Statehood 50th anniversary

Statehood Day in Hawaii is a holiday today August 21.  Many offices were closed, public schools out, and no seminary this morning.  Kamehameha Schools did not observe the holiday, obviously, if you are familiar with the history of our Hawaiian ohana.  I was 20 years old when Hawaii was made the 50th State.  I was an aide at the Republican Convention in Hawaii that year.  I knew I could  vote for my governor, when I turned 21 and vote for the President of the United States.  I could have two Senators, and have representatives.  But I remember that the Native Hawaiians were not happy about this happening.  And we are seeing many of the Hawaiian rights being swallowed up in the Constitution of the U.S.  Ue Ka 'aina.  Cry for the land.  That was the fear by the Natives  50 years ago, and it still is today, as the media covered the march on the Iolani Palace, by a group of Natives.  Ue ka aina, indeed.  We are seeing it all over the Island chain.  The military continues to use the Makapu'u area for artillery training, just as they bombed  the Island of Kahoolawe for years.  I am hapa haole, the other hapa Hawaiian, but my life began at Queens Hospital in Honolulu, on April 17, 1939.....raised on the Big Island and on Oahu, before I went to Utah.  Utah has become my "home", but I must admit, I continue to call Hawaii, Home.