Spring 1978

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Fall 1978

Hawaii's State Constitution: What Should it Contain? League's Con Con Position Tuition Tax Credit (Caroline Ingersoll) People Are the Source of the Law Council Wrap-Up National LWV Visitors National Winner

The People Are the Source of the Law A project of the League of Women Voters of Hawaii Education Fund. Inc The four day workshop (June 13-16) for the elected Con Con Delegates at McKinley High School was a great success. It was the first time the delegates had the opportunity to get together as a body before the convention. The speakers, both local residents and mainland guests, were well received, and the small group discussions were lively and stimulating. Though the newspapers failed to give coverage to the event, League members should he proud to have had a part in bringing to Hawaii such persons as James McGregor Burns, historian from Williams College; William Cassella, Jr., of the National Municipal League; Ralph Ketcham, Political Scientist from Syracuse University; Carol Toussaint, former LWVUS Vice President and Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Local Affairs and Development; John Shannon, of the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations; and Robert Bellah, sociologist from Berkeley. These "Mainland Resource Persons", as we dubbed them, were extremely adept at fulfilling the various roles they were asked to play. They addressed the philosophical questions of society's values as related to constitution making and also the practical questions of how to go about revising a constitution and how to handle the inevitable political problems which arise. They also participated fully with the approximately 45 local resource persons in the small group discussion periods. With the Convention underway, the Ka Po's VISTA volunteers are hard at work observing the proceedings, so that they can train members of the community groups with whom they have been working to lobby on the issues which concern them. Those issues were reported in the brochure you received, "Con Con Issues Input Process, Community Meeting Results." Professor Burns, in his evaluation of the Workshop said that the small group discussions were, "especially impressive. The delegates were articulate, well-informed, and yet curious and willing to learn. There was extensive give and take among the delegates as well as between the delegates and the 'resource' people." Burns intends to include in his next textbook on American government, "a little case study on constitution-making and constitution-amending in Hawaii, since your state has taken such a lead in this matter." He has asked the League to keep him informed on the progress of the convention.

Spring 1978

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Fall 1978