"I Have a Dream" — for Hawaii, 50 Years Later

On August 28, 1963 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln memorial.[1] It was undoubtedly the most powerful civil rights speech of the 20th Century. How sad it is to see Dr. King's dream for race relations in America mocked by the nightmare developing in Hawaii.[2]

I certainly cannot begin to match Dr. King's eloquence. But on the 50th anniversary of his greatest speech, I offer my own dream for Hawaii's future as a tribute to Dr. King and a ho'okupu (offering) to my hanai (adopted) homeland.

My dream is summarized in a single paragraph. Each element of the dream has a footnote providing detailed explanations and references. Readers might be surprised that I find it necessary to say these things. That's why the footnotes are very important, even if lengthy and emotionally difficult.

My dream for Hawaii

I have a dream that someday all Hawaii's people will embrace the concept that we are all equal in the eyes of God,[3] and we are all fully imbued with the Aloha Spirit.[4] I have a dream that all Hawaii's people will embrace the fact that we are Americans.[5] I have a dream that all Hawaii's people will embrace the fact that we have a right to be treated equally under the law by our federal and state governments; and will therefore put aside and repudiate racial entitlement programs.[6] I have a dream that all Hawaii's people will put aside and repudiate efforts to create a race-based government and to divide the lands and people of Hawaii along racial lines.[7] I have a dream that someday Caucasian boys and girls who are born and raised in Hawaii will be treated as locals, keiki o ka 'aina, kama'aina; and that malihini and kama'aina Caucasians will no longer be subjected to racial epithets and racial hate crimes.[8]

Visits to Hawaii by Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King

Dr. King visited Hawaii a month after Statehood and gave a speech at the legislature on September 17, 1959 in which he said: "I come to you with a great deal of appreciation and great feeling of appreciation, I should say, for what has been accomplished in this beautiful setting and in this beautiful state of our Union. As I think of the struggle that we are engaged in in the South land, we look to you for inspiration and as a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice, what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country, and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice." It is significant that Dr. King and some of his fellow civil rights leaders wore Hawaiian leis in their fateful 1965 Alabama march from Selma to Montgomery, when many were severely clubbed, and bitten by police dogs.[9]

Dr. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, was remembered in a Honolulu Advertiser obituary on February 1, 2006, where it was noted that she "first came to Honolulu in June 1987 in an effort to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a state holiday. Hawai'i was then one of seven states that had not declared it a state holiday, following the establishment of the federal holiday in 1983. ... A year later, King returned to the state Capitol to witness then-Gov. John Waihee signing the holiday into law. ... Hawai'i, among the last three states to mark the holiday in honor of the fallen civil rights leader, held its first Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1989."[10]

Greatly shortened notes. The complete notes are at
http://tinyurl.com/n72ukh5

[1] A printed transcript of the speech can be seen at
http://tinyurl.com/5wwjbwt
An 18-minute video of the actual speech is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs

[2] How sad it is to see Dr. King's dream for race relations in America mocked by the nightmare developing in Hawaii. What nightmare? See
http://tinyurl.com/2a9fqa

[3] Hawaiian sovereignty activists have twisted the beautiful Kumulipo creation legend. See "Religion and Zealotry in the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement -- How Religious Myths are Used to Support Political Claims for Racial Supremacy in Hawaii" at
http://tinyurl.com/2n4hy

[4] The Aloha Spirit is very real, very powerful, and universally present in all persons and all of nature. See "The Aloha Spirit -- what it is, who possesses it, and why it is important" at
http://tinyurl.com/66w4m2

[5] "Hawai'i's Fifth Column: Anti-Americanism in the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement" at
http://tinyurl.com/5t3nc
"Was the 1893 overthrow of the monarchy illegal? Was it a theft of a nation owned by kanaka maoli and stolen by non-kanaka maoli?"
http://tinyurl.com/72xeb
See photocopies of letters granting full-fledged diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Hawaii as the rightful successor to the Kingdom of Hawaii.
http://tinyurl.com/4wtwdz
"Was the 1898 annexation illegal?"
http://tinyurl.com/4e5bw
"Treaty of Annexation between the Republic of Hawaii and the United States of America (1898). Full text of the treaty, and of the resolutions whereby the Republic of Hawaii legislature and the U.S. Congress ratified it. The politics surrounding the treaty, then and now"
http://tinyurl.com/2748fgg
"HAWAII STATEHOOD -- A Brief History of the Struggle to Achieve Statehood, and Current Challenges"
http://tinyurl.com/3eh3e
"Hawaii Statehood -- straightening out the history-twisters. A historical narrative defending the legitimacy of the revolution of 1893, the annexation of 1898, and the statehood vote of 1959" at
http://tinyurl.com/n2zzeo
So-called executive agreements between Hawaii Queen Liliuokalani and U.S. President Grover Cleveland -- the new Hawaiian history scam by Keanu Sai
http://tinyurl.com/3vdttyp
"Hawaii Statehood Day 2006 -- Celebration at Old Territorial Capitol Building (Iolani Palace) Disrupted by Hawaiian Ethnic Nationalist Wannabe-Terrorists"
http://tinyurl.com/pdt88

[6] A list compiled several years ago identified 856 grants totaling approximately $322,220,808 which are for Hawaiians only.
http://4hawaiiansonly.com/
OHA and DHHL Cost to State of Hawaii Treasury: more than $3 Billion
http://tinyurl.com/k7rpyk4
Office of Hawaiian Affairs -- Watching the Moves It Makes to Expand the Evil Empire
http://tinyurl.com/lbaj4at
Kamehameha School Racially Exclusionary Admission Policy, and Tax-Exempt Status, in View of Rice v. Cayetano
http://tinyurl.com/e3mlm

[7] History of the Hawaiian Government Reorganization bill in the 113th Congress (January 2013 through December 2014).
http://tinyurl.com/n7tf6ea
Hawaii begins to create a state-recognized tribe -- Act 195.
http://tinyurl.com/3rzjdrf
Major Articles Opposing the federal Hawaiian Government Reorganization bill (Akaka bill) -- INDEX for years 2000 - 2013
http://tinyurl.com/5eflp

[8] Road Rage vs. Racial hate Crime [Waikele incident]
http://tinyurl.com/2x34n5
Southern Poverty Law Center major report on racial hate crimes against Caucasians in Hawaii
http://tinyurl.com/kkpf74
Book review of UH Press "Asian Settler Colonialism."
http://tinyurl.com/8mkdmj
Anti-Caucasian writings and speeches by UH Professor Haunani-Kay Trask
http://tinyurl.com/2comb

[9] Text of Dr. King's speech to the Hawaii legislature on September 17, 1959, along with photos including his use of leis at the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march, can be seen at
http://tinyurl.com/mk8fhh5

[10] "Coretta Scott King warmly remembered in Islands", Honolulu Advertiser, Wednesday, February 1, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/lk2rvel