Having read David Rosen's commentary in your May 27 issue regarding the Kamehameha Schools admissions policy, I am incensed and feel compelled to respond.

Rosen, along with others of the same mindset, refuse to admit that it is the Hawaiian people who have been discriminated against since the arrival of Capt. James Cook in 1778; and this discrimination has continued for more than 200 years.

With colonization of the Western world, all indigenous people of those lands have suffered cultural, economic and population genocide. Indigenous people of larger continents were "relocated" to make way for the new arrivals; Native Hawaiians, however, had nowhere to go.

With the arrival of colonizers, our language was suppressed, our cultural practices went underground and our population was nearly obliterated by foreign diseases. When Captain Cook arrived on our shores, our population numbered approximately 1 million Hawaiians, and when Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop died in 1884, our Hawaiian population had diminished to only 50,000.

Westerners, upon their arrival, occupied and confiscated lands that once provided the Hawaiians with strong, healthy cultural and economic communities. Immediately thereafter, as they influenced the ali'i, the Native Hawaiian economic structure, religion, language and population were slowly being dismantled and destroyed.

The ali'i, recognizing the fate of their people, began to organize and will legacies for the Native Hawaiians in an effort to provide for and, hopefully, save them. Today we see the fruits of their work for their people: Queen Emma founded The Queen's Hospital, Queen Kapi'olani left her legacy for Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children, King Lunalilo willed his land for the elderly at Lunalilo Home, Queen Lili'uokalani created Lili'uokalani Trust for the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center that serves orphaned and indigent Hawaiian children; and, finally, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop left her legacy of the Kamehameha Schools for the education of Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian children.

History tells of the genocide of the Hawaiian people beginning with the arrival of Captain Cook; today, there are some whose ancestors are not the indigenous people of this land and who continue the battle to take what belongs to the Hawaiian people. As they continue to try to chip away at what Hawaiians have left, they cry "race" so that they may justify their actions. They cry "race" as they try to take away Hawaiian programs so as to divide these ali'i trusts amongst "all the people of Hawai'i."

Rosen and others just like him, along with their army of lawyers, continue to play the race card and encourage others "wronged" by the recipients of programs left for them — the Hawaiian people — to join them in their cause. Rosen and those just like him continue to rewrite history so as to justify their actions. They speak about "sharing the culture" and wonder out loud about the "aloha spirit." What they fail to acknowledge is that the culture they want so badly to "share" is the culture of the indigenous people of this land and they are merely spectators, for they will never really understand the culture like the Native Hawaiians understand it. What they fail to acknowledge is that the "aloha spirit" is the spirit of the Hawaiian people. Without Hawaiians, there would not be aloha spirit.

Rosen and his colleagues, with their cry to "share the culture and traditions," may sound nice and inclusive; but in truth, they really want to repeat historical events. Their continued onslaught on the ali'i trusts and the legacy left by our Hawaiian monarchy only proves that they are not satisfied to just "share," they want to "take." Though their legal battles will continue, they will never destroy the spirit of our Hawaiian people, for we will never surrender to them or their sense of "justice."

Oswald K. Stender is a trustee for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and a former Bishop Estate trustee. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.