Counting Residents Begs the Question: Who's Local?
06/23/2011
UPDATED 6/23/11 6:30 p.m. The Hawaii Legislature is supposed to represent all of Hawaii's people, but not everybody who lives in the islands gets a seat at the table.
Do active-duty military stationed here count? What about their families? University students who come from elsewhere? Sentenced felons? The answer, at least for now, is no. That could soon change.
The once-per-decade task of defining "resident" for the purposes of drawing political districts offers a glimpse into Hawaii's deep-seated identity issues.
If many conversations start with "What high school did you go to?" and a common refrain in testimony at public meetings is how many generations someone can trace back in Hawaii, then how much standing do the islands' newest inhabitants have?
