The Yiddish word mensch has become widely used and mainstream in the English language and is defined as; “a person of integrity and honor.” The term is used as a high compliment, implying the rarity and value of that individual’s qualities.
A person who organized a team of volunteers to go to a foreign land and give measles vaccines to a country where many deaths had occurred, and many of those to keiki would be considered a mensch.
A politician who in their off time volunteers and gave COVID -19 vaccines would also be considered a mensch. How many politicians do you know who did that?
The politician I speak of is Dr. Josh Green, Hawai‘i’s Lt. Governor who is currently running for Governor in the state’s Democratic primary.
On December 4th, 2019, Lt. Gov. Dr. Josh Green arrived in Samoa to help combat a measles outbreak that had already killed 60 people, many of those children.
Green, who’s also an emergency medical room doctor, organized a team of 55 Hawai‘i nurses, and 10 doctors that also made the trip with support staff to deliver much-needed immunizations and health care.
Dr. Green has been continually bullied by his opponents and the Democratic party because they want to see records of all his income. Let’s also do the same for his opponents, everyone has skeletons in the closet.
Josh Green also has gone through racist rants of antisemitism amid protests outside his Honolulu home against the public health mandates meant to halt the spread of COVID-19 back in August of 2021.
When Hawai‘i announced restrictions earlier last year state and county workers had to show proof of vaccination or face weekly tests.
Last year 50 to 100 unmasked vaccine opponents gathered almost nightly outside the downtown Honolulu condominium building where Lt. Gov. Josh Green, who is Jewish, lives with his Hawaiian wife and two children, ages 14 and 10.
There were those yelling antisemitic rants into bullhorns and shining strobe lights into Green’s apartment.
Flyers with his photo and the words “Jew” and “fraud” had been plastered around the neighborhood.
Green tore them down and turned them over to the state Attorney General’s office.
It seems the current Democratic party of Hawai‘i is now eating their own, on the contrary, the Hawai‘i Republican party all seem to be supporting one another.
There’s an expression that goes, someone who hates you normally hates you for one of three reasons;
1. They see you as a threat.
2. They hate themselves.
3. Or they want to be you.
In the case of Green’s opponents, I believe it’s all three.
My only regret is I wish I could vote for Green, as a registered Republican I cannot vote for any Democrat in the primary. In the General election, we are free to vote as we wish.
Let me tell his opponents, Those without sin can cast the first stone — and that Josh Green is more a mensch and decent human being than most politicians in this crazy polarized society.
I am appalled at the treatment of the Lt. Governor.
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James “Kimo” Rosen is a humorist most of the time and a photographer who lives in Kapa’a with his dog
