Presence at home

The Molokai Times
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

By J. Kalani English

Many island families know the bittersweet moment when a loved one goes away, whether for school, or other opportunities, or any of the other various reasons that call for us to move away. Yet anyone who has made that trip away knows that Hawaii never really leaves us. We carry it in the folds of our skin and the way we view the world. It sits comfortably among our values and colors our choices.

Because of that continuing sense of Hawaii as our real home, returning has a particular feel. It is the reassuring familiarity among the inevitable changes, the tastes and smells that call us instantly back to the way it has always been, the warm soft air that embraces us like a loved one.

So think now of what it must be like for someone who left as a smart skinny kid, going away to college like so many before him, growing, achieving, making a name in another city in another state. And he returns now not just as a successful product of Hawaii, but as the potential future President of the United States.

We look at Barack Obama in a certain way, because we know him from television and the press. His name is literally a household word, his face identifiable in a flash. We know that despite the fact that many observers continue to say he is "from Chicago," he is really a kid from Hawaii. And whatever else he may have picked up in his rise to the top of AmericaÕs political order, we can be confident that Hawaii fills him the way it fills all of us.

If he is not all that different from us, then it is likely that he shares many of our unique island values. He sees race not as either/or, but in shades: a little bit of this, a little bit of that. He attended a fine local school with a diverse student body and doubtless had friends Ñ as we all did Ñ of many colors and backgrounds and views, a multicultural experience that forever impacts the way you see others. He knows the value of family. He knows how we feel at our deepest core.

That we may have a President who was born and educated in Hawaii fills us with a sense of local pride. But there should be more to it than simple geography. We can be proud that it was in part our values and our sense of the world that prepared him to serve and to lead.

A lot of balancing and consideration goes into choosing a President: positions, statements and misstatements, social policies and political philosophies. Simply saying that Barack Obama grew up in Hawaii so he should get our votes is probably a little simplistic, not the most realistic way to choose a leader. Yet knowing that he has shared our experience and lived our values lets us know him in a way that we might not for another candidate. That is a powerful thing as he returns to a place we know as his home.

Original article URL: http://www.molokaitimes.com/articles/881212540.asp

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