PRINCESS BERNICE PAUAHI BISHOP'S WILL,
"A STATEMENT FROM THE PAST"
This is the original version of the viewpoint submitted to The Honolulu Advertiser, which appeared edited in Island Voices on Friday, October 10, 2003The letter written by Andrew Thomas, Follow the Law, 9/17/03 is rather confusing because the Will of Princess Pauahi Bishop is following the law. If a person's will is considered a legal document and by law has the weight of a person's last wish, then what is the problem. Doesn't a person have the right to leave their property to who they want to and dictate who the beneficiary's are that receives the benefits.
The Princess Will distinctly states that: "To devote a portion of each year's income to the support and education of orphans, and others in indigent circumstances, GIVING THE PREFERENCE TO PURE OR PART ABORIGINAL BLOOD" If this statement is not clear enough, I don't know what is. The fact is Princess Pauahi's Will was consummated upon her death in 1884 and her wishes were carried out. The reason she felt it was important was because she had seen the demise of her people who had died by the hundreds of thousands since the arrival of Capt. James Cook and others that followed bringing every known diseases from the west and later from the Orient.
Princess Pauahi's Will is more appropriate today because of the condition of the Kanaka Maoli people who disproportionately are at the top of the social ills of present day Hawaii. Unlike what Mr. Thomas thinks, the overthrow was just as traumatic to us as the 911 attack on America and like the attack, has far reaching affects. The facts of the "illegal take-Overthrow of Hawaii", reeks of terrorism in the literally sense of the word. Do events of what happened to our Queen and the Hawaiian Kingdom sound similar? American troops land on Hawaiian soil uninvited, take over the royal palace, hold the residence of Honolulu hostage, recognize a coup d'etat, made up of American citizens, and descendants of the first missionaries, then imprison the Queen and arrest her followers. And yet, Queen Liliuokalani did not have weapons of mass destruction. She only had ALOHA for her fellow man.
One only has to look at modern day Hawaii and ask "what good did Statehood do for us as Kanaka Maoli (native of this land). Are we better off because we are under the United States Government? How come the laws of this so called great nation who are our colonizers, is now taking the last bastion of our culture with the Hawaiian Homes Lands, the Office Of Hawaiian Affairs and the legacy of a Princess, the Kamehameha Schools. Is it not enough that the Hawaiians lost all of Hawaii? As a Kupuna, I am very concerned for the future of our people because the visitors industry, all the businesses that relay on tourism is not helping the cause of the Hawaiian people. Even Hawaiians who promote Aloha and Sharing has a breaking point. Let's all hope and pray that this point is never reached. I personally overheard a tourist couple watching the 10 thousand plus Hawaiians and their supporters marching down Kalakaua Avenue say: "Wow this is scary" Yes the red wave (the koko, the blood) had flowed through Waikiki, lets hope that it does not turn into a Tsunami, Ku I Ka Pono (Justice for Hawaiians).
Check my website at www.moolelo.com for Paul Harvey and the "Rest of the Story"
Kahu Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell Sr.
