Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 10, 1 October 2000 — For the record [ARTICLE]

For the record

Paula Durbin's article in the September issue of Ka Wai Ola about our suit, Arakaki vi. State, was marred by some unfairness. To characterize Kenneth Conklin, Ph.D. as "a retired teacher from Boston," without noting that he speaks Hawaiian has lived here for eight years, and had traveled here regularly years before that is not fair. The article referred to me as the wife of the attorney who filed the suit, failing to mention that I am also part Hawaiian loeal girl, as is another of the plaintiffs. The article misleads readers when it lists the names of only three of the plaintiffs. Among the 13 of us are persons of Japanese, English, Filipino, Irish, Portuguese, Hawaiian, German, Chinese, Okinawan, French and Spanish ancestry. Seven of us were born and raised in Hawai'i and have live here all our lives. Arakaki vs. State is not directed against any group or individual. Its goal is to protect one of the most fundamental rights in any democracy, the right to vote, and to be able to choose for whom to vote, without

racial discrimination. That helps all of us whatever our ancestry. Sandra Puanani Burgess Honolulu

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