A 3 Day Weekend Some Don’t Want To Celebrate

A 3 Day Weekend Some Don’t Want To Celebrate was Originally Posted on August 17, 2012 by lavarock

Today starts a 3 day weekend for us in Hawaii. It is another of those special holidays that not everyone in the state celebrates though it concerns them all. Today is Hawaii Statehood Day. It was on August 21, 1959, that Hawaii became the 50th state in the Union.

It is a long and difficult task to explain why many people with Hawaiian blood and their supporters are so mad with the idea of Statehood. However this House Resolution may help by quickly getting to the meat of the matter. http://www.hawaii-nation.org/congrec-house.html

Their government was taken over by U.S. business interests with help by the U.S. Navy (who appear to have been hoodwinked into helping). Then the Queen asked the President at the time to help. As he was almost out of office, turned the issue over to Congress, who then decided not to return the country to the Hawaiian People. Recently Congress apologized for the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian state, but how hollow a victory for the Hawaiian People was that? There is no way to close the barn door (to secure the horse) after the horse has left.

Then many protest the vote of Statehood for a country that never should have been a part of the U.S. to begin with. There are a number of similarities with Hawaii and the American Indian Nations, except that on the mainland the Americans were the majority compared to the numbers of Indians. Here the businessmen were a minority compared to the numbers of native Hawaiians.

A good short review of Admissions Day, the other name for Statehood Day may be found here: http://gohawaii.about.com/od/hawaiianhistory3/a/statehood_day.htm.

An autobiography of the Hawaiian Queen who lost her country may be found here: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/liliuokalani/hawaii/hawaii.html and the overthrow begins about page 237.

As I understand it, there was a vote to decide whether Hawaii, a territory of the U.S., should remain a territory or become a state. However it is contended that there was a third option not allowed to be voted upon. That was whether Hawaii should be removed as a territory and allowed to be self-governed again. Thus Hawaiian chose the lesser of the two evils presented itself.

By reading the Apology from the U.S. here http://www.hawaii-nation.org/publawall.html you should note that although acknowledging the illegal act, no reparation is suggested at the time.

So although a holiday, a holiday that admittedly should not be celebrated, although the state offices will be closed and people are happy for a day off, many are not happy with the reason.