Daniel Inouye should be deified as a god of settler colonialism. People can burn money and crack candy Pueo eggs and destroy small native plants and smash tiny heiaus and stuff in rituals to honor him. There could be a holiday where everyone kisses each other's butt - or just have one giant Uncle Sam figure with a huge ass, and a ritual game where the natives are paid off to be stepped on so it can be kissed. How you figga?
I have been told by many continental native friends (though, note, never by front-line activists, who know better) how "lucky" we are to have had a "champion of native rights" like him, here.
Give me a break.
Sure, he got a lot of money for Hawaiian programs, some of which I have worked for and with (I am a health person). You know how he got that money? DEFENSE bills. Militarizing the living daylights out of our 'aina. Filling our lands with unexploded ordinance and depleted uranium. Filling our reefs with bombs. Making us a target for North Korea and everywhere else. Etc etc. And then he would hide money for Hawaiian programs in those big-ass defense bills. That's how.
Why Hawaiians? Simple. I think part of him probably wanted to be one, like any good colonizer. He wanted our mana for his own power. That is for sure. He was raised to understand the value and power of our mana, and he wanted control of that power, on a very deep level. But the colonial paradigm is one of rape and pillage, not one of assimilation to the host culture (that is integration, as opposed to colonization. Yeah - they are different).
You think it is an accident that H-3 was designed to connect two massive points of imperial power (Pearl Harbor at Pu'uloa and KMCAS at Mokapu), across a sacred line exactly aligned on the precise latitude of the Ka'aba in Mecca (Google Earth. Look it up), cutting right between THE Hale o Papa (at her birthplace!) and a great ancient men's heiau, both known for legendary healing and battle, which must be connected to each other in order to function but now have a damn freeway between them, plus utterly destroying Kukuiokāne Heiau, which oversees all the great lands of Kāne'ohe?? And then there is Hāʻiku. And Mōkapu. And Pu'uloa. It is like the guy was shooting pool with sacred sites, seeing how many he could knock into the pocket in one shot.
I am glad he advocated for Leonard Peltier. I so want him to be free too. But was Inouye sincere? Maybe. It is after all a classic colonial trait to be all into advocating for indigenous peoples of lands other than the specific one you are occupying. Same with AIRFA, pretty much. Sure, it was a good move. People deserving religious freedom is a duh. But it was not a move that gave a single bit of power to challenge or damage his own power structure, right?? Think about it. My relations, beware when someone "gives" you rights that are already yours. Because that is how they control those rights - and control you.
Oh and did I mention he was a ruthless mobster who had people taken out regularly? Including people I loved. And no he was not the only one. I am sure some of the others involved will read this. Hi!
So I vote for Dan Inouye for the first time ever. I vote for him as God of Hawaii Settler-Colonialism, deity of two-faced manipulation, Destroyer of Shrines, patron god of all ass-kissers and faithful Upholders of Perpetual Dependency.
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