University of Hawaii Professors Launch Aggressive Fundraising Effort to sponsor Churchill as speaker

Hawaii Reporter ^ | Feb. 17, 2005 | Malia Zimmerman

[LauraleeBraswell]

Oh and I know you STILL don't like me because of


the Israel thing.

Way back

I was Wrong about that too.

[LauraleeBraswell]

I also get the impression that you think I am an absolute idiot.

[506trooper]

"The Islands of Hawaii were invaded by White male Imperialists. They have desecrated the land of the Native Indians. The Whites have taken these people's land to build their empire."

Oh puleeze....the taking of land, or territory or expansionism was not exclusive to the "white man" or any single culture. Better go back and read a history book or two.

It has been only in recent history (relatively speaking) that it has been condemned.

Statements like that raise my suspicions about your ability to separate fact from fiction.

[506trooper]

Good morning.

[LauraleeBraswell]

I was being sardonic.

[LauraleeBraswell]

"" Oh puleeze....the taking of land, or territory or expansionism was not exclusive to the "white man" or any single culture.""

I think that's self evident and common sense.



""It has been only in recent history (relatively speaking) that it has been condemned.""

Yes, and considering this article is about non Cherokee white man hating while white man himself Churchill- I thought you would pick up on that one.


""Statements like that raise my suspicions about your ability to separate fact from fiction.""

Don't start.

[PatriotBill]

Appeal to alumni contributors at any university that allows Looney Left professors and speakers to have a forum. We must hit these institutions in the pocket book...it's the only way to stop them!!!

[506trooper]

Oh, well sorry if I missed the intended sarcasm, but I'm having a real difficult time understanding some of your posts.

In # 11, for instance..

By the way: In all the Islands I've been to, The native people LOVE the tourists. Tourism is their livlihood. My sister was amazed because she was shown a video in one of her College classes on how the natives in one of the Islands we visited were oppressed and how WE (the tourists) killed their farming industry. Turns out- when we spoke to a native- IT was their local independent government's corruption.

I distinctly remember you stating on another thread that you had only traveled to Mexico, and now you have visited the islands.

Forgive me, but I am a simple person; I like to take folks at face value and want to believe them.

Contradictory statements confuse me.

It is becoming more difficult for me to lend credence to some of your ideas.

[LauraleeBraswell]

I've been to Islands like the Florida Keys and I've been to Mexico.

I havent been anywhere that wasn't

1) Tourism
2) College town
3) not near a city

[LauraleeBraswell]

Islands around Jamaica.

[506trooper]

" Islands around Jamaica. "

Therein is part of the issue...the thread was about Hawaii.

I miss numbered the post in question.

Post #11

"They have desecrated the land of the Native Indians."

Native Indians? In Hawaii?

I never noticed.

Your post, #16 (my bold), in response to #11 above by skip_intro....

"That is because the people had mass genocide waged against them, and now they suffer from the Tourism industry.

By the way: In all the Islands I've been to, The native people LOVE the tourists. Tourism is their livlihood. My sister was amazed because she was shown a video in one of her College classes on how the natives in one of the Islands we visited were oppressed and how WE (the tourists) killed their farming industry. Turns out- when we spoke to a native- IT was their local independent government's corruption.

....is written in such a way that would have lead any reader to believe you had visited the Hawaiian Islands, and you were writing about them.

On the other thread you indicated you had only visited Mexico, then later changed to day that you had visited Disneyland(World) and other places in NY state.

When I called you on your post today you again changed your story to add that you had visited Jamaica and the Florida Keys.But not the Hawaiian Islands

Do you see my dilemma?

You are not old enough (per your home page) to forget there thing.

Either you are not who you say you are.

Or you have a problem with determining fact or fiction.

Or possibly you are embellishing your life experiences in an attempt to give more weight to your opinions.

It's not about liking or disliking you, it's about the trust you establish in your relationships.

IMO, Honesty is the most important character trait of all.

[LauraleeBraswell]

Many similarities can be drawn between The Native Caribbean Islanders, Native Americans, and the Hawaii Polynesians people. All remained relatively Isolated until the European age of Exploration roughly the 1500s-1700s. At which point European explorers or "The white male" came. While many of the people's ancestors did face atrocities, we are able to see their predecessors thriving today. From the Casino's of New York to the the tourist industry of Hawaii. These people are most certainly not oppressed.

[506trooper]

Ping to #71

[LauraleeBraswell]

Furthurmore, The natives LOVE Tourists just as the Native American Indian loves the people who frequent their Casinos. And yet here's Ward Churchill still complaining.

[LauraleeBraswell]

you're bringing the whole GANG in? Can't you just leave me be?

[LauraleeBraswell]

I'm saying that Natives in general love Tourism.

here we go again...

[Lazamataz]

Another cockroach brought to light:

Haunani-Kay Trask, Cover-Girl

Haunani-Kay Trask was the cover-girl on a bi-monthly magazine published on the "big island' of Hawai'i for the period September 16-30, 2003. The photo accompanied an interview of her written by one of her strong admirers, available at:
http://www.hawaiiislandjournal.com/stories/9b03a.html

Haunani-Kay Trask was born October 3, 1949 in the San Francisco Bay area. Therefore she is an American citizen, contrary to her protests that "I am NOT an American. I will DIE before I am an American." She is also an immigrant to Hawai'i, not an indigenous native person. Of course the claim is that anyone born to an indigenous parent is an indigenous person even if born thousands of miles away from the indigenous homeland. However, if that's true, then every person on earth is indigenous. The claim is that a descendant of a Hawaiian parent is an indigenous Hawaiian, no matter where she is born, and that she also has a "right of return" that makes her an indigenous person of Hawai'i the moment her airplane lands. But of course that's exactly the same claim made by the nation of Israel, that every person of Jewish ancestry anywhere in the world is automatically an Israeli with a right to "return" to Israel (even if no family member has ever been there for many centuries).

Ms. Trask's family was very active politically in the Democrat party, and in the labor unions. During the red scare of the 1950s, at least one family member was accused of being a Communist and of refusing to give names of other members of the Communist Party. An article-length obituary of her grandfather Arthur Trask, published on June 21, 2002, gives some insight into the political activism of her family.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Jun/21/ln/ln12a.html

Her academic history includes
Kamehameha School graduate, Class of 1967
B.A. in Political Science at University of Wisconsin (Madison), 1972
M.A. in Political Science at University of Wisconsin (Madison), 1975
Ph.D. in Political Science at University of Wisconsin (Madison), 1981
Her Ph.D. dissertation title was: Eros and Power: The Promise of Feminist Theory
A humorist might compare the title of her dissertation with the title of a book she published in 1994: Light in the Crevice Never Seen

This academic background shows the strong influence of her politically leftist and activist family, as she chose to attend one of the most radical campuses during the radical anti-war and Black militant period of the late 1960s and all the 1970s, which was also the period when women's studies began to develop. It should be noted that her academic background was entirely devoted to political science and feminism. Thus, she acquired an interest in Hawaiian studies after completing her academic degrees, and acquired her knowledge of Hawaiian issues through informal and independent studies, just as others have done, like Ken Conklin.

In the second half of September 2003 a bi-monthly magazine on the Island of Hawai'i (locally known as "the big island") published an "interview" with Haunani-Kay done by one of her admirers. The magazine is the Hawaii Island Journal. The entire interview can be seen at:
http://www.hawaiiislandjournal.com/stories/9b03a.html

At the end of that interview was the following paragraph of biographical information:

Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin. She is presently Professor of Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai'i, and she served for 10 years as the Director of the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. Dr. Trask also is one of the founders and leading members of Ka Lahui Hawai'i, the largest native sovereignty organization in Hawai'i. She has represented Hawaii's indigenous people at the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples in Geneva, and at numerous indigenous gatherings in Samiland (Norway), Aotearoa (New Zealand), Basque Country and Indian nations throughout the United States and Canada. Her ongoing struggle for de-colonization, human rights, and self-determination for her people as well as indigenous peoples all over the world has spanned more than 30 years. Trask and her sister Mililani have helped to bring international attention to the historical facts of the oppression and genocide of Native Hawaiians in Hawai'i through her teaching, activism, writing, and poetry. Her best-known book, "From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai'i," is widely considered a masterpiece of contemporary resistance writing. Her most recently published book is a collection of poetry, "Night is a Sharkskin Drum."

Books: Amazon.com has photos of the front cover of each book, and also excerpts of the contents and book reviews.

From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii (Common Courage Press, 1993).
A book review at Amazon.com says:
Trask's writing is shocking. Her book presents an interesting alternative view of Hawaiian history as well as an interesting critique of Western thought (especially history and anthropology). Unfortunately Trask's militant sensationalism, and self serving narcisism creep in and very nearly ruin the entire book. The pages are filled with self-glorifying pictures of Trask and her political pals. The articles focus almost entirely on Trask's own political actions, ignoring all other movements and all previous scholarship. Trask's opinions are of course "interesting", but they are not based on any sort of sound historical or scientific evidence. The little bits of flimsy evidence she does cite are almost laughable in light of the kind of re-evalutations she is pushing for. Are the lyrics of a single song really proper cause for an entire re-evaluation of historical theory? There are some very large holes in her arguments. So large, in fact, that virtually no scholars, american, European or otherwise, take her work seriously. In reality, very few native Hawaiians take her or her politics seriously either. Trask's personality really casts her argument into a deep, dark shadow. It's unfortunate that a more level headed person didn't undertake the writing of this book because it is actually quite interesting, and even enlightening at times.

Light in the Crevice Never Seen (Calyx Books, 1994)
A book review at Amazon.com says:
From Kirkus Reviews paper 0-934971-70-6 Light In The Crevice Never Seen is the first volume of poetry ever published by an indigenous Hawaiian in the mainland US. For a debut collection, it is extraordinarily angry. An activist and an academic, Trask resents what she sees as the subjugation of Hawaii by the Japanese and the Americans, and she is deeply chagrined at the development of tourism, which she believes to have accelerated the decay of native island culture and language. While her view of Hawaiian history and politics will be of interest to outsiders unfamiliar with the islands, and while Eleanor Wilners concise introduction helps put many of these issues into sharp focus for the reader, few who are not already sympathizers will be moved by Trasks shrill, two-dimensional verse, which amounts to a kind of Polynesian agitprop. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP.

Night Is A Sharkskin Drum (University of Hawaii Press, 2002)

A brief review of the book by reporter Burl Burlingame appeared in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin of January 12, 2003:
http://starbulletin.com/2003/01/12/features/story7.html
As the Appointed Voice in the cult-of-personality secular religion called Hawaiian Studies, Trask's first locally published book in nearly a decade is both eagerly awaited and Danger UXB -- after all, her 1999 poetry collection "Light in the Crevice Never Seen" was charactized by Kirkus Reviews as "extraordinarily angry ... shrill, two-dimensional verse, which amounts to a kind of Polynesian agitprop." But maybe Trask is mellowing out. Although "Sharkskin Drum" is informed by the same hubris, which will be seen by some as brittle arrogance and by others as brave defiance, it's fairly introspective as Trask goes -- about half of it has a sexy, earthen rhythm, ripe with juice, as if the words are copulating. The rest are predictable vulgar-American, crass-Japanese creeds, written like advertising copy. Trask uses words both as feathers and as cudgels. So why is the book written in English rather than Hawaiian?

A book review at Amazon.com, From Publishers Weekly, says:
... Trask's poetry is also crucial to her activism ... this follow-up [book] consists of three sections of lyrics, incantation and instigation. The first, "Born in Fire," contains a series of chant-like poems focused on the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele, who in Trask's work represents a specifically Hawaiian feminine strength. The second, "A Fragrance of Devouring," has poems of complaint about "the common greed/ of vulgar Americans" and about the loss of Hawaiian sovereignty. The poem "Puowaina: Flag Day," begins with a focus on plants rich in Hawaiian symbol (a glossary is provided) as it urges readers to "Bring lei hulu,/ palapalai, pikake. Bring/ kapa, beaten fine" and then ends "and burn/ their American/ flag." Yet Trask doesn't find many takers for her exhortations, and laments what the poet perceives as apathy among Hawaiians: "The natives don't/ horde small fortunes/ for revolution's/ duty. They sit,/ observing the parade." Things get ugly in a poem that describes Daniel Inouye, the U.S. senator from Hawai'i, as the "Japanese senator, smugly/ armless from the great war/ preposterous manikin/ of empire, feigning an accent." Yet the third and strongest section, "Chants of Dawn," is composed of love poems and celebrations of the land-often in spare stanzas that travel "Into our sovereign suns,/ drunk on the mana/ of Hawai'i." It is these poems that best highlight Trask's craft and defiance.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Playing the 18 year old conservative again ( Your own tagline)? Than I would expect you to appreciate some real life lessons from real life conservatives. FR is great for helping young conservatives to sharpen their debating skills. What you learn here, LauraLee, will help you to be a mature debater. Believe me you need all the help you can get.

Your thoughts and opinions here, once again, are not rational or logical.

I don't even see what your point is..(no surprise there).

Once again I suggest that you train yourself in critical thought and reading comprehension. ( A tired old theme, I know.)

IF you insist on representing yourself on a public debate board known for activism on conservative issues, as a Conservative-Please, for heavens sake, get the message you have been getting already, you are not good at this stuff.

You play the liberal point of view and then demand to be taken seriously, it is not going to happen.

[506trooper]

"Two years after the Declaration of Independence, and while the American colonies were still fighting to be independent, Captain James Cook arrived in Hawaii. At the time, Hawaii was in the process of moving from regional monarchs, usually one per island, to a consolidated monarchy that spanned all the islands. One language was spoken throughout the islands, and as happened in Europe, an entire linguistic group was moving towards becoming a single nation-state.

Kamehameha I (the Great) of the Island of Hawaii first consolidated his power there. He then conquered Maui and Oahu. There were bloody battles, particularly on Oahu, and his conquest was vigorously opposed by the rulers of the other islands and their warriors. Kamehameha then attempted to invade Kauai, but his fleet was turned back by a storm. Following several years, the ruler of Kauai decided to pledge his allegiance to Kamehameha, and the unification of the Hawaiian islands was complete. Kamehameha used some European advisors and weapons in his fight to conquer the island chain.

Kamehameha and his predecessors were hereditary monarchs. They ruled by divine right and the right of birth, with the support of the religion and the priesthood (kâhuna). All land belonged to the monarch and passed to their heir. The nobility (ali'i) got their grants of land from the King. The commoners (maka'âinana) had certain understood rights to use the land, and obligations to provide support to the ali`i and the King.

Hawaii in 1778 in many ways resembled feudal Europe. The major difference, other than religion, was the absence of...."

From here

Kamehameha wasn't a "white man" in your context and, in fact, was the first conquerer of the Hawaiian Islands, though later usurped by social reforms.

" What took hundreds of years to evolve in Europe, happened virtually overnight in Hawaii. American missionaries arriving in 1820 brought with them not only their religion, but their political and social views. Once the Hawaiian religious beliefs were put aside, one might logically question by what right the King ruled, or why women could not eat meals with men, or why commoners could not own land. The missionaries taught reading and writing, and the Hawaiians overwhelmingly responded - many say they achieved a higher rate of literacy than that in the United States at the time.

By 1840, a mere 62 years after the first European contact, Kamehameha III promulgated the first Hawaiian Constitution. Just as the Magna Charta subjected King John of England to the rule of law, the 1840 Constitution subjected Kamehameha and his heirs to the law. The 1840 Constitution established a House of Nobles and an elected House of Representatives whose assent to new laws and changes to the Constitution was required. In less than a generation Hawaii went from a hereditary despotic government based on divine right to a Constitutional monarchy with an elected legislature. "

My bold.

What similarities? Specifically

[LauraleeBraswell]

I'm pinging in Response to a ping- thankyou very much.

# 72


MY POINT IS- That Ward Churchill Needs to shut up. because Native peoples are NOT OPPRESSED. NATIVE AMERICANS thrive off and LOVE Tourism, Including the Cherokees, Including Islanders, including every subgroup of the polynesian Islands (which I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO). He isn't EVEN Cherokee anyway. He needs to stop blaming things on "The white man."