Capsun's Corner – by Capsun M. Poe

On this, the 8th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, I thought about what I could say.  After thinking long and hard, I concluded that reiterating my post on Teaching Tolerance in an Increasingly Intolerant World would be most appropriate.  Here it is, in its entirety:

Today is National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 2008 and as we remember and honor those who have perished in wars, I only wonder what leads to so many of our conflicts in life, both big and small – and that is intolerance.

CAPSUN AND HIS FRIENDS

Here’s a quick snapshot of me; I’m a:

• Native Hawaiian
• registered member of the Democratic Party (have been since I was 18)
• social liberal and fiscal moderate
• voter who votes in every election
• not particularly religious person

Despite these traits, some of my closest friends are the ones I radically disagree with on ideology and religion – some are even religious conservatives.  While many people use these disagreements to make personal attacks, being such close friends, we always keep it about the issues.

DIFFERENCES VS. DIVERSITY

In the wake of the Mumbai (Bombay) attacks, we need to move beyond such petty ways of viewing our differences.  UH Manoa has an office called “SEED” – Student Equity, Excellence, and Diversity.  I take this to mean that Diversity equals Excellence, which leads to Equity.

So what some call our differences, I call our diversity.  We have to embrace our diversity as one of our greatest strengths.  After all, that was one of the overarching themes when the Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution of the United States of America.  And instead of making personal attacks, or starting wars, they sought to compromise (Remember the Connecticut Compromise from U.S. History?).

MOVING ON AND MOVING FORWARD

I think my fellow blogger, Auntie Pupule (a staunch Ann Kobayashi supporter) embraced this value best in her Tweet on Election Day:

I love you Hawaii! I love you America! I love you Twitter Ohana! I love you too Mufi

She sets a good example for us to move on and work together after an election, much like President-Elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain have shown us.

One way to teach others tolerance is to show them to focus on what we agree on, not what we disagree on. By finding some common ground with an “enemy” we can find more evidence of the ties that bind us as humans and won’t have to villainize them.  Most people aren’t nearly as bad as our rhetoric makes them out to be (although there are some very prominent exceptions throughout history).

I realize the irony of me writing this post despite my intolerance toward Mesa/go! Airlines, but that’s a whole different story – and a challenge I guess I need to work on as a flawed human being.  I still hope you will consider what I’ve said.

Mahalo!

Again, I do hope that by focusing on what we agree on, we can not only be tolerant, but move society forward as a whole.

Mahalo!

***

P.S. – You can follow me on Twitter (@exbor) to get more regular updates.  Be warned, they are much more “regular” than my posts here.

P.P.S. – Did you know capsun.org has it’s own Twitter account (@capsundotorg) that Tweets whenever I blog here or on my photo blog?

Please note:  The views expressed here are mine and mine alone.  While I am employed by and affiliated with organizations and individuals, permission has neither been asked nor granted to write on the topics discussed here.

Tags: barack, Capsun, connecticut compromoise, diversity, equity, exbor, excellence, go! airlines, Hannemann, intolerance, kobayashi, manoa, mccain, mesa, mufi, obama, pearl harbor, poe, pupule, tolerance