Monday, August 17, 1998

True blue in Hawaii

While Honolulu was celebrating - or lamenting - its recent designation as the American city with the second highest home prices (median: $305,000), several thousand Hawaiians were marking a different occasion: the 100th anniversary of the islands' annexation by the United States.

The demonstrators argued that the annexation was illegal because Congress did so by resolution, with a simple majority vote, rather than by treaty, which requires a two-thirds vote, and that Hawaii thus should be independent.

America's westward expansion was not always as glorious and uplifting as we would like to believe, and Hawaii was no exception. But the islands were unlikely to survive independently, either as a kingdom or a pineapple republic, and the alternatives were worse. If the British had prevailed, as was possible, Hawaii would have labored under the name Sandwich Islands.

Like the contentions of income tax protesters or militia members who believe themselves exempt from the law because of some knotty technicality in the Constitution or the Magna Carta, the independence advocates' point is interesting - but irrelevant.

Next Aug. 21, Hawaii celebrates its 40th anniversary as a state, and a valuable addition it was, too.