RICE AND TWIGG-SMITH NOT AMERICAN CITIZENS

The Polynesian
October 2000

At first glance, the layman would assume that with all the publicity throughout the islands surroundings Thurston Twigg-Smith, Harold "Freddy" Rice, Ken Conklin and Bill Burgess are all proud Americans, who diligently forge ahead within the United States legal system to make things right according to the U.S. Constitutional principles of freedom, liberty and equality. These are honorable and proud traits that every American should stand for, but save one exception. The use of the American legal system must remain on American soil. With the heightened awareness of "occupation" and not "annexation" there actions are definitely misplaced.

Historical records reveal that of the four, two are not American citizens, but rather Hawaiian subjects. Harold "Freddy" Rice is a direct descendent of William Harrison Rice who was naturalized as a Hawaiian subject on July 16, 1849 (Hawai'i Archives). William Harrison Rice was formerly an American citizen from the State of New York. And Thurston Twigg-Smith is a direct descendent of Asa Thurston who was naturalized on May 30, 1849 (Hawai'i Archives). He too was formerly an American citizen, but came from the State of Massachusetts. As for Mr. Burgess and Mr. Conklin, there are no records of any of their predecessors being Hawaiian subjects. They are resident Aliens. As Hawaiian subjects, Mr. Twigg-Smith and Mr. Rice are part of the Hawaiian national population estimated at 164,225, while the other two are a part of the Alien population of 944,004. But more importantly, the actions of all four will be measured by the laws of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the international laws of occupation. United States law notwithstanding.

In the recent U.S. Supreme Court Case Rice vs. Cayetano, Mr. Rice asserted that the voting restrictions of "natives only" for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a State of Hawai'i government agency, violated his American constitutional voting rights. On final appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Mr. Rice.

Throughout the proceedings, though, no one questioned Mr. Rice's nationality. If they did, it would have been discovered that he was never an American citizen to begin with, and his voting rights are protected by Hawaiian Kingdom law, not American law. Without American citizenship, Mr. Rice cannot claim protection under a foreign constitution. Rice vs. Cayetano is a moot case.

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