Statehood valid?


In the Advertiser letters, Mahealani Ventura-Oliver writes in response to Robert Chapman that "Your country still has no constitutional authority over the citizens, land or anything of the nation of Hawai'i."

But Mike Johnson writes "Argue all you want, but the fact remains that the day the people of Hawai'i accepted statehood, all vestiges of their 'kingdom's sovereignty' passed to where it resides for all who are a part of this nation: in the people of the United States." There are problems with this argument, however, having to do with the population that voted, and the question that was asked. The reasons why the 1959 so-called statehood plebiscite was not a valid exercise of self-determination are explained in Is Hawaii Really a State of the Union (by me) and Hawaiian Statehood Revisited (by Poka Laenui), and a more thorough legal analysis is provided by Dr. Matthew Craven in his legal brief Continuity of the Hawaiian Kingdom (288K PDF) wherein Craven concludes the section on the 1959 vote saying: "there are strong arguments to suggest that the US cannot rely upon the fact of the plebiscite alone for purposes of perfecting its title to the territory of Hawai’i."

In a Maui News op-ed piece, Uncle Charlie Maxwell discusses The History Channel's "Conquest of Hawaii" (which raised some of the same points about the problems with statehood), saying it was accurate and well put together. And Kalani Mondoy also writes a letter about the show.

In the Star-Bulletin letters, retired Capt. Skip Crawford (no relation) calls for a return to the use of Kaho'olawe as a target for the navy.


Posted: Tue - October 21, 2003 at 09:22 AM    
   
 
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Published On: Dec 27, 2005 10:13 PM
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