Don’t use religion as a political wedge

As the political season heads toward the primary election, a recognizable silliness is pervading the commentaries and news coverage.

Nonsense from the right includes Maui News letter writers accusing Democrats of being socialists who want to take your land away and Alaskan tea party Republican Joe Miller’s suggestion that we must do away with Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. Department of Education.

Also, there is the Republicans’ idea that we must privatize Social Security and invest the fund in the stock market. Can you imagine if those radical Republicans had gotten their way with your Social Security pension funds prior to the Great Recession and stock market crash of 2008?

However, the most deplorable words I have heard in a long time were those that came recently from Hawaii Republican State Chairman Jonah Kaauwai, when he, in his "Be Not Deceived" letter sent to Hawaii’s Christian church pastors, said that neither of the Democratic candidates for Hawaii governor were "righteous," and that a vote for either "is succumbing to fear and advancing unrighteousness!"

Kaauwai goes on to say that only the Republican gubernatorial candidate operates with the authority of Jesus, only he is righteous, and, "We need to fearlessly, like David did Goliath, run towards the unrighteous enemy."

Or that their candidate will win "because the Church has been behind him the entire time operating in the POWER and the AUTHORITY of the NAME OF JESUS!"

This idea that Kaauwai’s Republicans have cornered the market on God and righteousness strikes me as absurd, but the problem is Kaauwai completely believes it.

This all came home to me, when during a luncheon discussion about the letter on Tuesday, a Hawaiian pastor expressed her sincere disappointment and embarrass- ment that the Christian church would be used to divide and separate the people of Hawaii — Republicans and Democrats alike — preventing them from resolving their differences civilly and working together to solve the state’s economic woes and resolve the deep issues confronting us.

These issues include energy independence, food security and environmental degradation.

At the same time ,we must provide educational opportunities for our youth so they can imagine themselves staying in Hawaii and having hope for a future that includes opportunities for the new jobs that could result and be encouraged by a faith and hope in our society’s ability to create the educational renaissance needed to accomplish this.

I have raised and am raising children who have lived their entire lives in Hawaii. One daughter went to the mainland to acquire a university education. She returned home and luckily found a job on Maui.

I know what the kids are talking about, and it’s the same thing that made young people come out by the millions all over the nation to vote for our native son, President Barack Obama: It’s hope and change.

The challenge will be to keep those hopes alive by increasing opportunities to live and work in Hawaii. This challenge can be met with re-examining present economic models that are not providing positive change. This will require us working together for solutions rather than increasing the chasm of differences being exploited by the politics of identity, race or religion.

We have a state that on the backs of the keiki sought to balance the budget with furloughs. A state that lost $22 million in Medicare money because it didn’t complete the paperwork and applications properly.

Why not? The defenseless such as the young and old are the easiest to take advantage of, right?

Wrong, this is not how you inspire the young to vote, nor how you inspire the community to have faith in your government or solve problems together.

Hawaii needs leaders who inspire our youth, who bring everyone together to find real solutions, using the wisdom of our kupuna and those intrinsic values of aloha.