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Capitol View
The award for best question of the presidential debate series goes to CNN's Bernard Shaw, who quizzed the vice presidential candidates. Voting while Hawaiian
"Imagine yourself an African American. You become the target of racial profiling, either while walking or driving. African-American Joseph Lieberman (and Richard Cheney), what would you do about it?" Shaw asked.
The exercise forced the pair to dig a little deeper. This was something not covered in the play book.
Lieberman said he'd be outraged and recalled, "I just had a friend a while ago, Bernie, who works in the government, works at the White House, African American, stopped, surrounded by police, for no other cause than anyone can determine than the color of his skin. That can't be in America anymore."
Cheney honestly said he didn't know. "I've been part of the majority and never been part of a minority group. But it has to be a horrible experience," he told Shaw.
"It's the sense of anger and frustration and rage that would go with knowing that the only reason you were stopped, the only reason you were arrested, was because of your color of your skin would make me extraordinarily angry," Cheney added.
Racial stereotyping doesn't end at the water's edge at Honolulu harbor. I know a perfectly well-employed, college-educated, professional woman, who happens to be Hawaiian who uses both hands to tick off the number of times she has been asked for her welfare card or food stamps when standing in the checkout line.
I was shocked when she first told me that and then angry when she added that it happens to her friends who are Hawaiian.
On the mainland, the phrase is "DWB" -- driving while black. In the islands, the acronym might be "SWH" -- shopping while Hawaiian. And, I'd wager there is good case for a DWYAH category for people who are hassled for "driving while young and Hawaiian."
Thinking about how we all relate and how we view each other will become more important now that the U.S. Supreme Court has clarified the rights of Hawaii's voters.
If part of the mark of civilization is the ability to walk a mile in someone else's slippers, we all get a shot at it in two weeks when we vote in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs election.
In past elections, OHA voters have been one of the few bright spots in Hawaii's dismal voting record. As interest in elections and voting wanes, OHA voters are a new source of electoral interest.
ONE survey claims that newly registered OHA voters are 40 percent more likely to vote than other voters.
Now, because the Rice vs. Cayetano decision opens the OHA election to all voters, and the following decision to allow non-Hawaiians to be OHA trustees, the election base is changed.
For some, it will seem that the "tyranny of the majority" will claim another victim as the majority of non-Hawaiian voters bend and distort the views of the Hawaiian minority.
What that means to the sovereignty movement is unknown. It is probably a setback, but any advances will be all the stronger because they will have come from a board that is more representative of the entire state.
For all voters, however, this election forces us all to at least imagine what it is like to be of the land of Hawaii and vote accordingly.
Richard Borreca reports on Hawaii's politics every Wednesday.
He can be reached by e-mail at rborreca@starbulletin.com