The Story of Hawaii is a Wild One

   Wonder at Hawaii, at whether the kingdom there was overthrown justly by U.S. interests. Wonder at whether the U.S. not only claimed the land against the islanders' will, but forced them to become a state against their will. 

  To some of us, it appears that's what happened.

   Take the "constitution" the U.S. plantation owners forced the king to sign. Yes, there is dispute that the king was forced, but there is reason to believe it wasn't called the Bayonet Constitution without cause. At point of death, it is said, he was forced to give up much of his power, turning it over to those who pointed the guns and/or bayonets against him. 

   Being forced at point of weapon to sign a "constitution" giving away your right to govern is hardly just -- and hardly up to America standards. To call the document you are forced to sign a "constitution" is perhaps an abuse of that word.

  So, the armed militia (we as Americans often speak highly of militias, but look what this one did) forced the king to sign the document. And, what did the document do? It limited voting rights to those who held large sums of money or large amounts of property. It is said that two-thirds the islands' residents were too poor to qualify to vote. 

   In making them part of America, as we stripped them of the right to vote, did we bring them freedom, or take it away? Did we bring them self-governance, or take it from them? Did they now have self-rule, or were they now ruled by the rich landowners?

   Eventually, the American minister to the islands conspired with the American and foreign interests and landed a shipload of U.S. Marines in a show of force, and they deposed of the queen altogether (by that time the king's sister was the monarch) and we began working to make Hawaii a state. The queen was imprisoned. Somehow, the thought the U.S. would jail the leader of a peaceful and happy nation bothers me.  

   Hawaiian voters never were given opportunity to say whether they wanted to be a state. The U.S. Congress voted them in. Somehow, I wonder if after all these years, we still should give them the right to vote, the right to say whether they really do want to be part of the U.S., or would rather go back to being their own sovereign nation. Self determination requires that we finally give them a vote.