Neil Abercrombie
Neil Abercrombie
Neil Abercrombieis an American politician who served as the seventh Governor of Hawaii from 2010 to 2014. He is a member of the Democratic Party...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth26 June 1938
CityBuffalo, NY
CountryUnited States of America
achieved belonged kingdom land republic state
Land in Hawaii is money. What I'm talking about here is ceded land - land that belonged to the kingdom and was ceded to the republic and then to the state when we achieved statehood.
assigned committees elected house state water
When I was first elected to the state House of Representatives in 1974, one of the committees I was assigned to was Land, Water and Hawaiian Homes.
survival talking
We are talking about the survival of this country.
campaign democracy formed foundation grassroots internet national reaching took
He formed Democracy for America, which took what was the foundation -- the Internet foundation -- and the enthusiasm, reaching out to the grassroots for his campaign and made it a national campaign,
congress cutting funding funds immediate means needs obligation programs road side troops weigh work
With troops in combat, the Congress has a non-negotiable obligation to weigh in heavily on the side of immediate and near-term needs of the military, particularly the Army. In some cases, this means cutting funds from pie-in-the-sky programs that may work out down the road and funding things that we know work today.
believe
We believe there is not going to be any undermining of the environment.
chairman mechanism saying serving
I remember saying to the chairman after serving the first year, 'Why are we doing this? Why don't the Hawaiians have control?' 'Well, we have no mechanism to do it,' I was told.
affected felt fit opportunity overthrown profoundly
There was a queen that was overthrown here. So I was affected by all of that and felt profoundly grateful for the opportunity to live in Hawaii, and I set out at once to try to fit in.
gdp land ownership
Western concepts of ownership and privatization came in and clashed with that. So land began to be exchanged.
land airports states
A good portion of the airport is on ceded lands, and lease money was paid for that. So the state's collecting lease money because all of a sudden "worthless" land now has an airport on it.
years talking serious
You're talking serious money already in the bank, and millions of dollars coming in every year.
land stuff discrimination
So as soon as the land was worth something and there was money in the bank, all of a sudden everybody got interested in non-discrimination, in who's really going to administer this stuff.
common interest clash
So there's always been this clash between what is the public good - that which belongs to all of us in common - and what can be exploited for a private interest.
land ideas common
Land began to be seen as something to be owned privately and exploited for private interests, and never was entirely reconciled with the old ideas that land should be utilized in common for the good of all.