13 April 2002
In the interests of full disclosure, I must state up front that I am not a secessionist. Now, I don’t have any moral or constitutional quarrel with the concept of Hawaiian secession. I just think it’s a bad idea. I think it’s a bad idea to separate ourselves from, relatively speaking, the largest free market in the world, and it would likewise be imprudent to remove ourselves from the protection of the greatest military power in history. I am disinclined also to trust the protection of our Civil Rights to The Peoples’ Republic, or to The Kingdom, or to The Consolidated Islands of Hawaii. I am dubious of Federal protection also, but at least with the State and the Feds at odds over the issue, we have some cover from both.
That being clear, let me state just as emphatically, that Hawaiian Sovereignty is already a FACT. You can look it up, if you want, or I can quote it myself. According to the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the People.” This means that except for the very specific duties detailed for the Federal Government (mainly Hard Money and a Secure Frontier), all other legitimate authority in the United States resides in the States themselves.
Each State is a Sovereign entity unto itself, each is responsible for its own internal affairs, and each is answerable to no other. We are a Confederation of Equals, a Common Market, a Republic of Republics, and a voluntary union of friends. It also means that, since the body of the Constitution does not specifically prohibit secession, then that option is also reserved to the States.
Nevertheless, the aim of many modern sovereigntists, who would remove these islands from the American Union, is misdirected. If we wish to reclaim local control over ceded lands, reduce Federal authority, and put an end to the Federal Government’s vicious drug war in our skies, we must elect Representatives to the Congress who understand that the United States Constitution defines a Federal Union of specific and limited delegated powers.
With a Congress composed of Libertarians and others who understand the true Confederal structure of our Union, many of the illegal actions of the Federal government will stop, and any argument in favor of secession would be moot. When the Right of Secession is preserved, secession itself becomes unnecessary.
update 180130: In light of da kine recent missile scare, Hawaiians may well reconsider the value of “the protection of the greatest military power in history.” Considering its misadventurous interventionist foreign policies, does The Occupation draw more fire than it provides cover? New Yorkers and Pentagon employees might also wish to weigh in on questions of blowback. Of course, I also have serious doubts about my safety OUTSIDE of the US, as well. It’s a thorny puzzle.