Students, activists remove US flag from Hawaii campuses

Students and activists at the University of Hawaii-Hilo (UH) removed the American flag that previously flew atop a flagpole at the main entrance of campus on last week, to symbolize the “illegal occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the United States.”

The Hawaiian Kingdom Advocates are demanding that the school get a separate pole for the American flag to hang from, as they see it as unjustified to fly the flag above the state flag of Hawaii, according to Big Island Video News. The students told administrators, to whom they handed the flag over to, that the American flag must fly at the same level as the Hawaiian flag, and no higher.

“A place of higher learning should not be flying the American flag above what is truly understood as the fake state, self-proclaimed state of Hawaii,” says activist, Gene Tamashiro, in a video recording of the event. “So what we’re doing is we’re simply acting in our [sic] inalienable rights, our sovereign selves, to put the Hawaiian Kingdom flag where it should be.

WATCH: Activists remove the American flag

“We’re asking the same representation of our flags to be flown at the same level, same height at the university, as well as at our court houses, our federal and state buildings that’s [sic] here in Hawaii that does have [sic], and our international airports where we have two flagpoles,” says student participant La’akea Caravalho. “So now we come to an institution of higher learning and to me that’s a visual of that suppression. We’re wanting [sic] just education and truth and that’s what we as students are standing for...”

The group then headed over to Hawaii Community College in Hilo and removed its American flags as well. Security confronted the students and activists, who claimed they were pursuing knowledge and truth.

“You have to search your soul and ask questions upon those you work with and your superiors. Does two plus two equal five? Shall we continue saying it equals five?” the advocate asked security.

The group demanded to speak with the chancellor of the community college and that the school install a second flagpole for the American flag to hang from. The students outlined their reasons for rescinding the flag in a letter written to UH administrators and faculty, claiming the university has committed war crimes such as “pillaging” and “Americanization.”

David Lakota, who claims to have been a U.S. soldier for more than half of his life, says he is a supporter of the U.S. Constitution but believes the U.S. unduly striped Hawaii of its due process and sovereignty through its occupancy, and has therefore committed “high crimes” against the state.

“[B]ecause so many of us, including myself, have forgotten due to various forms of educational policies and media and society, that it has become so materialistic that we have forgotten who we really are,” says Tamashiro. So in trying to remember, and in remembering and in awakening to our true power of freedom, okay? We do this action, these rights come with responsibility. One must stand up to defend these rights with aloha.”

UH is a public institution and is one of ten branches in the University of Hawaii system. It did not respond to Campus Reform’s request for comment in time for publishing.

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