Aloha,

By living and working in countries on three continents over more than half a century, I have witnessed different cultures, languages and have seen government systems. After arriving on Maui I saw a familiar government. Overwhelmingly, most residents I talked to expressed disappointment and frustration. Capitalism does not work!

I can compare, I travelled in the 80s to Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Now on Maui I decided to become the voice of the people. I live here houseless, social security is my only income and I am a volunteer with the nonprofit organization Maui Rescue Mission where we provide laundry, hot showers, sanitation and many other donations. We are all ‘ohana and learning to be there for each other managing so many challenges of our daily life. Like in my country of birth, community members seeing such a hopeless future, where money is leading to greed and eventually to corruption.

In Maui County, the American political system was brought in and destroyed the community by developing wealth being extremely powerful. Upholding the constitution of America, we the people need to be able to change the situation. Having aloha being our guiding light, we need to try to stop the suffering, our ‘ohana hearts are bleeding every day.

On behalf of the native Hawaiian people, we ask the ones who have the power, to let us solve our problems ourselves. We the people lived ‘ohana already many years ago. We can show what aloha means to the Hawaiian people. Now, are we residents ready to vote for ourselves? I believe so. We can have many mōʻī wahine (Queens) and many aliʻi (Chiefs).

I am selfless, committed to give my life for my people. My skin color should not matter. I show that I care, find out, ask, talk to each other and find out about every candidate and their deeds. We the people need to govern always together, with love, with the true spirit of aloha.

To all the other candidates, we would love you to be part of our wonderful community, let us put the power of money aside, let us care for one another. We the people have the right to find a way to govern together. We the people can vote ourselves, together we can be a model for showing that love never fails. Aloha will set us free to care deeply for our community.

Joseph Joshua Moses
Wailuku