Gabbard rejects the progressive values that got her elected

Our friend’s face was hectic with rage. When she finally unbosomed her anger, it dissolved into tears. We held her as she recounted her humiliation. A University of Hawaii official, serving as the administrator of her international scholars program, had just made a public joke about her family members being terrorists because, well, Muslim means terrorism.

This idea has seeped into our collective consciousness, which is why the Obama administration’s recent semantic choices to uncouple violence from Islam — and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s public condemnation of such choices — was no small moment. Language is a political act that can demonize an entire community, as Rep. Gabbard learned before she quietly retired her use of the loaded term "homosexual extremists."

The Obama administration’s new language is profound because it opens us to a more honest discussion about the underlying causes of terrorism and chips away at the narrative that it is Islam itself, the type of religion, that is anti-democratic. More than 13 years after the 9/11 attacks, it is high time that we stop blaming Islam and that we address the conditions that generate such lethal hopelessness.

If we, as Rep. Gabbard urged on Fox News, are to "learn the lessons of history," we should try to understand modern developments in the Middle East such as intensified Western encroachment into domestic affairs and top-down, "secular" elite reforms that have created marginalized strata and fed allegiance to supra-state identities and counter-elite movements. Certain of these movements have been expressed in an Islamic idiom, which people have misinterpreted and then made Islam into a killing machine.

We should celebrate the Obama administration’s shifted terminology, if not for civil rights, for the sake of paving the way toward genuine security and a more effective foreign policy.

Hawaii represents a grand intersection of diverse people and ideologies. Most of us, directly or generations removed, are uninvited guests to these islands. Tolerance is key to our rich exchange, and a value we must fight for because, without it, we are perpetually on the edge of war with each other.

Stereotyping of entire communities of people can be deadly. It allowed for the killing of Kollin Elderts, who joins a century’s worth of black American youth and far-off foreigners whose bodies stretch from Ferguson to Fallujah.

Hawaii should reject leaders who are willing to betray the values they claim to espouse in order to further their political ambitions. We should hold our leadership accountable.

Rep. Gabbard’s belligerency is part of a string of recent gaffes that demonstrate a pattern of disconnection to the progressive values which she appropriated in order to enter the corridors of power. Her actions come at no surprise to those who questioned her sudden leftward journey three years ago.

Granting a professionally unqualified childhood friend a six-figure position at her political masthead and exploiting Bush-era ideologies that led us into the past two stupendously excessive wars, Rep. Gabbard is merely showing her true colors.

Despite her promise of fresh-faced politics, this has that "more of the same" feel to it all.

Let us work harder to foster a new era of truly progressive leadership that will take risks for the values that bring harmony to our home.

Renee Togafau is a Samoan activist and community organizer for expanding social justice in Hawaii. Khara Jabola-Carolus is a Filipina activist and community organizer to strengthen immigrant and women’s rights in Hawaii.