The Akaka Bill, on the other hand, disregards the diversity of the Kingdom’s population and attempts to separate anyone of Hawaiian ancestry from everyone else.  In doing so, the Akaka Bill ignores the historical reality and attempts to dismember the Kingdom and give part of it back to those who lived here prior to contact with Europeans.

Imagine that after the Second World War an effort had been made to determine who in France , Spain , or other countries occupied by the Nazis could trace their ancestry to the indigenous people who once occupied those lands and to restore only that section of the population to some level of independence.  Would such an effort have any credibility or have been tolerated by the people of the occupied nations?

The Akaka Bill makes no attempt to restore the overthrown government.  Instead, the bill attempts to create a government entity solely for those of Hawaiian ancestry.  That government entity is not an independent nation relating to the United States through the United States State Department.  The new Hawaiian entity will relate to the United States Interior Department, just as the Native American tribes.  This new entity will then be used to extinguish the legitimate claims of the Hawaiian people for return of their lands and national treasure.  Just ask the Native Americans.

The real issue has always been the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai`i government.  Because the Akaka Bill avoids the real issue, the bill cannot be pono (righteous) and only introduces confusion that serves to divide the Hawaiian community.  Once that is clear, I trust that it will also be clear that there is no reason to become involved in the internal debates of a foreign nation illegally occupying another nation and refusing to acknowledge its true obligation to recognize the restored Kingdom.

The Ninth Circuit opinion on Kamehameha Schools is simply another example of the same effort to divide and confuse.  The core debate in that opinion is whether the United States has ever recognized people of Hawaiian ancestry as a political entity or whether, absent such a recognition, special treatment for such people is unconstitutional because race-based.  The majority opinion concludes that the United States Congress has never recognized people of Hawaiian ancestry as a political entity and, therefore, the preferences of the Kamehameha Schools are unconstitutionally race-based.

What the opinion avoids discussing is that the United States has never acknowledged people of Hawaiian ancestry as a political entity because the political relationship was between the Kingdom of Hawai`i and the United States .  The treaties ratified by the United States are treaties with the Kingdom of Hawai`i , not people of Hawaiian ancestry.  The opinion of the majority states:  “In addition, Congress has expressly, and repeatedly, determined that the United States wrongfully participated in the demise of the Hawaiian Monarchy … the harmful consequences of which, in terms of the decimation and suffering wrought on

the native Hawaiian people and culture, are well documented.”  Note the silence about the harms inflicted on those not of Hawaiian ancestry who were citizens of the Kingdom and also suffered the loss of nationality and independence caused by the illegal overthrow.

Just as the Congress of the United States is avoiding the real issue, the opinion in the Kamehameha Schools case does not address the fact that applying United States law to determine the constitutionality of a Hawaiian institution is simply the occupying power continuing to insert itself into the internal affairs of the Kingdom.

Examining why the piliki’a (dispute) arose now over a policy in place at the Kamehameha Schools for more than one hundred years is useful.  The purpose of the Kamehameha Schools is to uplift the children of Hawaiian ancestry, who live in an occupied land and have had much of their culture and tradition suppressed or destroyed.  The Schools seek to restore what has been lost by educating the next generation.

The Kamehameha Schools provide a high quality education, while the public schools in Hawai`i have not.  The large endowment of the Kamehameha Schools keeps tuition lower than other private schools.  Every parent would like their child to have a high quality, low cost education.  So parents of children who are not of Hawaiian ancestry would understandably want their child to have access to the Kamehameha educational system.

The problem is not racial discrimination.  The problem is that the educational system in the Islands is operated by the occupying power, which is still seeking to bury its past actions, rather than maturely take responsibility for those actions and do what is right to correct the past wrongs.

My goal for the Kingdom is a high quality education for all children.  Hawaiians have always valued teachers because, for Hawaiians, children are the highest priority.  Hawaiians have also been an exploratory people, open to new ideas.  The Kingdom educational system will be Hawaiian in that it will include training in traditional skills of sustainable living with the land and ocean.  That education will also be Hawaiian in preparing students to use the most advanced technological resources as they pursue their personal development.  Students will be encouraged to pursue what they love and become experts (kahuna) in their chosen field, whether that be fishing or computer science.

Prior to the overthrow, Hawai`i was not a racist society.  Non-Hawaiians came freely into the country and became an integral part of the economic, social, and governmental fabric of the nation.  Today, Hawaiians are a highly diverse mixture of all races and ethnicities.  While there are pockets of discrimination, aloha teaches that we are all children of God and that we should honor the divine within each person.  That guiding spirit of aloha is the true Hawai`i that will guide the Kingdom.

The Kamehameha Schools provide a model for what will ultimately be the public school system in the Kingdom.

I call upon the people not to become upset or angry over the actions of the occupying power.  These actions are similar to the actions of every imperial power that seeks to ignore its responsibility for violating the integrity of other nations.  If a hawk kills a pigeon, do we jump up and down and get angry?  Of course not.  That is what hawks do.  The same is true for occupying powers that want to hold on to their illegally seized lands.  They do what they do.  That is their kuleana (responsibility).  There is no need for us to debate the level of injustice the occupying power will inflict.

Nor should the people get drawn into the internal conflicts among those who claim to be leading our nation back to “sovereignty.”  While all of these efforts have kept the issue of restoration alive, none of them have been complete in their approach and some have strayed far from the righteous path.  Let go of those efforts.  The true Kingdom is before you.

I invite you to join me in the unfolding of the restored Kingdom.  Visit the web site at www.KingdomofHawaii.org and enter your comments in our guest book.  As a united people (po`e), we will pursue the policies and practices that will bring the Kingdom back to serve the urgent needs for ho`oponopono (peace and reconciliation) internally and externally.  Hawai`i is a state of mind, a way of living that honors all life.  The highest goal is to give peace and receive peace, to share the love that flows from true aloha.  Those who would divide us from each other and seek to subvert the restoration process will encounter a stone wall formed from our lokahi (unity).