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Going forth on the fourth

Happy Independence Day!There are people here in the Hawaiian Islands for whom true independence would mean a return to sovereignty. It's a vocal faction and I actually believe their ranks are growing. Not that it's likely the United States will ever revoke Hawaii's statehood. A symbol of support for the sovereignty movement is the Hawaii state flag (formerly the flag of the Republic of Hawaii) flown upside down. For some, it's less about sovereignty and more about spreading the fundamental understanding of how Hawaii became a US Territory. It was an illegal overthrow of the Queen (Hawaii was a constitutional monarchy by 1993, the year she was removed from the thrown) by American businessmen, supported by the US marines with the US government looking the other way. Plenty of folk have been stewing about it ever since. The late 1970s mark what's called the Hawaiian renaissance, a resurgence of Hawaiian cultural pride and an interest in understanding the true history of the islands and their people. That's when the most recent calls for sovereignty began. Those calls have been increasing in volume and frequency ever since. President Clinton actually apologized to the Hawaiian people for the wrongful overthrow of their government.
That's not to say there aren't oodles of patriotic Americans here who relish Hawaii's statehood. It's the only state I've actually lived in where Statehood Day is a recognized holiday with government offices closed.
The Fourth of July is celebrated here with gaiety, verve and zeal. (OK that's redundant. But you get the picture.) There are plenty of parades, for sure. There's a big fireworks show planned for Hilo Bay tonight. We don't really do fireworks. We stay home and watch them on TV, at low volume. That's because we can't leave Hoppsy home alone to quake in fear at the sound of the neighbors' bottle rockets or the distant pyrotechnic blasts. She's a basket case once the bombs begin bursting in air. So we stick by her to keep her feeling safe and calm. It's what any parent would do for a frightened child, right?
Today, we've spent all day doing as little as possible. I whipped up a batch of tasty carbohydrate and fat-laden potato salad. We grilled some hot dogs and are spending this rainy fourth watching one episode after another of the Twilight Zone. For as many years as I've been watching, there are still shows I have not seen. I enjoy spotting famous actors in captured on film before they became famous;William Shatner, Robert Redford, Ted Knight, Burgess Merideth, Jack Klugman, Claude Akins and more.
The rose you see above blossomed today. Who'd have thought that roses could live in Hawaii. But here, at 2500 feet above sea level with plenty of rain, they seem to thrive.

A hui hou. Aloha.

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