Michelle Malkin has a post up today about a bill pending in Congress that I knew nothing about and which has received almost no coverage in the media.
Its called the Akaka Bill and is explained pretty clearly in this earlier post from Michelle Malkin. Basically, the bill would grant special rights and recognition to Native Hawaiians, allowing them to form their own government institution to govern “Hawaiian” issues, much the same way the Native American tribes are self-governing.
This sounds like a pretty bad idea to me. If Native Hawaiians are entitled to govern themselves, then why not any other ethnic group ? While the libertarian in me believes in smaller, more localized government, this solution is not in anyone’s interest. If we were to treat every groups request for special rights the same way the supporters of this bill want to treat Hawaii, the United States would effectively cease to exist as a united nation.
