ANNEXATION

NOW DO YOU SEE WHY HAWAIIANS SO UPSET?

In December 1897, four delegates of Hui Aloha 'Aina traveled to Washington, D.C. to officially present a Memorial Document of Protest from the Hawaiian people against the annexation of Hawai'i to U.S. Secretary of State John Sherman. The document had more than 20,000 signatures and was introduced on the U.S. Senate floor by Senator Hoar 111 years ago this week.

They humbly asked the U.S. to wait before annexing Hawai'i so the Hawaiian people could get fair representation in a new legislative assembly and conduct a fair vote, but the request was circumvented.

The Bill of Annexation was killed, but shortly after an unlawful scheme was implemented to annex Hawai'i with a joint resolution and without a treaty.

Interestingly, this week columnist David Shapiro has raised a bit of historic irony by questioning if the apology "joint-resolution" could now possibly "nullify the part of the Admissions Act making Hawai'i a state." It worked once.

Shapiro also made another ironic and relevant comment: "No state can operate effectively with its ability to manage its resources in indefinite limbo."

How true. Now is it understandable why "The Hawaiians" are upset?

POSITIVE EFFECT

HELP ECONOMY — OK SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

I read the letter to the editor on Sunday, "Legalized gambling can boost economy," with great curiosity. The author actually named the documented, potential problems caused by legalized gambling.

Gambling can create disharmony in a family, leading to divorce and abuse. Gambling can become an addiction, leading to financial hardship, bankruptcy and homelessness. These were all pointed out by the author, who still favored the introduction of gambling to save the economy.

Here's a safe, nonintrusive alternative way to boost the economy without all those potential social ills — legalize same-sex marriages. Legalizing same-sex marriages will generate none of the negative social problems stated by the author. It would only have a positive effect on our economy, as well as being the right thing to do.

It will encourage same-sex couples to come to Hawai'i to be married, to honeymoon and to spend money to stimulate the economy. No changes to our current physical infrastructure would need to be made; the only thing that we would need to do is to apply our aloha spirit indiscriminately.

HONOLULU MARATHON

SHORTEN RACE COURSE FOR SLOWEST RUNNERS

Keith Holmes is correct in his Dec. 18 letter ("Long road closures inconvenience many").

The Honolulu Marathon was once a running event. "The People's Marathon" is what they used to call it. Now it's a happening for anyone who puts up the money to show up — running, walking or, like me, combinations of both. Many of these eight-hour-plus visitors are here for a walk in the park.

One Mainland race I participated in did the right thing. They closed a portion of the course for nonmarathoners, directing them to a shorter course. The result opened far more real estate to cars and residents earlier in the event, and half-marathoners and walkers still enjoyed the essence of the experience and finish line.

It's all about time and returning East O'ahu to its users.

If after a certain period it is clear a registrant is not finishing in, say, five hours, marathon officials should close the Hawai'i Kai loop entirely, then continually shorten the turnaround point for the walkers or the impaired.

Reprogrammed timing strips will verify how far even the slowest "marathoner" traveled.

I live in Makiki, but East Honolulu residents would applaud the change. The marathon keeps all its revenues and avoids the annual flak.

FINANCIAL CRISIS

GOVERNMENT SPENDING NOT ECONOMIC STIMULUS

Government spending does not "stimulate" the private economy. All the government has to spend has been taken from the private sector or created through the printing of money.

By bidding up wages and capital costs, government spending creates a drag on the private sector. The massive infrastructure spending programs we are to embark on in 2009 at both the federal and state levels will lead to stagflation. That is to say, a continuing slump in economic activity combined with a steady rise in prices. Economic recovery will be difficult to impossible as long as these spending programs continue.

To stimulate recovery, government spending must drop both in absolute terms and as a percent of the private sector economy.

During the 1929 to 1932 contraction, government spending as a percent of the gross private sector product rose from about 14 percent to about 24 percent. This failure to cut spending and reduce the burden of government on the private sector was a key causal factor to the Great Depression.

Infrastructure spending should be an ongoing expense based on the condition of the various roads, bridges, etc., not part of some hare-brained stimulus program during an economic slowdown.

GUANTANAMO

U.S. SHOULD GIVE UP NAVAL BASE ALTOGETHER

Change we can hope for in the Obama administration: not just shutting down Guantanamo as a site of human-rights violations but evacuating it entirely.

If the United States can give up the Canal Zone with its multiple military bases, acquired in 1903 as was Guantanamo, then this base can be given back to Cuba.

Perhaps then the Cuban government will at last cash the rent checks paid by the U.S. — as yet untouched since 1959 — and continue to use revenue for the health, education and welfare of its people, a policy commended repeatedly by the World Health Organization.

Cuba deploys more doctors than armed military or mercenaries around the world. Remember what the Ecuadoran president said recently, "When Ecuador is permitted a military base in the U.S., then the U.S. can have a military base in Ecuador." That would be change I could believe in.