Response to Mr. Harper re “will of the people”
Woody Harper asked:
“Why don’t you respect the will of the people here in Hawaii that they permit and profit from being American citizens? and allowing the use of PTA by the beloved military?”
First of all, “the will of the people” is a meaningless phrase, unless Mr. Harper specifies exactly which people he is talking about. It is clearly not the will of all the people to bomb Pohakuloa. It is clearly not the will of all the people that the Nation of Hawai’i is illegally occupied by the USA. The leader of the so-called “free world” at that time, President Cleveland, attempted to prevent the completion of the illegal overthrow.
See http://www.hawaii-nation.org/cleveland.html for President Cleveland’s thorough and well grounded objections to the machinations of corrupt congressmen. Cleveland’s words clearly indicate that there was no “will of the people” – except for the will of a few rich American businessman people – asking for Hawai’i to be occupied by the USA.
Second of all, “profit from being American citizens” makes no sense. There is no inherent “profit” in simply being an American citizen. I do not get paid for being an American citizen. If Mr. Harper does, I need to talk to a lawyer, since we are all supposedly equal as citizens and thus I should be getting my share of that profit as well.
Third of all, there is specifically no profit involved in military operations. Military operations are a complete and total loss of money. The military does not make money – it spends money. Specifically, it spends taxpayer money.
Our tax dollars are used to build bombs, missiles, guns of all kinds and sizes, ammunition for those guns, fighter jets, helicopters, land mines and other military devices. These devices are used to kill people, or to train people to kill people.
In the case of training such as at Pohakuloa, our tax dollars are being blown to bits on a regular basis. Expensive bombs, bullets, missiles and other devices we paid for are purposely destroyed – in some cases destroyed by being used to destroy other expensive military devices we paid for. It seems beyond obvious that this is loss, and not profit.
It seems to me Mr. Harper is disrespecting the actual “will of the people” of Hawai’i at the time of the overthrow. With the exception of a tiny and disproportionately powerful minority of foreigners, “the people” of Hawai’i did not ask for, revolt for, or vote for occupation by the USA. He is also disrespecting “the will of the people” as expressed by the then-leader of the United States, President Cleveland, who objected to what was clearly an illegal action against a sovereign nation, proposed and promoted by corrupt members of congress.
John Schinnerer
Kea’au, Hawai’i
