HAWAII’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM
COMMENTS ON MOVEON’S MOVE
WMD ON-LINE SCREENING BEGINS

Honolulu, March 15: Anyone remember the warning: “BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH”

I am not sure what those ides are, but today, March 15, is Ides day.

In Boston, my old radio station WBCN celebrates its anniversary. It is not discussing its co-optation into a radio chain that has chained its spirit and destroyed its independent news tradition. Tomorrow I will be visiting ex-BCN mastro in the morning Chales Laquidara who is in exile on his elba of Maui. Maybe we can toast to the bad old daze.

Last night at the University of Hawaii, I took part on a panel called “The Art of Truth,” a discussion on the role of the media moderated by Ruth Hsu, an articulate English professor who stirred these islands by having Ward Churchill lecture on campus. It stirred such a storm that even Bill O’Reilly wanted Ruth on his show. She turned him down, I wonder why. The lecture was cablecast on public access by a very feisty public access station.

(Time Warner runs the cable here as it does in New York City. They recently added The Pentagon Channel to the line-up. I asked the crowd where the peace channel was. There is none, of course.)

One star of the discussion was Maile Shimabuuro, a 33 year old legal aid lawyer who became a state legislator and has a big base among younger Hawaiians who admire her gutsy stands, She says she is “the squeaky wheel” in the system that it takes to get reforms enacted. Filmmaker Merita Mita from New Zealand was also eloquent about the need to find a “new model” for collaboration among independent filmmakers.

THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Was also the focus of an unbelievable multi-media installation and art show held at Mark’s Garage, a hip art space where I show WMD tomorrow night. The artists include Holger Shramm, Solomon Enos and the brilliant Daniela Rocco Minerbi who teaches about art and makes it. There were two “voting stations” set up in the galley, both with only one ballot that said simply Trust US. You could only check “Yes.” That made a point. MoveOn, take note!

Hawaii’s Meleana Aluli Meyer is in the house with a stunning display of documents found just eight years ago of a petition signed by 38,000 native Hawaiians, or 95% of the population, to then President William McKinley protesting the forced annexation by the USA of the Hawaiian Islands.

95%

Listen to this, written in Hawaiian and English:

“Whereas, there has been submitted to the Senate of the United States of America a Treaty for the Annexation of the Hawaiian Islands for consideration at its regular session in December, A/D. 1897, therefore,

We, the undersigned, native Hawaiian women, citizens and residents of the District of (Fill in Blank) who are members of the Women’s Patriotic League of the Hawaiian Islands, and other women who are in sympathy with the said League, earnestly protest against the annexation of the said Hawaiian Islands to the said United States of America in any form or shape.”

“Earnestly”

“In any form or shape”

This amazing document was of course ignored. Meleanna’s family was part of this campaign of resistance against what was then called the “DECEPTIVE MANIPULATIONS OF US IMPERIALISM….”

That was then, and she is still bravely at it now.

And here I am, over a hundred years later, showing some of them my film Weapons of Mass Deception. Clearly they already know about deception from their history and protested it their way. (And yes, I am mindful as one of your letters advised to be careful about writing about the Hawaiian people because that can be too broad and mean many things.)

But, here it is in my hands, a copy of the actual document, the petition, the cry of a people with their tears and pain, the demands of the Kanaka Maoli people, IN THEIR MAJORITY against a forced takeover by the President who would later wage bloody war on the Phillipines. (See The letter below). This was democracy talking, democracy deferred.

The people of modern Hawaii only saw these petitions in 1998. At least there were freedom of information laws in effect then, back in the days of the Clinton Administration. Where have they gone?

Holding this book of the yellowed petitions is like a gift, a confrontation with our hidden history, and, in this this case, a work of investigative art by a local artist of great competence and conscience

It should be shown across the mainland and in every travel office that has converted these islands into a tourist destination, and in every office of the Pentagon which has turned Hawaii into a garrison state. (One issue raised at the University panel was a pending deal for the creation of a military research center at the University. All all the negotiations were held in secret. The same people bitching about Ward Churchill speechifying here have nothing to say about this deeper abrogation of academic freedom.)

There is another explosive film being shown “Propaganda Under Stress: WW2 Treatment of Japanese Americans”which includes part of forgotten films made by Hollywood Great John Ford blatantly using racist appeals against the Japanese and lobbying for their expulsion and detention after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Shame.

This week of activities in Hawaii is an example of grassroots activism on freedom of information. It is an example of what can and must be done in other cities and across our country. This is an issue for citizens, not just lawyers and advocacy groups. It is our issue. It is time to act.

Visit mediacouncil.org for more on one aspect of this week. Thanks to Charmaine Crocket for getting me here.

SYRIA: WHAT IS THE GAME PLAN

Read “The road to Damascus” by Ignacio Ramonet in Lemonde Diplomatique