Word: concon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...starting up a constitutional convention. Hawaii is one of three states (the others being Illinois and Connecticut) with the issue of rewriting its constitution on the ballot. And it is also the object lesson for all who'd like to do so. Hawaii has convened what locals call "ConCons" twice since 1968, both with far reaching consequences. Now several influential groups are calling for a third. "You have no idea what can happen," says veteran Honolulu journalist Jerry Burris, who covered the hot and humid ConCon in the summer of 1978 that convened in downtown Honolulu's old federal building...
Hawaii's first Constitutional Convention was organized in 1968 to correct problems with state legislative voting districts - and ended up giving public workers the right to strike. Ten years later, the islands' second ConCon began with no particular agenda, just a feeling in the post-Watergate era that Hawaii's government needed to be more accountable to its people. Nevertheless, it resulted in 34 separate amendments - more than 1,000 individual changes to Hawaii's state constitution - that included the addition of the untranslated phrase, "Ua mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono" in the constitution's preamble...