Being thankful and celebrating our own good fortune comes with an obligation to reach out to help others.
In the past, as a way to celebrate, I’ve taken my children with donations to the food bank or to other similar places, hoping to instill in them the importance of social responsibility.
With innocent children across the world at this very moment caught in the crosshairs of war and destruction, going to the food-bank today seems so futile. But go we must. While we are at it, we should also reach out, make our calls, and send our emails off to those in positions of leadership and beg them to lead toward a solution that stops the killing.
Yes, we need to remind ourselves and our children of just how lucky we are. And we must step forward and use our own good fortune to help others.
There are many challenges and many ways to help. The good news is that when we do something positive to help others, we feel good. This in turn motivates us to do more.
Aligning with others toward a common purpose is probably the most rewarding path forward. Service and fellowship is a powerful combination (hat tip to my friends in Rotary). Joining a local service club or advocacy organization provides an important social connection with others in the community, who feel the same desire to help make our world a better place.
Please, use the Thanksgiving Day holiday as a time to be thankful and as an excuse to take some meaningful action that helps the less fortunate and our planet. Call, volunteer and give to the Kaua‘i Food Bank, your local Rotary Club, the Sierra Club or Surfrider Foundation, or perhaps support the creation of much needed affordable housing with Permanent Affordable Living (PAL) or Habitat for Humanity.
Helping others face-to-face is where the rubber meets the road and volunteering your labor and your time is best (for you and for the cause). But of course every nonprofit organization needs your financial support as well. Whether that be $2, $20, $200, $2,000 or $20,000 — we each have the capacity to give something and every little bit helps. So give what you can. Please. Today. Now.
If you’re not feeling like a social butterfly and your personal finances are a mess, then grab a trash bag and walk the beach on your own, with your children and/or the neighborhood kids. Pick up the plastic, the trash and the drift nets. Teach them about the importance of doing our part as individuals to help clean our environment, and set a tangible example.
Don’t just talk about it.
The answer to making our community and planet a better place is each of us, as individuals, taking some action that leads down that path. Standing at the intersection fretting about it gets us nowhere. It’s only when we do something, some actionable step that takes us toward a more positive future, will we get better and feel better.
There is no shortage of needs, that’s for sure. We have friends in need in West Maui, and other friends living in their car down at the harbor in Po‘ipu. Some of us have family in the Ukraine and others in Russia. I have close friends who are rooted in Israel and others who I love dearly have family living in Gaza.
We are all related and we only have one planet; I’m thinking we need to remember this and move forward together thankful for what we have and where we live, and united in our efforts to make things better.
•••
Gary Hooser served eight years in the state Senate, where he was majority leader. He also served for eight years on the Kaua‘i County Counci. He presently writes on Hawaii Policy and Politics at www.garyhooser.blog.
