Aloha spirit is Hawaii’s unique contribution to the world

Hardly a day goes by without some headline in the news about another human-to-human atrocity.

Differences in race, culture and religion seem to create opportunities for bloodshed, mayhem and oppression.

How can one find reason for optimism and faith amidst such horror?

Here in Hawaii, we seem to find a way. Perhaps not an answer, as we struggle with our own challenges, but at least a path to a more tolerant and civil society.

For nearly two centuries, people from distant shores have joined with the host culture to forge a community where, as our governor likes to say, our differences define us, not divide us.

In our community, there is no majority race. While diversity elsewhere is often portrayed as majority/minority, our form of cultural pluralism revels in its breadth; the more, the better. Here, our food, our language and our traditions blend into chop suey.

That is the genesis of the Pillars of Peace Program: to bring global peace leaders to Hawaii, to learn of our unique cultural context in order to see Hawaii as a beacon of what can be, and to share their wisdom so that we may be reminded about the fragility of what we have and what we may take for granted.

We are fortunate to have His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the inaugural speaker to launch the Pillars of Peace program. Nobel peace laureate, congressional gold medal and Templeton Prize recipient, the Dalai Lama epitomizes the essence of peace and wisdom in modern times.

At the invitation of Pierre and Pam Omidyar, the hosts of his visit, he is spending an unusual length of time in Hawaii to learn about our history and culture and to interact with students and community leaders.

But the greatest take-away message of his visit is this: To create a society where peace is built on a foundation of aloha takes action. We cannot pretend that the aloha spirit will endure without a conscious effort to preserve it and our host culture, much as we undertake an effort to preserve our unique physical environment. As islanders, we are all inextricably linked and dependent on each other’s actions, so much so that it is impossible to separate the notion of environmental or economic sustainability from the notion of personal and communal interdependence.

We can all be pillars of peace. We can promote a just and equitable society that meets its most intractable challenges head-on, with mutual respect for differences and the grace to find common ground.

The Hokule‘a becomes a voyaging metaphor for all of Hawaii, not just Native Hawaiians; the students and teachers of Kailua High School find a way to embed civility and tolerance into their curriculum every day; a group of community leaders decide to promote personal responsibility by living aloha.

We can all be pillars of peace. We must devote ourselves to it because it is the key to unlocking a bright future for Hawaii. Young men and women of unlimited potential return to Hawaii or discover our community because of our tolerance and diversity. People who can help forge the new Hawaii will live here because of how we treat one another, thanks to the foundation of aloha.

It is our unique contribution to the world and our most precious resource of all.