Before I get into the nativist movement now hitting Hawaii, and any parallels with Tibet, allow me to address for a moment the issue of perspective.

At its best moments, this blog and its readers’ postings bring together a richness of perspective that none of us has on our own. That occurred for me this week.

A couple of days ago, I picked out a photo to post with an item about the violence that erupted on the Olympic torch relay in Seoul on Sunday. There were several reasons I chose the photo, which shows a Chinese protester kicking a South Korean protester in the back (see lower on this page). One of the main reasons I picked the photo is so entirely mundane that you probably won’t believe it. But here goes anyway.

Our company pays for service from the Associated Press, the global news cooperative, so that photo was legally available to me. I can’t post pictures from AFP, Reuters or Xinhua say. We don’t pay for them.

The second reason is that it is an emotive, powerful photo. 

But several readers quickly pointed out that the photo appeared to be misleading. Click here to see a photo of the “kicked” guy holding up a bicycle over his head. (We don’t have rights to reprint the photo here.) It appears to be a threatening gesture. Was he threatening to toss the bicycle at Chinese counter-protesters? I don’t know. Some Chinese websites suggest he brought on the violence himself. Again, I don’t know. But the added perspective certainly tempers the inclination to “believe” what one’s eyes might indicate initially was an unprovoked attack.

Thanks, readers, for helping offer as many angles and perspectives as possible.

So you may have heard that native Hawaiian sovereignty advocates are on the move. They briefly chained shut the gates of the Iolani palace in Honolulu Wednesday, demanding restoration of the Hawaiian monarchy.

About 60 people took part in what they called a protest of U.S. occupation of the islands.

Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state in 1959, and it now has more than its share of pina colada-sipping tourists, golfers, mainland surfers, condo owners and U.S. military personnel.

Now, would it be far-fetched to declare that the ornate Iolani palace is Honolulu’s equivalent of Lhasa’s Potala Palace?

Over the years, the Iolani Palace also served as a de facto prison for the islands’ last monarch, Queen Liliuokalani. It fell into neglect, then was restored in the 1970s as a National Historic Landmark. It has a gift shop and is open for tours.

So is Hawaii today what Tibet will be like in 30 years? Overrun with mainlanders who find the nativists amusing and quaint, scoffing at claims of sovereignty?