Celebrate Diversity
I am able to choose to live anywhere in the world and I choose Hawai’i. I love living on Kaua’i. Every time I return home to Kaua’i after travelling off-island, a feeling of “home” rushes over me the moment I start walking through the Lihu’e airport. Hawai’i “is” home for me with that feeling of “home” grounded in the diversity and aloha spirit of the people of Hawai’i. Hawai’i is a model community of diversity with its inclusion of many deep and rich cultures living in harmony with respect for each other. The quality of life in Hawai’i thrives with the seemingly endless cross-cultural experiences in our daily lives.
“If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.” -John F. Kennedy
One area where Hawai’i lacks diversity is in our state and local governments. We are basically a one-party state. We miss out on the benefits and innovations that would be realized through broader discussions and debates consisting of more diverse viewpoints.
“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” -John F. Kennedy
An area where our federal government lacks diversity is in the skill set composition in the Membership of the 116th Congress. Check out the link for yourself to see what you think. There is a fairly good representation in Congress of various backgrounds and educations including business owners, educators, law enforcement, current and ex-military, medical professionals, farmers, etc. But two things stood out to me in the profile of the current Congress. The first is that there are 47 senators and 145 house members that have law degrees. The second thing I noticed is that there are only 2 scientists and 11 engineers in Congress. Congress is composed of an abundance of skill sets that are based on optimizing and maximizing inside-the-box thinking. On the flip-side, Congress has few members with the skill sets that are based on outside-the-box thinking, those skill sets most likely to drive innovation and change in our government. Keep that in mind when voting on election day and elect the innovators and reformers into our government to best serve the people of Hawai’i and our country.
“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” -Ronald Reagan
To better serve the people of Hawai’i, we recommend promoting a more cooperative relationship between federal government and our state-and-local government. In order to foster this relationship, we propose 6 to 10 routinely scheduled meetings each year where our federal government senators and representatives sit down with the state and local government representation to discuss the near-term and long-term vision and needs of Hawai’i. Achieving our vision and goals for the people of Hawai’i requires proper planning, preparation, and persistence.