FOCUS
Let's celebrate diversity and protect unity, equality

By Kenneth Conklin

In 1919, the first bill for Hawai'i statehood was introduced in Congress by elected territorial representative Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana'ole.

In 1954, a petition with 120,000 signatures demanding statehood went to Congress after a send-off with hula, chants and kahili at 'Iolani Palace, the Territorial Capitol. In 1959, 94 percent of Hawai'i voters said yes to statehood — an overwhelming majority of every ethnic group.

Since 1778, Hawai'i's history has moved steadily toward inclusiveness, unity and equality. Kanaka maoli welcomed newcomers from Europe and America, offering a social contract of full partnership, voting rights and property rights to encourage investment of expertise and capital.

Asians were welcomed, first as laborers and merchants, eventually also becoming full partners with equal rights. For six decades following annexation, Hawai'i was a junior partner of the United States, finally achieving full equality with statehood in 1959.

Despite some naysayers, we residents of Hawai'i remain strong in our American patriotism. In the year ahead, let's say nay to the naysayers:

• Protect unity by opposing those who would pull us apart.
• Protect equality by opposing those who exploit real or imagined grievances from the 19th century to assert 21st-century demands for special privilege.
• Oppose carving up Hawai'i to create a race-based sovereign political entity (Akaka bill).
• Oppose government agencies handing out benefits restricted by race (OHA).
• Oppose a segregated school protecting a billion-dollar tax exemption by hiding behind a brave token eighth-grader.
• Oppose radicals wanting to turn Hawai'i into an independent nation by a vote in which they say only 20 percent of registered voters could participate.

Let's say yes to the affirmative. Let's celebrate diversity while protecting unity and equality. No citizen in Hawai'i should be stigmatized with second-class status as merely a guest in someone else's homeland. Some of our ancestors came here on voyaging canoes, some on whaling or merchant ships, some on airplanes. But we all are full partners through our contributions, labor and love for this land.

We are Hawaiians.

We are Americans.

Kenneth Conklin is a writer and researcher. He ran unsuccessfully for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board of trustees in the 2000 elections.