Email This to a Friend
Hawaii Braces as Obama Talks Apologies for Natives
Citing "our tragic history," Obama clears the way for even more corruption in the Aloha State.
After speaking before thousands of cheering journalists at the Unity 2008 convention in Chicago July 27, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) answered a question from the audience about the possibility of a federal apology to Native Americans.
Quoted by a Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter attending the convention, Obama said:
There’s no doubt that when it comes to our treatment of Native Americans as well as other persons of color in this country, we’ve got some very sad and difficult things to account for. …
I personally would want to see our tragic history, or the tragic elements of our history, acknowledged. …
I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it’s Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.
Resolutions apologizing to American Indians are now pending committee action in both the House and Senate. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) is a key sponsor of the Senate resolution. Governments in Australia and Canada have both recently apologized to the descendants of their native populations.
The comments by the Democratic presidential hopeful came on the same day the presumptive Republican candidate, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), announced his support for the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative, whose organizers July 3 filed 334,658 signatures to appear on the state’s general election ballot.
The initiative reads: “The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.” It has been tagged in news reports as an initiative which “would outlaw affirmative action.” Similar civil rights initiatives backed by former University of California regent Ward Connerly are law in Michigan, California, and Washington. Others will be on the November 4 ballot in Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma as well as Arizona.
Obama’s remarks drew special attention in Hawaii, where Obama is known by local Democrats as “Hawaii’s third senator.” Just weeks after winning his Illinois Senate seat in 2004, Obama visited Hawaii and met with state Democratic leaders. At the top of their agenda was the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act.
Also known as the Akaka Bill, if enacted it would create a Hawaiian tribal government — in spite of the fact that there never has been a Hawaiian tribe. Establishment of a tribe would allow Hawaiians to sidestep any restrictions on race-based benefits. McCain is strongly opposed to the bill.
Obama’s agreement to support the Akaka Bill led to his receiving important early-money support for his presidential campaign from Hawaii Democrats — many of whom had given similarly important early-money support to a little-known Arkansas governor in the early 1990s. Hawaii Democrats closely tied to Kamehameha Schools and former Governor John Waihe`e launched a draft Obama campaign in late 2006.
Waihe`e cronies were central to the Clinton administration’s Asian money scandals. That support lead to President Bill Clinton signing the so-called “Apology Resolution,” public law 103-150, November 23, 1993.
The Apology Resolution was sold as a “simple apology” by Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) — as Obama would say, “just words.” Brownback is now using almost identical language to justify his Indian Apology resolution. The Akaka Bill, which is based entirely on the Apology Resolution, is “deeds.”
Page 1 of 2 Next ->
Andrew Walden is editor of the Hawai`i Free Press in Hilo, HI, and may be reached at andrewwalden@email.com.
 |
 |
 |
Podcasts |  PJM Home |
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
23 Comments
1. Roark:Ah yes, non-white Hawaiian’s looking for an apology from the “man” for bringing their waring and savage culture a better standard of life and civilization. First, I would never apologize for some incident that I wasn’t involved in, and second I would never apologize for turning a wild and savage culture into a modern paradise where war isn’t a daily occurrence.
Jul 30, 2008 - 8:28 am 2. John Moore:The Hawaii situation is especially pernicious, because Hawaii doesn’t have reservations, per se – the whole state would become a reservation, with special rights for natives including taxation of non-natives unable to vote.
It is one of the most dangerous manifestations of the sick theology of multiculturalism.
Jul 30, 2008 - 9:45 am 3. rao:re “..the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.” -
Does the Messiah deem the Civil Rights Acts, Equal Opportunty/Afirmative Action, racial quotas, lowered admission thresholds, government-mandated minority hiring, etc. to be just words, not deeds?
Jul 30, 2008 - 9:50 am 4. TomJW:My parents were out in Hawaii a couple decades ago when my brother was stationed there. The Hawains and Samoans were the biggist racists my mother ever meet and she was from New Jersey. They can kiss mine before they hear from me.
Jul 30, 2008 - 10:02 am 5. pappy:there is a remedy for hawaii’s discontentment, cecession. if you don’t like the U.S.A., get out. this idea that everyone is a victim is assinine. my great grandfather to the fifth power was killed by pirates on the cheasepeke bay, thats no skin off my ass. do i deserve reparations? only if you can prove in court that you are some how affected, and have proof of it’s your ancestor. who knows, my pappy may be your pappy too.
Jul 30, 2008 - 10:27 am 6. Fat Man:If we elect Hussein. The Reparations bill will be right around the corner. Get your checkbook out.
Jul 30, 2008 - 12:17 pm 7. heather:“land claims” has been going on for a generation in Canada, providing great jobs for people like Obama: lawyers and bureaucrats. It never stops, this process of righting the wrongs of generations ago.
In Canada, the most recent action has been to pay people who spent time in the evil residential schools. In fact, the way these were run (cold baths and corporal discipline) were not unlike the schools attended by CS Lewis, Churchill and David Niven. However, they did make the Indian children ashamed of their parents, and their culture, so I have some sympathy in this respect.
However, 2 facts: my cousin’s husband, a blond Irish Canadian retired engineer, received $16,000 non taxable dollars because he attended one of these schools, back in the day when his family lived in the Canadian hinterlands.
And up here, a lot of the money flowed into the local bars (one friend told me that the bell ringing for a ’round on the house’ never stopped), leading to some 37 deaths from alcohol poisoning. Oh well.
My other friend, an Indian (now they are ‘First Nations’), who was left bereft as a child, and who would have died of TB and starvation if not for the evil residential schools, received $30,000, and in her case, she has paid her debts and gone on with her respectable life.
After Hawaii, of course, and under the coming Obama presidency, there will be steps to ‘repay’ African Americans for slavery.
Good times.
Jul 30, 2008 - 12:40 pm 8. Ed Wallis:I think we all just gotta get a little perspective on things here, folks.
I think The Obamboozler – err…I mean – Pre-Chosen-One Candidate Obama is right on this one…in one sense:
Let us all Americans be generous, open-hearted and full of charity, as we inherently are…let’s all pitch in and buy a couple million statuettes of some innocuous, generic, suffering person all crumpled up ‘n’ stuff…and caption it with a plaque saying: ““We whites folks sho’ do regret our reeeeeeaaaal baddnessss, so we be givin’ yous all dis priddy li’l thang for sho’ to know we be soooooo sorry!”
In case of Sarcasm Deficiency Disorder due to reading the above, please take MASSIVE doses of REALITY.
Jul 30, 2008 - 1:00 pm 9. retro:Great… More perpetual “victims”. Hey, remember the Law of Nature and how “only the strong survive”? You got beat, deal with it.
No apologies – for Native Americans, dependents of slavery, oppressed Hawaiians or any other professional victims group.
Jul 30, 2008 - 3:03 pm 10. rocketeer:I would like to issue a blanket apology for every group that has ever been the victim of another group. Whew, glad we got that out of the way.
Jul 30, 2008 - 3:32 pm 11. Akatsukami:What the heck is wrong with everyone with these “reparations”? Who is paying and who is being paid and for what exactly? This is liberal insanity at it’s height.
Retro – you’re correct. No apologies, no money, no nothing for the distant relatives of some nebulous victim group. We all have the same opportunities to succeed or fail in this country. Pull yourself up, you worthless losers.
“there is a remedy for hawaii’s discontentment, cecession. if you don’t like the U.S.A., get out.”
That argument was pretty definitely setlled in the contrary in 1865.
Of course, that does offer a precedent: the rest of the U.S. secedes from Hawaii. When the Army of Honolulu sweeps down on the California beaches, we may tremble.
Jul 30, 2008 - 5:48 pm 12. fred:I would rather see Hawai’i secede rather than have my pocket picked. My wife and I have vacationed in that state five times during the last 15 years and have always been polite and low-key in how we moved around the people there. We never, ever experienced any hostility from the true Hawaiians. But, if they truly do hate us behind our backs, well I’m all in favor of letting them leave the country. Be glad to sign off on their independence. It is far better for them to be independent than dependent upon the Jesse Jackson shakedown in order to make a ‘livin.
Let them go back to the kapu practices of strangling people and bashing their heads in, if it makes them happy. As long as we are long gone, they can do whatever they like to each other.
I just don’t have patience with politicians who posture and try to play the morally outraged shuck and jive artists who want to take our money, but first make us feel morally clean first. Let them be the first ones to let their shadow pass in front of the ali’i.
Jul 30, 2008 - 6:00 pm 13. DeadCenter:If my white percentage apologizes to my native American percentage but my NA part doesn’t accept the apology, will the spotted owl forgive me and can I get some carbon credits for the effort???
I’ve about had it with all the historically ignorant, clueless, touchy-feely, multi-cultural morons in this country.
Jul 30, 2008 - 6:15 pm 14. barrybarryquitecontrary.com:Remember folks… REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH!
It doesn’t matter how you do it peoples, you juss gotta get it done – Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Rev. Wright
Typical White Person (read taxpayer)
Jul 30, 2008 - 9:00 pm 15. Spider79:My ancestors were Cajun. Forced to leave Nova Scotia. Settled into the swamps in South Louisiana. Forbidden to speak the language in schools in the early 20th century. It’s all the fault of your ancestors. I will be seeking reperations from both Canada and the USA. I will post later after I come up with a dollar amount……..Why did you people do this to me?
Jul 31, 2008 - 6:48 am 16. Chip:My ancestors never held slaves. In fact one half of my family were slaves at various times, of Arab raiders. Obama’s Arab ancestors in Africa were some of the most brutal slave traders in history. And Islamic scholars still justify slavery to this day.
Obama will be cutting my check, right?
Jul 31, 2008 - 7:31 am 17. Morton Doodslag:These preposterous apologies don’t rectify anything, nor do they satiate the myriad racist grievance industries behind them. In fact, such behavior on Obama’s part serves to inflame those racist rejectionist grievances upon which these various anti-American groups are based. These groups often rely on a fictional narrative wherein their past was one of bucolic bliss before the evil white man showed up with his evil ways. Never mind the fact that “citizens” of ancient Hawaii were often banned from owning personal property, and were possessions of local kings and chieftans. Never mind that their society subsisted in a near perpetual state of simmerong tribal warfare among their factions, or that justice was often meted out with a stone club by the strong guy against the weak. Even today there is still a palpable tribal gangster presence in Hawaii, vestige of the way that Island once was administered.
According to these shake-down victim pimps, their stone-aged culture was all lightness and perfection, a veritable Garden of Eden until the white snake invaded and took it all away. Apologies to this sort will only encourage them to grasp for more handouts in the guise of reclaiming their lost nirvana, that state of perfection which only exists in their seething racist minds.
Jul 31, 2008 - 7:32 am 18. Chip:So any mention of Obama’s Arab slave-trading ancestors is forbidden at PJM? Could you maybe put that in a policy statement.
Jul 31, 2008 - 9:09 am 19. ken:I want a blanket apology from God for kicking us out of that garden.
Jul 31, 2008 - 4:27 pm 20. Grace Farmer:Hawaii..where racism is alive and well…if you are one of the unfortunate non natives….
Jul 31, 2008 - 4:57 pm 21. Frank:Some one p;ease tell me, how many generations does it take to be considered a Native American? If I were to go back to where I came from, I’d be on Long Island.
Aug 2, 2008 - 7:45 pm 22. tomora:wow
Aug 20, 2008 - 11:46 am 23. Where's the Liberal Outcry? Obama/Biden voted for Hawaii Secession - US Message Board:[...] it continues: Hawaii Braces as Obama Talks Apologies for Natives Pajamas Media
Sep 7, 2008 - 12:13 pm