation of Hawai'i where ancestry and race are the only qualifications for membership. Not only is the intention to protect current benefits but to lay the groundwork for future benefits, including the taking of the public ceded lands.

Shapiro is no better than the individuals he takes to task as "anti-Hawaiian." However, you would expect that at least he would inform his readers that he is pro-Hawaiian sovereignty.

Shayne Keith
'Ewa Beach

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http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/OPINION02/701150301/-1/LETTERS
Honolulu Advertiser, January 15, 2007

LILI'UOKALANI
QUEEN CAN'T BE LINKED WITH KING, GANDHI

This year, Hawaiian independence zealots are once again linking Queen Lili'uokalani with Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. Shame!

The only thing she shares with King and Gandhi is being imprisoned by governments headed by Caucasians.

The queen conspired with Robert Wilcox in an 1889 coup attempt against King Kalakaua — seven men killed, palace bungalow blown up. Nonviolence?

In the 1893 revolution the queen surrendered without a fight. That does not make her a practitioner of nonviolent resistance or satyagraha.

She again conspired with Wilcox in the 1895 attempted counter-revolution. Guns and bombs were hidden in the flower bed at her home, Washington Place. For that violent crime she was sentenced to prison. King's only "crime" was parading without a permit.

King's prison was a small dirty dungeon with bars and snarling guard dogs. The queen's "prison" was a huge room at 'Iolani Palace with full-time maidservant and craft supplies (quilting and song-writing).

The queen was head of a multiracial government who used her great power pursuing racial supremacy — "my people" referred to her race rather than her multiracial subjects. King and Gandhi never held government power. Unlike the queen, they created lofty universal principles of multiracial unity and equality.

Kenneth R. Conklin
Kane'ohe

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HAWAIIAN SOVEREIGNTY ACTIVIST ANNOUNCEMENTS REGARDING PARADE AND FILM "The Queen and Dr. King"

Let's look at the announcement of Monday's events published on the "Hawaii Nation" bulletin board, and also the announcement of the TV show from previous years. The comparison between QL and MLK will then be examined further.

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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hawaii-nation/message/709

Message 709 of 709 [excerpts; the full message includes a schedule and contact information]

From: Hawaii Nation Info

Subject: Living Nation: commemorate invasion of Hawaii, 1/17

Media Alert

The Living Nation is commemorating the 112th anniversary of the armed invasion and overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the 77th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, January 17, 2005. As a part of the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade, we will offer ho`okupu to both our beloved Mo`i Wahine, Lili`uokalani, and Dr. King at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center in Waikiki, along the parade route.

Every year the official Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday falls on the same day as the anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, January 17. This year, and perhaps in years to come, the Living Nation has agreed to expand our educational outreach program by participating in the Martin Luther King, Jr. parade and rally to highlight the similarities between our Mo`i Wahine's struggles during the time of the overthrow and the efforts of Dr. King to bring resolution to a community in turmoil during the 1960s. Both of these honorable leaders chose a non-violent approach in response to violence done to them and to the people they represented. Although they lived at different times and in different geographic locations, both deserve to be honored by the communities they tried to protect.

Working with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Coalition-Hawaii, the Living Nation will join together with others of like mind to honor our kupuna, our Mo`i Wahine and Dr. King. As part of the parade, Kumu Vicky Holt Takamine and her halau will offer protocol at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center in honor of both the Queen and Dr. King. Hawaiian organizations will await the arrival of the main body of marchers from Ala Moana Park and will join in when the group reaches the shopping center. Kahu Kaleo Patterson will do the opening pule and greet the marchers.

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TV program announcement from previous years:

"THE QUEEN & DR. KING"

TELEVISION BROADCAST

AS WE COME TO THE COMMEMORATION OF THE ARMED INVASION AND OVERTHROW OF THE HAWAIIAN KINGDOM & THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., WE MUST TAKE THIS TIME TO REFLECT.

"They were people of peace whose lives were notably lacking in peace. She a deposed Queen, he an embattled young minister. The Queen that would not shed one drop of her people`s blood to save a nation and the young minister, whose philosophy of non-violence won him a Nobel peace prize. Their time and place on this earth did not overlap, but their scars came from the same source."

"They were prisoners. Their prisons were not the same, his the cold wet cells of Southern jails. Hers the stark emptiness of an upstairs room closed off from the outside world, in the palace. Stripped of their dignity, stripped of their "somebodydness". Managing to retain their spiritual being while imprisoned they inspired nations, gave hope to their people, wrote, beautiful songs, long letters, thought long thoughts and prayed long prayers. It is the product of these imprisonments that has brought us here."

"The Queen & Dr. King" an original production. featuring our own Don Hayman, Nalani Olds, The Royal Hawaiian Band, with a cast of hundreds, written & produced by Marsha Joyner, will air on 'Olelo throughout the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.

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Overthrow of Hawai'i's monarchy:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/overthrow.html

Annexation of Hawai'i to the United States:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/annexation.html

Sanford Ballard Dole -- Elected Legislator and Appointed Supreme Court Justice of the Kingdom of Hawai'i; President of the Provisional Government and of the Republic of Hawai'i; Governor of the Territory of Hawai'i, and Presiding Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Territory of Hawai'i. He refused the order from U.S. President Grover Cleveland to restore the ex-queen to the throne (full text of Cleveland/Dole correspondence)
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/dole.html

Ethnic cleansing of Hawaiian kingdom holidays:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/holidaysethniccleansing.html

Fiji and Hawai'i Compared -- Racial Supremacy By Law in Fiji Resembles What Hawaiian Sovereignty Activists Are Seeking (both Akaka bill and independence proposals)
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/fiji.html

Hawaiian Nationalism, Chicano Nationalism, Black Nationalism, Indian Tribes, and Reparations -- the Balkanization of America
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/AkakaHawnChicanoNatnl.html

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UPDATE REGARDING JANUARY 16, 2007 MAJOR SOCIAL EVENT AT EAST-WEST CENTER, CHARGING $12 ADMISSION; FEATURING PANEL DISCUSSION AND FOOD; CLAIMING LILI'UOKALANI WAS JUST LIKE REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING AND MAHATMA GANDHI. EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT AND FANCY FLYER ARE PROVIDED

http://www.eastwestcenter.org/events-ce-detail.asp?conf_ID=961

Panel Presentation: The Legacy of Peace-builders in the Asia Pacific: King, a Queen, and a Servant

Where: Wailana Rm., Garden Level, Imin Center-Jefferson Hall, East-West Center
When: January 16, 2007
What: [A flyer and RSVP form were originally at
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/stored/misc/legacy.pdf
and can now (also) be downloaded from

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/MLK-Liliu011607EWcentrFlyer.jpg

Event Type: Evening Forum
Primary_Contact: EWC Information
ewcinfo@EastWestCenter.org
(808) 944-7111

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http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/OPINION02/701150301/-1/LETTERS
Honolulu Advertiser, January 15, 2007

LILI'UOKALANI
QUEEN CAN'T BE LINKED WITH KING, GANDHI

This year, Hawaiian independence zealots are once again linking Queen Lili'uokalani with Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. Shame!

The only thing she shares with King and Gandhi is being imprisoned by governments headed by Caucasians.

The queen conspired with Robert Wilcox in an 1889 coup attempt against King Kalakaua — seven men killed, palace bungalow blown up. Nonviolence?

In the 1893 revolution the queen surrendered without a fight. That does not make her a practitioner of nonviolent resistance or satyagraha.

Kenneth R. Conklin
Kane'ohe

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For further analysis see: "Was Liliuokalani Really Like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi? What really happened in the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy?":
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/MLK-Liliu.html

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Email: ken_conklin@yahoo.com