Ruthless people

Over a period of many years I have heard more and more angry voices on all sides of the ideological divide. This has lead to a drastic polarization of society which seems split down the middle and thus makes us unable to progress. It seems that we end up asking the wrong questions, and incorrectly identifying the roots of our problems because we get stuck in a kind of "know-it-all-ism". Often we see ruthless or corrupt people, who will do anything to have it their way, taking advantage of this discord by sowing even more disharmony in order to manipulate people for their own ends. Divide and conquer is not just a theoretical slogan.

I often ask myself how we must do things differently in order to make progress for ourselves and future generations.

It seems that one of the real blocks to solving our problems is a kind of psychological gridlock. This happens when people become fixed and obsessed and locked into a "true believer" mentality. Whether right wing or left, kamaaina or malihini, pure Hawaiian or hapa, white, pink, brown yellow red, tan, beige - we all can find reasons or excuses to think "we" are better than "them". The more this happens, the more insults are hurled and the more exaggeration and misrepresentations we hear. People become angry and bitter about those holding opinions opposed to theirs. This seems terribly immature. Most adults and many youngsters must have enough experience under their belts to realize that nobody is ever completely right, yet we often give in to the impulse to insult each other when we disagree. This rapidly leads to dislike, and even hatred and violence. In such an atmosphere problems don't get solved, things just get more chaotic.

Aloha - one word which means friendship, charity, hospitality, generosity, tolerance, love and compassion - is the gift of the Hawaiian culture to the world. These attributes embody all of the best qualities and behaviors of human beings. It is definitely in all of our interest to live under the shelter of this one wonderful word, not simply because it is a "feel good" kind of thing but because it is the foundation for good human relations which allow us to work together and make the world and our community a better place. I hope that our Big Island community will remember the gift embodied in Aloha and make a vow to give it the central place that it so deserves as we work for a better tomorrow.

As we do so I hope that all thinking people will keep their eyes open for corrupt and ruthless individuals within our community and take actions which will expose and disable them from harming us all. In the end we really all have this same adversary. The one valid fight that must be joined is good-will versus ruthlessness. If we can win this one, we can look forward to a better tomorrow. If we cannot overcome the small minority in the community who can only think about their own interests, then we will not see that better tomorrow that we all crave.

Aloha,

Jonathan Cole,