To: Vice President Kamala Harris
From: Gary Hooser — on behalf of my grandchildren
Dear Vice President Harris,
Welcome to Kaua‘i. My hope is your stay here will be one that rejuvenates and inspires you. I can only imagine the work load and daily stress that accompanies your life as vice president. Thank you for your service and the sacrifice you make on our behalf.
I wrote the below “Open letter to Kamala Harris” on Oct. 6, 2020, on the eve of your debate with then-Vice President Mike Pence. While much has changed since then, much still unfortunately remains the same or worse. My hope is that these thoughts might add value to your stay here in our community.
Dear Kamala,
While we have not met in person, I am compelled to reach out and share with you my thoughts, which I know are held by many others across our community and the nation.
Wednesday is your night, Kamala, and we need you.
Yes, we need you to push back hard against the Trump administration, but what we need now more than ever before is a message of hope and inspiration. America is oh-so-tired of the bickering and divisiveness.
Kamala, we need you. Yes, today, this week, at this particular moment in time, we need you more than ever.
No single person will ever be able to replicate the deeds, nor fill the space left by the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. But when one leader steps away, others must always step forward.
The world both literally and figuratively is burning. The apocalyptic skies of the West Coast only make that sense more real, more threatening. The urgency of the moment is inescapable.
Now is when we need to be reminded that we are all in this together. We need to know also that there is a bold plan and strong leadership ready to take us to the other side.
We are in the midst of a global pandemic, and our economy is on the edge of collapse. Sparked by violent acts of racism and fueled by the ever-increasing economic disparity between the 1% and everybody else, the world is going to hell in a hand-basket. Live, in real-time.
In this pervasive atmosphere of uncertainty and fear, everyone, it seems, seeks a scapegoat. Good ole boys from the heartland and Deep South blame the urban “elites” from the North and West. Too many “haves” blame the “have nots.” The “have nots” often blame each other. Agent provocateurs on both sides are manipulated by those in power who benefit from the unrest and uncertainty.
We need you now, Kamala, to bring us together and inspire the hope of a future where we set aside our differences and start pulling together.
Unfortunately, a great majority of us are fearful of the future and have no confidence in the government responsible for leading us out of the mess they led us into.
We need you to speak to that fear. Remind us again that we have crossed longer bridges and climbed higher mountains in the past. We have survived two world wars, numerous plagues and countless dictators that have in the past sought to destroy our very humanity.
We need a plan and a path forward that will rebuild our economy, give us our jobs back and rejuvenate our planet. Inspire us, Kamala. Take the Green New Deal, move the pieces around if you must, shoot it full of steroids, stick it in a box, repackage it, and then launch this forward-thinking, bold initiative to restart our economy and protect our planet. Do it, please, with gusto and the pyrotechnic enthusiasm it deserves. Call it “Help For The Heartland” or “The Biden Plan” or anything that will enhance its curb appeal to middle America.
Joe is doing an excellent job reassuring us that he is a solid, decent and capable man who can get the ship of state back on track. And, boy, do we need that. But of course, we need more.
What we need at the moment you can and must give to us, and that is, of course, hope and inspiration for the bright future we all know deep down is waiting. Each of us knows in our hearts that “this too shall pass,” but we need a clear voice and a fierce commitment to lead that comes from our leaders at the top. That leader is you, Kamala, today more than ever.
Yes, Joe is our rock, but you, Kamala, must be our light.
Sincerely,
Gary Hooser (http://www.garyhooser.com)
On behalf of my grandchildren.
•••
Gary Hooser is the former vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and served eight years in the state Senate, where he was majority leader. He also served for eight years on the Kaua‘i County Council, and was the former director of the state Office of Environmental Quality Control. He serves in a volunteer capacity as board president of the Hawai‘i Alliance for Progressive Action and is executive director of the Pono Hawai‘i Initiative.
