Hawaii F.A.C.E. Rally - Apr. 7, 2012

Tremendous speakers that we have heard from tonight. I think James hit on some very important points that many of you or everyone here have really displayed in taking that first action step. We discussed a lot about different things that we can do, different things that we should do better, and different ideas that we need to consider as we are talking about how we rebuild our dream and reclaim our dream here. I think one key component that we have all put into practice here tonight that many people here in this building should take heed to, and at every level of government should take heed to, is the practice of listening. We heard that from Keoloha here today how important it is to stop and truly listen. Listening to the people, our brothers and sisters we are sitting next to, listening to the land, the aina, that we are so proud and that we fight to defend, and listening to the heartbeat to give us guidance on how we can go forward, on what is the right way to go forward.

As we talk about sustainability, as we talk about moving our communities forward, that first step is crucial with listening and the second step is taking that listening and putting it into action through truly caring about our neighbors and caring about each other, caring about our community, and thinking about how we can take that caring and serving attitude and translate that into action both in our everyday lives with the food that we put into our bodies, the way that we go about our work, our school, our education, and how we raise our kids. This service attitude that we can all put into practice has the incredible power to change the way that we are doing things here, to set the example for others for others and set the example and set the tone for generations to come.

By saying that, each of us here has an incredible amount of power within each of our hands and within each of our feet to carry this forward. A mentor and hero of mine has a favorite quote, Mahatma Gandhi says that the earth provides enough to support everyone’s need but not everyone’s greed. By putting that into practice in how we live our lives, the policies that we put forward, the messages that we carry to our friends, to our neighbors, and to anyone who will truly listen can be based in that powerful quote by Gandhi that we are here for each other, we are one community, many different faces, many different backgrounds, many different appearances, but it is this diversity, these differences that make us strong, that make this fabric of our community unbreakable if we truly stand together. We can learn from the lessons learned in other places, learn from the other mistakes that may have been made and truly go forward with that strong and united front. Mahalo.