Word: concon
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...delegates to the 1978 ConCon created the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs; made Hawaiian one of the official languages of the islands; amended Hawaii's Bill of Rights to refer to King Kamehameha I's "Law of the Splintered Paddle" in decreeing that the modern-day state has the power to provide for the safety of its people; and required public schools to teach Hawaiian education (which typically means inculcating students with Hawaiian songs, language and native cuisine), which has since become a staple of fourth-grade curriculum in the islands...
...from the original inhabitants of the islands are properly called Hawaiians. Residents of Asian, Caucasian, African or other descent are simply called locals. It is the Hawaiians, who made up 21% of the state's population in 2007 - down from 23% in 2000 - who most vocally oppose a new ConCon, concerned that it would dilute their position in the islands. "People who have achieved about as much as they can achieve don't want to open it up again," Burris says. Their allies are the Democratic Party of Hawaii, major unions and environmental organizations. A ConCon, they say, could erode...
Advocating a ConCon are the Republican Party of Hawaii, the police chiefs and prosecutors of every major Hawaiian island, the state Attorney General, the lieutenant governor and former Hawaii Congressman Ed Case, the cousin of AOL co-founder Steve Case. Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, a Republican, set the ConCon process in motion last year when he directed election officials to put the question on next week's general election ballot. In calling for the latest ConCon, Aiona says, "It's long overdue." A ConCon could well allow Hawaii's Republican governor, Linda Lingle, to create local school districts...
...expected record turnout for the island's favorite son Obama on Nov. 4 may result in the anti-ConCon groups having their way. But, given the political conservative nature of the state, it is not guaranteed...
Still, no matter what the agenda may be, conventions have a way of running away from the people who conceive them. Anne Feder Lee, an expert on the state constitution who opposes a ConCon, says it's impossible to predict what will happen if voters decide to have one. Feder Lee, a retired University of Hawaii West Oahu political science professor, says the original delegates to the 1968 ConCon had no idea what would result from their inaugural convention. They were supposed to fix a problem with reapportionment districts that dated to statehood in 1959. But they did not stop...