Got Aloha for a Teacher?
A little more than a month ago, Kanu Hawaii launched a pilot project to gather community voices, expand the vote, and give people information about candidates in their district. The goal is to create conditions where people are better equipped to hold elected leaders accountable. We started this experiment in Windward Oahu, and you can read more about the plan here.
For the past several weeks, Kanu volunteers have been going door-to-door in 96744 asking people what's most important to them this election year. We've also been registering new voters on college campuses, at community gatherings, and tabling outside of stores and markets. We've listened to the concerns of hundreds of Windward Oahu residents. The "word cloud" below illustrates what we've heard. The bigger the word, the more often it was mentioned as a top issue for residents of 96744.
If anyone from 96744 wants to shape this cloud with their input, you can do so at kanuhawaii.org/2012.
Based on community input gathered to date, we drafted a questionnaire for the candidates in that area: Jessica Wooley and Pono Chong, who are competing for State House seat and Jill Tokuda, who is running unopposed for State Senate. Their responses are due back this week, and we'll send them to the constituents who helped define the issues in the questionnaire.
We are grateful to the residents of Windward Oahu who took the time to share their concerns and ideas. You helped us take the first step in an effort to rebuild democracy in a way that starts with listening and ends with politicians accountable to the public.
Aloha
Energy
Food
Government
Comments posted prior to adopting Facebook comments.
Going door to door listening to folks was a new experience for me this year. I really didn't feel stoked initally to go door to door...inside something told me that I would be bothering people. And in some cases I was. I hope, though, that our intent to listen, share and give back valuable information makes up for the bothering that we did do.
My big take away was that even though I wasn't from this district, I was humbled that many people did want to talk and shared freely. And after we talked, I was surprised by the number of mahalos I got for doing what we are doing. People care and that helped turn my initial discomfort into a much better feeling...not yet at stokeness but I don't mind going out now.
My big take away on the issues was nearly every single person I talked to mentioned transportation the most. Not just rail but roads, traffic, parking, busing, and other transportation related issues. I didn't start off thinking transportation would be such a top of mind topic. It is, at least this year in this district.
I hope more folks take advantage of opportunities like this one to get out and just listen to what people care about.