District 21 Newsletter (Waikiki-Kapahulu)

There is No Good Hate and Bigotry

Dear Mr. Hu,

I am an editorial writer for The Advertiser, doing research in preparation for district endorsements in House races.

I have read your blog and filing with the elections office, but would appreciate your personal thoughts on your priorities for the district specifically (any development or infrastructure concerns?), as well as on statewide issues, such as prison overcrowding and education needs.

Please feel free to comment in a reply to this message, or by phone: 525-8027.

Sincerely,Vicki Viotti
The Honolulu Advertiser

The demographics of the Waikiki-Kapahulu District 21 is that it probably the oldest population in the state -- in which most of its residents are retired -- and so there is a dearth of children. In this context, rather than being less need for schools, it needs to be reoriented to the even greater need of re-educating and re-conditioning this aging population to re-learn everything they need to know to remain vitally healthy and vibrant in the reality of today's greatly increased life spans -- as opposed to the traditional aging paradigm.

We already see this dichotomy and divergence in many of the candidates running for elective office -- of which age is an underlying issue. But the real issue is not age per se, but whether these people have aged in the traditional pattern or have embraced the new possibilities of life in today's world -- mainly by being open to them, willing to learn about them, and having minimal resistance to embracing that wonderful new life that never was possible before.

The world has changed so greatly that education for the young is no longer an overriding concern -- as it had been when an educated person was relatively rare. With nearly universal education, most people can learn just by being around knowledgeable people willing to share information -- which is most people. The exceptions are the professional educators -- who of course, want to protect their monopoly and cash cow. But in maintaining this power and exclusive jurisdiction over these functions and activities -- they disempower everybody else from this participation, which should be everybody's basic right -- the right to learn, whenever, wherever, whatever they want to learn -- and not have that dictated to them by the "education professionals."

As such, the education professional becomes the greatest hindrance to a much greater societal progress and evolution -- which is a life of learning, constantly adapting with the latest state-of-the-art advances which are likely to be discovered in the discussion of these issues -- freshly, and not just in the traditional parameters -- which are inevitably about more money and job security for teachers (the professionals). Once that money is freed up, there is money to address our present greatest problems of aging, dysfunction, ignorance of essential but untaught skills -- rather than continuing to fund learning for learning's sake -- just because it was always done that way in the past.

Those kinds of traditions we need to break free from -- to embrace a life without those problems. The old conditioning, the old education, the old social hierarchies, the old institutions, habits, customs are the problems of today because the response is to another time and age -- in which most people stopped learning as soon as they could, after leaving school -- because they were taught that learning was difficult, time-consuming, costly, and mostly about learning things that had little to do with their daily lives.

And that is the greatest problem of education -- that students (children largely), are forced to learn what they don't regard as vital to their lives. I know that was always my objection to much I was taught: "What was the relevance?" But in things that are vital to know, everybody is an attentive and interested student.

One of the best arguments for this difference is the persons running for our highest office: Linda Lingle and Malama Solomon are basically the same age, yet one looks like the mother of the other. Yet the one with the advanced degree in education is not a good testimony of that kind of education. That is the clearest example of the new and the old -- which is not fundamentally about age but of attitude and perceptions of life in the possibilities of these times. The new is the life I want to choose for our society -- and not the old, poorly, inadequate challenge to life in these times.

-- Mike Hu

A Message from Bob Kessler, Chair of District 23

Aloha all - You may have noticed that I've been missing in action for a few weeks. I apologize. My wife has been ill and I've been taking care of her. But I've been monitoring the campaigns and I believe this is one of the most exciting election seasons I've ever seen. Debates, ads, lots of interesting endorsements, lots of mailers, and LOTS OF OPPORTUNITIES! Ed Case opened the door for some real Republican progress. Plus we have some truly impressive Republican candidates out there who need our support. So I suggest that instead of having our normal monthly meeting we use that time to get out there and help our Republican candidates! Wave signs, phone all of your friends and neighbors, even knock on doors to make sure that OUR candidates enjoy strong support and that OUR voters get out there and vote. And don't forget they need our financial support, so be as generous as you can.

Start with our very own Representative Anne Stevens. I've attached her sign waving schedule. It helps if you wear a Stevens or a GOP t-shirt, but that's not a requirement. The important measure is having a crowd out there showing strong support at her sign waving events. If Anne doesn't have enough signs for everyone who shows up, show up anyway and stand next to a sign waver and wave to the passers by.

Move on the Mike Hu, running to represent HD 21. Mike may be the clearest thinker in any of the races. Read his ideas and platform at hawaiirepublican.blogspot.com (repmikehu.blogspot.com). Get your friends and neighbors to read Mike's blog and draw the comparisons between his ideas and the go-along-to-get-along record of the incumbent, Scott Nishimoto. No contest intellectually. Then get'em to get out and vote for Mike.

I've also attached a couple of emails that offer informed recommendations on the city charter and constitutional amendments. Input from Sam Slom and Charles Djou is always good enough for me.

Remember that absentee voting starts tomorrow, October 24.

Remember when voting for the city charter and constitutional amendments that a blank vote counts as a no vote. (Only in Hawaii!!) And remember that every Republican vote not cast is a vote for continued Democrat insanity.

Get out those voters!

Bob K

Much of the drama of elections exist at no other times except the few fleeting moments they hope will quickly be erased from the memories of all. That was especially true in the old mainstream (mass) media era in which yesterday’s news was likely to be residing in the landfills rather than the virtual memories of today’s new information and communication technologies.

That shift made it possible to see the reality behind the fabrications -- causing the eventual collapse of such control hierarchies. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen -- at first by those who can trust their own judgment about what is happening. So beyond the obvious, evident and even theatrical, what is important to do is just talk sense with your neighbor, friend or relative, rather than acting as a cog in the chain of misinformation the powers who wish to remain so would like us to pass on, in pushing our well-conditioned buttons.

There is no such thing as good hate and prejudice just because it is propagated by the self-designated right authorities calling themselves “liberals“ or some other noble cause. Hate and bigotry are simply that -- and there is no rationalizing their motivations that transmutes them into any good -- for it is a poison that corrupts any society, organization and institution fatally.

So as we view the political advertisements, we’re wise to look beyond the manipulations and deceptions -- to the mentality behind it all, and compare it to the positive messages being produced by the Lingle-Aiona campaign -- and find a way to link ourselves to that powerful engine of progress and good feeling. That’s how things are so different from four years ago. There is this confidence that things can be done right.

Mike Hu
3123 Esther Street
Honolulu, HI 96815
(808) 561-3645
Email: humikhu@aol.com
http://www.freerepublic.com/~mikehu/