True or False: The US is a military dictatorship.
Bonus Question: Why?
Note to self: When writing a screed to the Honolulu Weekly about how the US is and always was a military dictatorship, be sure to first understand what a military dictatorship actually is.
The issue of Native Hawaiian sovereignty and nationhood is a very contentious one, especially because it deals with issues of land and is in direct conflict with the US settler state structure embodied in the State of Hawaii. The people in power (both Asian and white settlers) have no interest in relinquishing political power and land to a bunch of angry Native Hawaiians who were supposed to have been conveniently erased from existence and confined to Polynesian Cultural Center and Paradise Cove luaus, and in general, the Native Hawaiian nationalists have no interest in engaging in a debate with a government which they feel is of dubious constitutional and international legality.
The discussions about this issue usually get pretty heated and a lot of words like "genocide" get thrown around by the Native Hawaiian community, and that's perfectly fine, as long as these terms are clearly defined and the arguments are supported (which they are). But when you just string together a bunch of non-sequiturs and factually incorrect statements like "the US military launched air strikes on Libya without the approval of President Obama," and then shout "military dictatorship!", it's really no different than Glenn Beck and the Tea Party yelling "socialism!" for any issue that has the words "health" or "care" in it.
Don't get me wrong, there are MANY compelling arguments from Native Hawaiian nationalists about this issue and there's definitely something to be said about emoting, but most of what the public sees (and what the media portrays) is the stereotype of the homeless irrational Native Hawaiian yelling "give me back my land!" in front of Iolani Palace. And that says a lot about the media apparatuses in Hawaii and how they cover these issues, but letters to the Weekly like these don't help.
Bonus Question: Why?
Note to self: When writing a screed to the Honolulu Weekly about how the US is and always was a military dictatorship, be sure to first understand what a military dictatorship actually is.
The issue of Native Hawaiian sovereignty and nationhood is a very contentious one, especially because it deals with issues of land and is in direct conflict with the US settler state structure embodied in the State of Hawaii. The people in power (both Asian and white settlers) have no interest in relinquishing political power and land to a bunch of angry Native Hawaiians who were supposed to have been conveniently erased from existence and confined to Polynesian Cultural Center and Paradise Cove luaus, and in general, the Native Hawaiian nationalists have no interest in engaging in a debate with a government which they feel is of dubious constitutional and international legality.
The discussions about this issue usually get pretty heated and a lot of words like "genocide" get thrown around by the Native Hawaiian community, and that's perfectly fine, as long as these terms are clearly defined and the arguments are supported (which they are). But when you just string together a bunch of non-sequiturs and factually incorrect statements like "the US military launched air strikes on Libya without the approval of President Obama," and then shout "military dictatorship!", it's really no different than Glenn Beck and the Tea Party yelling "socialism!" for any issue that has the words "health" or "care" in it.
Don't get me wrong, there are MANY compelling arguments from Native Hawaiian nationalists about this issue and there's definitely something to be said about emoting, but most of what the public sees (and what the media portrays) is the stereotype of the homeless irrational Native Hawaiian yelling "give me back my land!" in front of Iolani Palace. And that says a lot about the media apparatuses in Hawaii and how they cover these issues, but letters to the Weekly like these don't help.
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