The 1978 Hawaii State Constitutional Convention is regarded to be the watershed political event in the modern State of Hawaii. The convention established term limits for state office holders, provided a requirement for an annual balanced budget, laid the groundwork for the return of federal land such as the island of Kahoʻolawe, and most importantly created the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in an effort to right the wrongs done towards native Hawaiians since the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in 1893. The event also created an ambitious project of preservation of the Hawaiian culture including the adoption of Hawaiian diacritical marks for official usage, use of Hawaiian names, etc. The Hawaiian language became the official state language of Hawaii for the first time since the overthrow.
A major outgrowth of the constitutional convention was the launching of the political careers of men and women who would later dominate Hawaiian politics. Delegates to the convention included:
- Carol Fukunaga, future legislative leader
- Helene Hale, future legislative leader
- Jeremy Harris, future Mayor of Honolulu
- Les Ihara, future legislative leader
- Barbara Marumoto, future legislative leader
- Joseph Souki, future Speaker of the House
- John David Waihee III, future Governor
|
Famous quotes containing the words hawaii, state and/or convention:
“Life is in the mouth; death is in the mouth.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 60, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)
“While the State becomes inflated and hypertrophied in order to obtain a firm enough grip upon individuals, but without succeeding, the latter, without mutual relationships, tumble over one another like so many liquid molecules, encountering no central energy to retain, fix and organize them.”
—Emile Durkheim (1858–1917)
“Every one knows about the young man who falls in love with the chorus-girl because she can kick his hat off, and his sister’s friends can’t or won’t. But the youth who marries her, expecting that all her departures from convention will be as agile or as delightful to him as that, is still the classic example of folly.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)