Native Hawaiians blockade palace

(When I maintained my News page in which articles were strictly sorted by date and archived each month, I would sometimes ignore articles dated late in the month when I did not find them until after the month had changed. I see no reason to do that with this new blog format, so here's a story dated April 30 which I didn't see immediately.)

A group of native Hawaiians who advocate separation from the United States and restoration of the monarchy overthrown in 1893 took over the Royal Palace, vowing to conduct the business of the kingdom's government. I have long opposed the U.S. annexation of Hawaii, and wish these protesters the best, though I should stress that my support of Hawaiian independence is inextricably linked to the restoration of the monarchy; I would oppose any "Hawaiian Republic" as worse than the current status quo, since there are already too many presidents and too many republics in the world and the last thing we need is another one.

Unlike some American monarchists, I do not dream of converting the United States as a whole into a monarchy, and accept that for 225 years America's authentic tradition has been republicanism, but that applies only to the continental U.S., beyond which I do not believe American territory should extend. Hawaii, unlike any other American state, has a substantial tradition of indigenous monarchy as an independent country, which should be honored and revived. Long live the Kingdom of Hawaii!