Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, whether it is amended or whether it is not amended. And I do so, Mr. Speaker, because first of all, the United States of America was founded upon the principle of equality, the principle of equality before the law. And we have further built upon the principle of equality of opportunity. As I have listened to each of the speakers address this tonight, there seems to be a continuing theme that there are specific groups of people that deserve a certain kind of specific consideration before the law and before the appropriations of the United States Congress, and specific access to assets that might be utilized for their specific use, as opposed to other Hawaiians that aren't defined as Native Hawaiians. I recall the debate back in 1959 when Hawaii and Alaska were both brought into the union, and I recall the discussions that were there then about the success that Hawaii had had by assimilating peoples into the broader society of Hawaii, and about how we didn't have to worry about the expression--then it wasn't Balkanization--but we didn't have to worry about the Hawaiians dividing themselves into separate and competing ethnic groups, that they were assimilated.”