WyBlog

Caldwell's 1st Annual Presidential Luau honored Grover Cleveland in a very interesting way

As soon as my wife heard about it she was determined to attend our town's First Annual Presidential Luau. She is after all half Hawaiian and quite proud of her family's heritage and contribution to the islands' history. Our town arranged the luau to honor a group of five native Hawaiians making their fifth pilgrimage to the birthplace of President Grover Cleveland who was a great friend of Queen Lilliuokalani.

The Caldwell Downtown Committee put on a traditional Hawaiian Luau complete with roasted Kahlua pig and fresh pineapple. About 100 local residents and most of the town council turned out to celebrate Hawaiian heritage. To start the festivities the Rev. Kaleo Patterson blessed the crowd (Sophie was front and center!) with a Hawaiian prayer and we all enjoyed the food and comraderie.

They treated the children to hula lessons and a demonstration of Hawaiian dance. Guitarist Leon Siu of Honolulu performed songs written by Queen Lilliuokalani during the time when Hawaii was annexed by the United States.

President Cleveland worked vigorously to prevent the annexation of Hawaii. He proposed observing April 30^th as Hawaiian Restoration Day, a day of prayer for healing in recognition of the injustices perpetrated against the Queen and native Hawaiians by the American people.

Oh yes, along with the Kahlua pig and other Hawaiian delicacies we were served up a heaping portion of White Guilt. Reverend Patterson is quite the affable chap, eager to converse and bursting with enthusiasm in his love for Hawaii and its culture. He's also a fierce advocate of the Akaka Bill (aka the Hawaii Balkanization Act) which would institute a separate Native Hawaiian government. In fact he goes even further than that, endorsing the ultimate goal of Hawaiian independence and restoration of the monarchy.

I'm pretty sure that's not gonna happen.

The Hawaiians outlined a long list of grievances, denoting the annexation of the islands as "illegal" and praising President Cleveland for his efforts to oppose it.

Taking him at his word I'm uncertain how designating a new racial spoils system for Native Hawaiians is doing things in a postive way. Dividing us is not, and never has been, the answer. Hawaiians have every right to be proud of their culture and heritage. At the same time they are Americans now, citizens of the greatest country on earth. In 1959 the people of Hawaii voted overwhelmingly (17 to 1) in favor of statehood.

What's done is done. It's time to move forward. Learn from the past but don't dream of reliving it.

There is one intriguing aspect though to wishing that Hawaii had avoided annexation and remained independent. Barack Obama wouldn't be a US citizen and thus he never could have run for president. Now where did I put that time machine?

Posted at 11:08 by Chris Wysocki   [/odds_n_ends]   Comments | Archived | Perm Link |
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