If my memory serves me correctly, the original American Revolution was based at least in part on the concept of “no taxation without representation.”
So here we have the Office of Hawaiian Affairs spending $1 million on Washington lobbyists in support of the Akaka Bill, which bill will not be voted on by the citizens of Hawaii.
Yet it’s our tax dollars that support this state agency.
At the same time we have our taxpayer-paid governor, Linda Lingle, publicly pushing the bill’s passage to a large crowd at Iolani Palace in which some have hung banners proclaiming “We are not Americans” and “We will never be Americans,” despite the fact that she is an elected official of one of the states of that same America. How long do we have to put up with this hypocrisy? Why are our tax dollars being used against us?
Why are our elected federal and state representatives supporting a particular point of view on an enormously important issue without any demonstrably independent, unbiased survey of all our views?
Without a full and fair hearing of the views of all the people of the state of Hawaii, public entities and officials using our taxes to support the Akaka bill is truly “taxation without representation.”
”’Paul Tyksinski, a resident of Kaneohe, HI,can be reached via email at”’ mailto:ptyksin@hawaii.rr.com
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