Public university to spend $33,000 to ensure U.S. flag does not fly above state flag

by Jennifer Kabany, The Fix, July 17, 2015

University of Hawaii at Hilo campus officials will spend $33,000 to install two new flag poles after protestors complained they did not like how the American flag was flown above the Hawaiian state flag on the old pole – and even took down the U.S. flag in protest.

Administrators agreed to install the two poles so both flags can fly at the same height, Hawaii News Now reports.

“When UH systems researched into it we found that a lot of the new state buildings coming out, including the state capital, that was basically the new standard operating procedure, that the flag poles were of equal height,” campus spokesman Dan Meisenzahl told the news outlet. “And so it just made sense for us.”

For the last eight months the flagpole at the Hilo campus has reportedly stood bare as administrators grappled with the controversy in which so-called “Hawaii sovereignty activists” took down the American flag.

“On Dec. 1, Hawaiian sovereignty activists lowered the American flag on the single pole at the front entrance to the UH-Hilo campus and hoisted the Hawaii state flag that previously flew beneath. They folded the U.S. flag and delivered it to administrators, along with demands that the Hawaii flag be shown preference when the flags are raised,” the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports. “The flagpole now will be replaced by two new flagpoles featuring lockable, internal halyard systems, which will prevent unauthorized people from lowering and raising flags.”

” … Joseph Kaolulo, one of the Hawaiian students involved in the effort to take down the U.S. flag in December, said Tuesday he viewed the decision by UH-Hilo to place the flags on equal footing as an admission of guilt about what he called the United States’ ‘illegal occupation’ of Hawaii.”

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University Of Hawaii Caves To Secessionists

by Blake Neff, Daily Caller, 07/17/2015

The University of Hawaii at Hilo (UH-Hilo) has given into Hawaii secessionists, spending tens of thousands of dollars to construct flagpoles that will ensure the U.S. flag doesn’t fly above the Hawaiian one.

Last December, a group of Hawaii sovereignty activists pulled down the American flag from its flagpole at the main entrance to UH-Hilo, and then hoisted up the Hawaiian flag by itself, in order to protest the “illegal occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the United States.” They then delivered the U.S. flag to administrators, demanding that henceforth the Hawaiian flag should be given precedence on flagpoles.

Since then, according to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, the flagpole has been kept bare due to the controversy.

U.S. flag etiquette holds that, within the United States, the U.S. flag must always be given precedence over those of states, cities, or organizations.

But now, UH officials have given into the demands of activists, and they will be spending $33,000 to install two new flagpoles of the same height to make sure the Hawaiian flag may be regarded as equal. The flagpoles will also have an internal halyard system that can be locked, in order to prevent activists from fiddling with the flags in the future.

The new capitulation is similar to one that has occurred at other state buildings in Hawaii, the school said. The new flagpoles are expected to be installed by mid-August.

One Hawaii independence activist celebrated the school’s decision as an admission that Hawaii is illegally occupied.

“By putting two separate poles up, they (UH-Hilo) have recognized us as a nation not conquered,” Joseph Kaululo told the Tribune-Herald. “There is no flag flying right now at UHH and Hawaii Community College. So, the only flag now flying is the one around our ahu (stone altar). We are the only ones in power right now.”

Kaululo further accused UH of “brainwashing” its students by working to support America’s illegal occupation of Hawaii. He said the flag offensive is only the beginning.

“The flag is just the beginning,” Kaolulo said. “Without a flag, you have no jurisdiction.”

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Other News from UH Hilo: Lawsuit: Students Ordered to Stop Handing Out US Constitution at UH Hilo