Hawaiian Punch

Much poi is being made over Barack Obama's birthplace, citizenship and right to rule these United States. Insofar as legitimacy goes, his claim, whether he is a son of Kenya, Tokyo, Hawaii, Utah or Neptune, is as justified as anybody's when it comes to running this diktatörlük.

"Treason," as Talleyrand said, "is a matter of dates" and U.S. citizenship, as an upcoming house resolution is demonstrating, is simply a matter of a majority vote. Like his antecedents, Obama now has the command of a militia capable of justifying him, regardless of justice.

Of course, the whole question is shenanigous. Nobody is genuinely justified to wield the power assumed by our American Caesar. The office-holder, whomever he may be, has the capacity for mass death at the stroke of a pen, a whisper into a telephone, or the cinematically-popular "red button." Of course, I'm not covering new ground by discussing this. Emptor Rex is all about tearing down the strongholds of bad ideas like popular sovereignty and the unified will of the masses.

What struck me was the nature of the carefully orchestrated P.R. event: a melodramatic nickel-theater production where a U.S. Reprehensitive from Hawaii, Neil Abercrombie, had his hands bound with rope to symbolize that the derisory question of Obama's citizenship was tying the hands of Congress and preventing its hallowed leasers from getting the real work of the people (passing unpopular legislation like cap-and-trade and nationalized healthcare) accomplished. Personally, I find B.O.'s birthplace to be a mere triviality, it is instead the birthplace of this most vocal and demonstrative supporter he has in the among the HORs that intrigues me.

Abercrombie is no native of Hawaii. Born in Buffalo, NY, he is a carpet-bagger who would have no place in representing corporatist state-side interests in the name of the good people living on this small and beautiful Polynesian archipelago, if it weren't for the politics of oppression as practiced by the Imperialist States of America.

As you may not know, Hawaii was once a recognized sovereign nation. It had democratically elected kings and queens. Of course, after U.S. interests became involved both overtly and covertly, the election process became muddled. You see, Hawaii would eventually pose well as a springboard for U.S. colonization of Asia and its rich volcanic soil would provide excellent ground for plantations.

Hawaii, after several tumultuous years of infighting among the various tribes, did establish a relatively stable government, insofar as governments go. The rulers were largely accountable to the people. It had its hiccups along the way, but it operated with more successes than failures.

One such hiccup, occurring in the late 19th century, was when King Kamehameha V, a respected if ambitious ruler, died suddenly. He had declared no heir so the legislature placed the liberal Lunalilo in charge smack in the center of a growing national depression.

Lunalilo's poor health resulted in a premature demise before he could formally declare his desired heir to be Queen Emma. An election contest between Emma and David Kalākaua followed and the results were widely disputed.

Disreputable American business interests seized upon this turmoil and used the unrest along with the economic downturn to promote fighting between the divided Hawaiian people, thus opening the door for the United States to deploy its military in order to "stabilize the region."

Queen Emma, while largely beloved among the people, was unpopular with the rich and powerful. Following the U.S. and British intervention, her rival, King Kalākaua was put into power. He foolishly plunged the nation into debt by seeking to expand tourism.

Among his better efforts was one to create a confederacy among the other Polynesian islands and thus a Polynesian empire. It may be judged that his intentions were to form a coalition capable of repelling the powers of Europe and the United States. Alas, these efforts failed.

Lorrin Thurston, a cronyist businessman and son of a wealthy politician, acquired political office and used this influence to effectively initiate a coup. Armed soldiers cornered Kalākaua and forced him to sign the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii, also known as the Bayonet Constitution because of the violence required to see it through.

The new constitution, penned by Thurston, stripped rights away from all but the wealthiest of Hawaii's inhabitants, mostly Americans and Europeans along with a select few wealthy natives whose fortunes were tied to American and European hegemony. It also wrested power from the Hawaiian king and gave it to the Interior Minister, a title Lorrin Thurston himself had assumed.

Thurston went on to spearhead the Annexation Club, renamed in Orwellian fashion as the Committee of Safety. As could be guessed by the original name, Thurston wanted Hawaii to become a controlled territory of the United States.

When Kalākaua died, his sister, Queen Liliuokalani became the ruler and declared that she intended to create a new constitution to replace the one written by Lorrin Thurston. The Committee of Safety asked for assistance from the American government, which in turn supplied U.S. Marines to overthrow her. The Committee of Safety assumed full unilateral control after eliminating the figurehead Queen.

As a result, Liliuokalani went to plead her case to U.S. President Grover Cleveland, a rare breed of POTUS often counted as among the anti-imperialists. Cleveland first condemned and then forgave the Committee of Safety for their actions after receiving conflicting reports about what exactly happened. The United States ultimately attained ownership of lands to which it had no right through the use of force AND fraud.

Hawaii remained a controlled territory for sixty years, the common people having no voice as both goods and politics were controlled by the wealthy elite and their superior firepower. Finally, in desperation, the people submitted a bid for statehood in order to regain some amount of say-so in their destinies. This small amount of control has been ever-infringed as states' rights are steamrolled by the powerful central government.

So this Abercrombie, from Buffalo, New York, now collects a federal salary equivalent to the combined average pay of 6 Hawaiian residents, in order to help pass resolutions that empower his blood-soaked employer, a central state that unlawfully enslaved the natives of the islands he purportedly represents. My advice to Hawaiians would be to tell Mr. Neil Abercrombie of Buffalo, NY, that he can just stay in D.C. with his beloved ruler.

I suggest that rather than arguing the legitimacy of the birth of a forgettable one-term tyrant, we challenge the legitimacy of the United States' claim on both Hawaii and the rest of us and prevent future tyrants.

As Kamehameha III said, "Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka 'Aina I Ka Pono."

M.A. Hargett