Life Ahead
I will be participating in the American Association of Retired People’s (AARP) candidates forum on Wednesday, October 4, 2006, noon to 1:30 pm, in the Waikiki Ballroom, at the Hale Koa Hotel (next to the Hilton), and then at the Ala Wai, Kapahulu, Diamond Head, St. Louis Heights Neighborhood Board meeting candidates forum at the Ala Wai Golf course clubhouse ballroom on the following Thursday, October 12, starting at 7 pm. Both events are open to the public.
Then beginning October 19, Channel 49 (Olelo) will begin broadcasting the Candidates in Focus 5-minute spots for the coming elections, for which you can check the 5-day advance schedule at http://www.olelo.org/programming/, if you do the computer thing. Otherwise, you can call the station, channel surf, however one gets their information these days -- which often times is pure luck and chance. So here’s hoping you get lucky.
I hope I’ve already met more than a few of you on my biking/walking forays through the various neighborhoods throughout our district, personally handing out my flyers and talking with you -- for as long as you want to. That’s my inimicable style -- which is why “some people” don’t like to show up at the same forums I do. A few people have noted that I’m the best writer and speaker they’ve ever personally encountered -- including a few teachers.
That’s what makes me very effective in virtually any forum -- and after realizing that, many forums try to suppress or discourage my future participation -- even becoming obsessed with doing so. So I usually go and talk to people who want me to talk to them -- in an impromptu “talk story” -- at their front door, out in their yard, walking through the neighborhood for their daily exercise, etc.
People who are most impressed with meeting me are those traditionally not involved -- feeling that it’s no use trying to talk to the politicians and government bureaucrats. I shared those feelings myself until I met Linda Lingle -- even before she was governor. She’s an authentic person -- and not just the slick image the Democrats like to claim she is because she seems “too good to be true.” She’s by far, the most important vote you will make this election -- and then if you vote for me, there’ll be at least two extremely effective people representing you at the Capitol -- and as I’ve said to many, if I’m elected as your representative, you should come and visit me as often as you want.
I don’t just want to be talking to lobbyists -- and they’ve already learned, they don’t want to be talking to me -- because I’m not an easy mark. It’s never been “business as usual” with me. I’m not the defender of the status quo guy. I think we need changes -- or there can be no improvement but only more of the same problems, costing everyone more. It doesn’t have to be that way -- if we all think creatively. I think that’s particularly important in leadership -- rather than just being a conformist, never rocking the boat, never challenging authority and the status quo.
Change doesn’t have to be worse -- like the defenders of the status quo like to panic us every time an election draws near. It’s very important not only selecting good leaders but feeling as though each is a leader in the community too. That is also my style.
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Bonus appearance: Understanding Conditioning, my landmark video on exercise and conditioning, will be rebroadcast on Wednesday, October 4 at 5:30 am on Channel 52 -- for you early risers attending the candidates forum later in the day -- as well as those wondering how they‘re going to make it through the day!
The perfect way to start one’s day.
posted by Mike Hu @ 9:42 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
More fun.
The Kaimuki Neighborhood Board has invited me to participate in their candidates forum on October 18, 2006, 7 pm, at Liliuokalani Elementary School.
The most important requirement for being a "representative" is being able to relate to the constituency. It doesn't matter how many years they'll be able to keep the seat warm until somebody at the top dies and everybody can move up.
Correct that: Everybody can try to move up.
What's always amazed me is how those at the bottom, with vitually no chance of getting to the top, will be the staunchest defenders of the existing heirarchy -- like the many people at the bottom in pyramid schemes so certain they will shortly be at the top.
That keeps the Machine and injustices going -- until they wake up and leave. At least Ed Case did the best he could to bring about a climate of change and reform; hopefully, there are brave souls remaining in the Democratic ranks.
One of the great problems of every time and place is the struggle between the old and the new -- the status quo and the forces of change, reform, improvement -- and knowing this, is it possible for individuals and societies to incorporate change as a way of life, the healthy adaptation to life, which is change.
When people age badly, ungraciously, it is invariably because they do not change and adapt to life -- but demand that life henceforth adapt to them, and so they grow more bitter and resentful, that life will not heed their wishes.
Meanwhile, those who learn to adapt, to change, to respond from moment to moment, remain vibrant and healthy because they are life itself -- rather than a stagnant pool of existence apart from the rivers of life. These are ancient metaphors that have always argued for the wisdom of engaging life -- and being one with all and everything.
That is the new education model that needs to supplant traditional education -- as merely the transmission of old knowledge, memories, tradition -- in favor of living intelligence, not only for the young people, but especially for the old people who could benefit the most from a new mind. But people are now so traumatized by their youthful education experiences, that they swear off all learning once they are out of school -- when their learning should properly just be beginning.
Anybody who knows only what they learned in school, is really a fool -- and has no right to be teaching anybody else anything. So a good teacher is one who has learned to learn on his own -- and communicates that to his students, and not just these useless people who tell others what others have told them -- without ever challenging authority, the status quo, “knowledge” and tradition -- which is unquestioningly doing things simply because they’ve always been done that way before.
The rightful calling of a “leader” is to challenge all that -- and then he is worthy of that name, and not a hypocrite with no perspective and insight into their own behavior.
It reminds me of all these people abusing everybody else, and thinking it is quite all right -- because they call themselves “liberals.”
Spotlight on other worthy candidates: Paul E. Smith
Most of you know that on Monday evening I participated in a debate with Sen. Chun Oakland at the studio of Olelo.
The debate is an hour long and certainly offers a contrasting view of the candidates. This was my first debate and you will probably see me as a bit aggressive on some of the issues since I had documents with me while she had only one sheet of paper. I used the old Ross Perot technique of waving a piece of paper around to emphasize the fund raids and some of the legislation she had introduced. My guess is that the "choking up" by the Senator at the close was more a reversion to her standard operating procedure than it was because of my words or papers.
Regardless of the debate analysis she knows that this is a race (her first in many years) and this can only be good for the voters in District 13.
Try to watch the debate at the time listed below and share these broadcast times with friends and neighbors. About the same date Olelo will also be releasing the 5 minute candidate profiles that will play repeatedly up until the election. Yes, I recorded my 5 minute profile on Tuesday.
Senate District 13
10/23 6:30 pm
10/24 6:30am, 12pm
Aloha,
Paul E. Smith
Paul E. Smith
Candidate for State Senate
District 13 (Nuuanu, Pacific Heights, Pauoa, Alewa Heights, Liliha, Sand Island)
email: smith2senate13@aol.com
web page: http://www.electsmith2hawaiisenate13.com/
phone: 808-524-2436
cell: 808-220-0992
fax: 808-523-9332
Everyone in District 13 who is registered to vote should have received the invite for our "Get Acquainted" party and fund raiser at Bishop Museum on Friday October 13 5-8 p.m.
We really need to have an excellent showing for this event so I am asking that each supporter call and invite three friends (in or out of the district) and then ask those three to call three more friends, etc. This pass along invite will get the word out and help insure that a good number of voters will have a chance to learn about the issues and our answers to those issues. A copy of the invite is attached.
The supporter who suggested this technique had the following experience:
I have contacted my three people. Two were democrats. Both Demos were resistant at first. They both had met Paul at one of our functions. Once I brought up the bill (SB0009) introduced by Oakland to allow convicted felons to hold public office things changed. They then wanted to know all about the event and Paul. All three agreed to pass it on to three more and so on.
Helping voters understand the issues is often difficult and creates discussions that most of us want to avoid. Nevertheless, since the public record of Sen. Chun Oakland is very thin (try to Google her name) mentioning one or two bills is useful to help voters decide that they really need to look a bit deeper. Our Get Acquainted event is just such an opportunity and we want voters to be there.
Please call three friends and invite them to the Bishop Museum on Friday the 13th. for District 13!
Closer to Home: Albert Furuto
At the AARP candidates forum, Albert invited me to share his booth at the Moilili Festival being held in the old Stadium Park this weekend -- the heart of District 22, which extends ewa to Keaumoku Street (Walmart, Sam's Club) all the way back to neighboring Kaimuki High School.
Albert has a very diverse background in a lot of different fields of interest, and especially likes the performing arts and works frequently in the movie industry. Probably for that reason, his incumbent opponent avoids joint appearances because Al seems so much more dynamic and lively than our typical jargon-spewing bureaucratic politicians.
The strategy for many incumbents this year seems to be just not to show up -- hoping the public will just do as they've always done before. We'll see about that.
I hope it eventually translates to votes but whenever I go out, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, with people advising me that people just have to meet me and talk to me -- and they’ll vote for me.
So that is the limit -- more than money, or an army of volunteers to do what people have traditionally done, including sign-waving and placement -- thinking by some magic, that’s what gets them elected. That’s fairly typical of the ritualized behavior of doing things as they’ve always been done before -- without any real understanding of sense and purpose. The hope is that one just does what one is conditioned to do -- as a knee-jerk reflex, that is their indoctrination and “education.”.
I’m asking people not to do that, but quietly and thoughtfully sit down and review the literature both from me and my incumbent opponent and decide which of us will provide the leadership of Hawaii into the 21st century, and who will be doing the same old things fifty years from now.
Oh yeah, the most exciting and dynamic presence on the political scene will be on tap tonight -- in the appearnace of Linda Lingle, governor.
The most impressive quality about her is that as good as she already is, and think she can't get any better, she continues to
improve. Maybe someday she won't -- but that remains to be seen.
Somebody said they were surprised that I was at Kaimuki H.S. the same time Randall Iwase (also Mazie Hirono) was, becaause he looks much older than I do. At Kaimuki H.S., Randall Iwase already was the oldest looking guy.
Actually, I don’t think I look that much younger than most people -- as much as I act much younger than most people. Even the young people are impressed that I’m actually “younger” than they are -- because I see things with fresh eyes and perspectives, while many already think of themselves as old at 24.
It’s largely due to their conditioning -- to think as old people, because that’s what society calls growing up and being an adult -- somebody who never questions anymore but knows how to go along with the inertia of the status quo to resist change and progress. All societies, as well as every individual, has to change, adapt and create life anew or there is only deterioration and finally death.
Just like meaningful, dynamic and purposeful lives, societies have to recreate and renew themselves -- to retain their vitality and vibrancy. One notes the divergence increasingly -- as the highly visible baby boom generation hits 50. Most are still aging in the traditional pattern -- but a few are defying that pattern and redefining and re-creating in the ways not possible before -- because “more” life is meaningless unless there is a “better” life that is overlooked.
One does not wish to live a longer time in deterioration and hopelessness. Then life becomes meaningless, bitter, full of resentment and longing for one’s youth -- rather than living at the greatest possibility of life at any age. In the 21st century, the whole concept of “age” begins to disappear -- and the relevant information is how fully one embraces the fullest possibility of actualizing and optimizing life in the present moment.
Some are increasingly doing it already. The sadness and problems of society are those who aren’t -- and are living in a very different reality, not limited by the traditional intangibles and material things -- but is essentially about attitudes, perspectives, perceptions about life and society. Of course, many of the first adaptors will be those better off -- with the leisure and circumstance to think deeply about these things and discriminate “better” from merely “more of the same.” More of the same, never will be the solution to our problems.
The basic response to problems is either to eliminate it, as healthy and thoughtful people do -- and the other is to exploit the problem so it continues to become an even greater problem. That is the tell-tale sign that the solution previously chosen, is the wrong one -- requiring infinitely more highly-paid experts and professionals, while the results become futile to assess.
I don’t think we need more 9/11s to create more jobs and more work.
I’m fine with there being no further attacks in the US since then. Wishful thinking and demagogueing never got it done before -- and never will.
Those are not peace activists -- who let their fellow citizens be slaughtered hoping they will not be next. That was the underlying story of the last great war -- in which hundreds of millions died because many people in responsible positions merely hoped it would not. You can’t have those people in leadership positions -- when it really matters.
As a legendary martial arts master said,
"When the enemy is killing you, you can not be in denial."
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