We’re all equal
A Feb. 8 letter (Tribune-Herald, Your Views) urged Filipinos to support Hawaiian sovereignty because of shared historical grievances against “American colonialism.”
Please don’t fall for the nonsense coming from the University of Hawaii’s Hawaiian studies propaganda factory. They tell you that even if your family has been born and raised in Hawaii for several generations, you are merely “settlers” in someone else’s homeland and have a duty to abandon your hard-won equal rights in order to accept a position of subservience to ethnic Hawaiians.
They want to undermine the patriotism of Asian-Americans by saying you have a moral duty to help Hawaiian sovereignty activists liberate Hawaii from American colonialism and rip the 50th star off the flag.
Will Hawaii residents of Asian descent see themselves primarily as victims of historical domination and exploitation by Caucasians and join the ethnic Hawaiian grievance industry expressing resentment and demanding group reparations for “people of color”?
Or will Hawaii’s people of Asian ancestry see themselves as fully equal to everyone else — individuals whose forebears freely came to Hawaii to work as sugar plantation laborers, nurses and hotel maids to make a better life, and who succeeded in harvesting a piece of the American dream for themselves, their families and descendants?
Today, we are all equal. Do not bow down to Hawaiian nationalism.
Kenneth R. Conklin
Kaneohe, Oahu
Equal access?
I hope improvements to Hilo Medical Center include an accessible path of travel from Waianuenue Avenue to the main hospital entrance.
People with mobility disabilities who arrive by bus or wheelchair are entitled to a safe and easily traversed route into the facility versus a steep driveway entrance used by ambulances.
What good are interior improvements if architectural barriers (stairs) prevent access to the facility?
Numerous complaints filed through the years have not had a satisfactory result. An article in the Feb. 1 Tribune-Herald did not address these issues raised by the same author in April 2017, “Hospital access complaint could go to court.”
Perhaps this was an oversight and now there is equal access for all to HMC from the street.
T. Spinola-Campbell
Hilo
A book entitled “Asian Settler Colonialism” was published a decade ago by UH Press. At that time I wrote a detailed book review. To find that book review, put this portion of its URL into Google:
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At the top of that webpage you’ll find a summary of the book review; then some links to other webpages on the topic; and then a detailed review of each chapter in the book including a painting which depicts Ben Cayetano lynching an ethnic Hawaiian for the pleasure of a Caucasian who looks quite familiar.