OK folks. Sorry to have stepped away for a bit but my role as Grampa, Dad and husband as well as my wifes 50th birthday has taken priority as of late. But here is the much anticipated next installment of Jaded Views. Jaded Views 9 8/8, 5:42pm Jade Danner Jones Look John, your misinterpreting of what I say, deliberate or not, is not productive to any meaningful dialogue on real options for the Native Hawaiian people. Yes, rights exist no matter if they are enforced, but they are useless if not enforceable. The right not to be raped persists, even as the woman is in the midst of being raped, John, and it is of little comfort to the woman to know that her rights still exist. I think shed rather not be raped, and if that means she as to ask her obnoxious neighbor whos grandfather beat up her grandfather to help her protect herself, I think she does. Because a right secured is better than being able to continue to hate her neighbor while being raped. 5:42pm Jade Danner Jones If you dont understand that concept, ask your wife to explain it to you. 6:35pm John Kane Your insistence that rights mean anything without the ability to enforce them is troubling. These are your words. Although you contradict them later (somewhat), what you said was clear. I agree that a person finds little comfort in their rights when they are being violated but it is still far better to have that right to defend and seek justice over than to not have the right at all. But to use the analogy correctly that youve laid out shed be asking the family of the rapist for help that has condoned the institutional rape of her mother and grandmother. 6:41pm Jade Danner Jones I will not let you make me accountable for the acts of the United States against Native peoples, John, and I will not let you justify your efforts, and others efforts, to dehumanize me and others of like mind with your little colloquialisms. What Hitler achieved, he did starting with the same tactics you employ. While your efforts, and the efforts of Melissa Moniz and others to brand members of our own community with their bombastic word play, will not result in the same magnitude of destruction Hitler achieved, it is the same tactic nonetheless. As for not being in accordance with what my people want, while I can certainly see why you think this, let me assure you that on this, you are also incorrect. I have heard the wide and varied views of my community, John, you have heard from the perspective you like. Again, labeling you an American when you clearly operate under American protections, using American institutions in territories protected by American ideals and force, is just calling a spade a spade. I am no traitor for speaking to the realities of the world we live in, and I am not jaded for being realistic. As for calling out the lies youve offered, Ill say this. Clearly you think your a liar, because your the only one whos used that term in reference to yourself. As every parent knows, sometimes, people do bad things. That does not make them bad, especially if they correct their bad acts. So, correct the lies you have told, and then you can stop labeling yourself a liar, because I never did. I simply demand accountability to the truth in this discussion, even if its only to the extent that you know it. I can say to you, and to those seeking to restore the Kingdom of Hawaii now, while the dream of independence lives in the heart of every Native Hawaiian, including mine, you have much more work to do if you think the Native Hawaiian people are going to go with you now. While you have been successful in your ad campaign against America, you have not won the confidence of even a 10th of our people that you know how to get what you want to come true. Supplying reasons to be against America is not hard, John, winning the peoples confidence is much harder, because that takes more than being against something, that takes a plan to achieve something. Right now, as far as I can see, the proponents of independence or bust have no plan that has any chance of changing the lives of the Native Hawaiian people within our own lifetimes. That is evidenced by the fact that even they cannot agree on the correct path to take. We all share the same goal for the long view, John, we disagree on the timetable, and we disagree on what to do in the interim. As with anything, as we get closer to the point where real decisions must be made, trust and believe that the Native Hawaiian people are not foolish, and will choose what enables their children to live today, and teach them what to fight for forevermore. They will do the same. That, John, has been the mantra of our people since before the overthrow, since the first white people landed in our shores. The truth is, our willingness to share our government and our lands with other ethnic groups lasted a very short time--53 years--and even, it wasnt our choice. It is something we were forced to accept at gunpoint, by the British, the Russians, the French, and finally, the United States. Anyone who knows the history of our people, and I do mean the whole of it, knows this to be true, and when they sit in the quiet of their naau, they will weigh their ability to secure real rights against the dream we all share, and they will choose that which feeds our people today in order to continue to dream for a better tomorrow. I will not leave the fate of my people to the mercy of the whims of the international community--because many of them have put a gun in my kupunas face and demanded space and privilege in my homeland. That the United States was simply the last to do it, doesnt change the fact that many in the international community you so revere as our saving grace against the United States have done it too. I will fight for the rights of my people, the Native Hawaiian people, to live in Hawaii, free to live as our kupuna intended, even if I have to secure it a little at a time. I am not afraid of the potential of further assimilation, because I have faith and evidence that we will resist that influence. My people are the only Native people I know that have successfully made our Native tongue an official language in our homeland, recognized by all, including the State and the United States. We did that by getting elected to State offices, and changing the law from the inside, not just standing on the outside in protest and complaint. My people were the first Native people to make securing a PhD in our own language possible using state and federal resources. My people are leading in culture-based education using state institutions and federal resources. My people are restoring the fishponds and loi kalo that sit on federal, state and even private lands, one acre at a time across Hawaii nei. We have not achieved these and many other things, by simply protesting and saying no, and waiting until some future time when the United States agrees to hear our pleas. We have planned, and worked, we have participated, and we have said yes to many things along the way to achieve the changes in the world we live in today that make it more possible for our children to live in the world we want for them. We are taking Hawaii back, one acre at a time, one right at a time, in very real and meaningful ways. Saying YES to the DOI now is an effort to ensure that the Native Hawaiian people have a real choice to make, because there are real options on the table, not to close off the ability of our people to choose. Like it or not, the efforts to say No to the DOI, in an advanced notice of a proposed rule making process, is an effort by a small minority of our people, not to allow the whole of our people to decide our own future by having every available choice before us when we do. As an aside, and for all the people mincing my words, let me be clear. Though I was born on Navajo, I am not Navajo. I am Native Hawaiian, and that is the only indigenous blood I claim. That I call the Native Hawaiian people my people is indicative of two things, and two things only. I am first, noting for John that he is not a member of the Native Hawaiian people, and more importantly, that I claim my kuleana to the Native Hawaiian people. I encourage all other Native Hawaiians to do the same. We can only fulfill a kuleana if we have first claimed it to be our own. We have talked about a lot of things, John, and still, not once have you laid out a plan of getting free from the United States that doesnt either 1) require the consent of the United States, or 2) require the ability to force the United States out. So, in your rape analogy, you are still only saying to women You have the right not to be raped! You are not saying to women, You have the right, and heres how to not get raped. You are not saying, I am going to make sure you dont get raped. And in fact you are saying, Remember when that guys grandpa beat up your grandpa? Dont take the extra lock hes giving you for your door to defend against rapists, because you know, his grandpa was a rapist too. So, if you want to continue this discussion with me, I think weve exhausted the topic of what you think about what I am pursuing. Lets have the other side of the discussion. Tell me John, what is your plan for getting the United States out of Hawaii, and restoring the Kingdom? What processes shall we use? What actions can we take to effect the change we want? How, John, not why, will we make the Kingdom of Hawaii or any other independent state the law of the land that rules our beloved Hawaii Nei. And before theres some long explanation of our history and the nature of international law and what Kingdom law says or doesnt say, lets just assume I agree with all that, and skip to the part where we are actually able to press the United States from our shores. Because thats the part of the discussion thats missing, John. And thats the part that really matters most. 6:47pm Jade Danner Jones Yes, even in that instance, John, I think the woman still asks the neighbor for help, especially if shes seen evidence that the neighbor she lives next to today has condemned the actions of his forefathers. I think that is in fact, why you are unsuccessful in your efforts to advise federally-recognized tribes to give up that status in exchange for the chance at a future that is, right now, unsecurable. There is a difference between rights and powers, John. Every woman has the right not to be raped. Only those who have not been raped have had the power to enforce their rights, and even then, they know that they must always protect and advance their power not to be raped in the future. Now, you may start any analogies you like as you turn your attention to how my people are going to turn our right to be independent and free in Hawaii into the power to do so. 7:01pm Jade Danner Jones On being Native Hawaiian and American, I am not confused that it is an either-or proposition. I am a Native Hawaiian with a kuleana to my people and my homeland first. I am an American second. If the destruction of our peoples was Americas primary goal, then they made a critical mistake when they made us Americans and gave us the right to vote, because indigenous peoples, for generations, have used that right to turn American policy away from achieving that goal. Sure, we have not yet succeeded in getting American laws to acknowledge 100% of what their lofty words mean, in terms of self-determination and self-governance, but we are succeeding nonetheless in changing what America is today, from what it was even 50 years ago. I believe that we will get there eventually, and when we do, it wont be because we wasted time and energy going after the top of the tree, before weve done the work of building the ladder that gets us there, one rung at a time. That American law continues some of the destructive ideas formulated in a time that is long gone just means we have more work to do. While intent may not matter from the perspective of the harm that is created, intent does matter to assessing whether harmful policies and conditions can be changed. The American intent for our peoples is not the same as it was at the turn of the last century, and so there is a space to correct course and address the harms. We have just now begun to see those efforts bear fruit. Real change takes work, John. Jade Danner Jones And post this if you like, but my use of the word blather in reference to your radio work, was a direct pull from one of the commenters on your posts in the Kai Ula group, I think it was Foster Ampong, about my continuing to blather on. So, fair or not, you are having a conversation with me, on behalf of, and at the continued behest of, people like Foster who refuse any effort at a meaningful conversation with me, while they try to hide their snide comments in return. As you can see from your own experience, I am not hard to engage in a deliberate debate of the issues that matter. Forgive me for throwing that word back at you in an effort to throw it back at him. That was wrong of me, and as Ive never heard your radio program, I cant really say whether I think you blather at all. I will also try not to take offense to the fact that you have made comments about me that you are unwilling to say directly to me in these messages. I look forward to turning the conversation to the plan for achieving an independent Hawaii. Since you have such great access to its proponents, please dont duck the question by saying that is up to the Hawaiian people to decide. I think it is clear, at least in terms of responding directly to me, they have appointed you their spokesman, to feel free to consult with them about the plan, so you can relate it to me. 8/10, 3:55pm Jade Danner Jones Just as I thought John. When asked for a realistic and achievable plan for securing the Kingdom of Hawaii to the land, and not just hearts of our people, what I hear in return is silence. John Kane I am in Grandpa mode during the weekends so dont view my silence as acquiescence. I havent even posted your last comments yet. Jade Danner Jones Well I can understand that, John. I am in Mommy mode when photos of me with my children are being posted under the heading of traitor for looking for meaningful ways my children can escape the dismal statistics we, as a people, face. We are a resilient people who know who we are, John. We need real power to change our present circumstances for the better. If there is a real plan among the Kai Ula group to get that power, Im all ears.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 22:38:20 +0000
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