FEAR OF HOMELESS
PROMOTED
FOR POLITICAL GAIN

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October 1, 2008. In an effort to regain the steeply falling support of voters for re-election of Mayor Mufi Hannemann, several Hawaii newspapers and television news agencies have begun a campaign of mud-slinging, not at the opponent, but at the homeless which is the one issue that is bringing this politician to his knees.

While ignoring the public outcries of "inhumane," Mayor Mufi Hannemann continues to abuse the fast-growing homeless population in this disastrous economy with so many people losing their jobs and being unable to pay for food, clothing and shelter.

The large newspaper and television agencies in Hawaii are run by wealthy interest groups who continue to gain by the extremely low salaries paid to the employees and elimination of the Middle Class, and have officially announced their endorsement of Mayor Mufi Hannemann for re-election.

Several news agencies have begun an unethical and irresponsible reporting campaign to place fear in the minds of the public to manipulate support for what the public has described as "inhumane" treatment of the homeless by Mayor Hannemann. By making the public afraid of the homeless, the media hopes that they will support Hannemann's "extermination" of them from the parks.

The wealthy want to maintain the citizens in poverty to work at minimum wages and to submit to abuse under fear of losing their jobs. But the wealthy do not want to spend money on those who are unemployed and homeless, and do not want the competition of the Middle Class. Mayor Mufi Hannemann supports the interest of the wealthy.

At first, Mayor Hannemann said he was "cleaning" out the parks, but then he proudly announced that he was solving the homeless problem by chasing them out of sight. But, which is hard to do when there is no place for them to go.

Hawaii is the most expensive place to live in America, and, yet, the jobs pay the lowest wages, and which has resulted in the disappearance of the Middle Class, and far-reaching poverty with virtually everyone working two and three jobs just to pay for a rat-infested studio apartment. Physicians are leaving in droves, businesses come here and then quickly fail after being shocked to find out that the media falsely represented Hawaii as wealthy, when, in fact, it has been suffering with island-wide poverty for a long time.

The Hawaii citizens are beginning to realize that they, too, could be homeless amidst the failing economy, and how would they feel if they were being abused and treated inhumanely after suffering foreclosure on their home, and loss of their jobs.

Mayor Hannemann recently suffered defeat at the polls when the public refused to re-elect him in the Primary Election, and he was compelled to continue campaigning for the General Election against the much stronger candidate, Ann Kobayashi, who has proven that she represents the best interest of the people and deals realistically with the economy.

Mayor Hannemann approaches the economy with the same belief system as he approaches the homeless problem, by not looking at it. When opponents have stated that the rail system is unaffordable in this economic crisis, he responds that we should not look at what is going on in the economic market.

We cannot solve problems by pretending they do not exist. In fact, it is shocking to hear an elected official say, "don't look at the economic crisis,"  and to say "let's chase out the homeless so that we do not have to look at them."

In an effort to support the homeless bashing by Mayoral candidate Mufi Hannemann, several news agencies are inciting fear of  the homeless by wrongly associating violent crimes, insanity and immorality with them. During the early morning, a policeman in Waikiki was checking the records of a suspect who was, in fact, a "wanted man" who had an outstanding $20,000 warrant issued for his arrest. The suspect panicked and stabbed the officer to escape.

We pray for the officer's full recovery, and we appreciate the brave police officers who take risks every day to protect the citizens in Waikiki, and who are protecting the homeless living in the park there before the mayoral order to evacuate them to endlessly wander around the island is enforced.

It was disrespectful to the officer for these unethical news agencies to use him as a political pawn in their attempts to justify what the public describes as "inhumane" treatment by Mayor Mufi Hannemann against the homeless and which has incited others to use the homeless a scapegoat for all their hatred. These news agencies are trying to get Mufi Hannemann re-elected amidst falling support because of his continuing abusive treatment of the homeless.

The news agencies are trying to find a "cause" to support the abuse, and to make it appear that the public is being protected from "danger" by removing the homeless from parks, which is an extremely poor journalism that uses the media to wrongly control and manipulate the public based on deliberately and knowingly false reporting.

The news reporters wrongly promoted the suspect as "homeless" and lead the public to believe (1) that he was being arrested because he was homeless, which he was not, and (2) that he was a member of those homeless who are living in tents in Waikiki, which is was not.

This mislead the public into wrongly turning against the homeless for a crime that they did not commit, and it wrongly removed the focus off of the officer who suffered the injury and placed the focus, instead, on the homeless.

The Honolulu Advertiser article had no mention of the "homeless," but the comments following the article did, and clearly linked the crime to the homeless living in the park. Unfortunately, the registration for comments has not been working, and the only comments are those which are abusive. When the public cannot register for comments, it leads you to question whether the comments are, in fact, a part of the story, rather than actually from the public.

KITV4 news reported on television that the police arrested a "homeless" man which also wrongly connected him to the homeless in Waikiki. Whether he is homeless or not has nothing to do with this man -- nothing. So, why mention it?  Because it wrongly connects this crime to the homeless in Waikiki and continues to turn the public against them.

Recently, it was also reported on the television news that the homeless were being chased out of another park and they showed a woman (womb-man) who said that now she is no longer "afraid" to go to the park and the "trash" has been removed.

This is irresponsible news reporting, and makes the assumption that the public is "ignorant." It is an insult to the people of Hawaii, many of whom will be joining the growing numbers of homeless, and at that point they will see their neighbors and friends homeless. No one is so secure to avoid the possibility that life could come along and wipe everything away and place you in a terrible condition.

The Honolulu Star Bulletin reported "Police Officer Stabbed in Waikiki Trying to Arrest a Homeless Man," which is also false. They were trying to arrest a "wanted" man who had a warrant posted for his arrest. The article even states that he had "no local address." That means that he was not a member of the group of homeless who are (1) unemployed, (2) disabled, (3) elderly, (4) victims of layoffs (5) evicted after rent increase, etc.

The irresponsible journalists cited above are trying to support Mayor Mufi Hannemann's attempts to chase the homeless around the island in a new sports game that makes no sense from a logical perspective because they have no place to go but around and around and around the island.

The government in Hawaii is extremely poor, and does not have the money to solve the problem and, does not care about the people as human beings. Mayor Mufi Hannemann wrongly wants to get the homeless "out of sight" by turning the public against them and by inciting the public to fear them, and wrongly think of them as drug addicts, prostitutes, alcoholics, mentally ill, and all those "reasons" that put fear into the minds of the public.

There is no affordable housing - nowhere, nowhere. There is no space at the shelters, which are run like prisons and make you give up all your possessions except what you can fit in a small milk crate, and you must sleep on the floor on a hard mat in a hot crowded room like dead sardines in a tin can. And, nobody will hire you after you become homeless.

The homeless person becomes the "scapegoat" of every evil person on the island of Hawaii.

The fact is that you can go to the parks and talk to the homeless yourself instead of allowing manipulative news reporters to mindlessly control your decisions. It is time to set yourself free to discover truth. Go there and find out the truth that the homeless are very nice and peaceful people who are temporarily suffering problems, and need your help and compassion. You could end up like them. Help them find a way out instead of making the mud slung at them so deep that the problem is more complicated.

Anger and hate need no excuse, but thrive on any cause that can be found, and it has settled on the homeless. The real issue here is that suffering people cause others to suffer because they are hurting, and they look for innocent victims who cannot easily fight back, like the homeless. Some feel empowered when they abuse others because they were abused when they were the underdog.

The word is "prejudiced."  When used against the homeless, it is "economic prejudice" and this abuse has its roots in low self-esteem, and is often displayed by highly competitive individuals who beat down the competition all around themselves to feel powerful rather than realizing that everyone shares their unique abilities. They believe that only they can contribute and others must submit to their beliefs.

Thus, we see extreme selfishness, often developed as a result of harsh sibling rivalry where the brothers and sisters were competitors for the love and affection of the parents. There are also specific causes which contribute to this abusive behavior.

The important fact is that when you harm others, you suffer. Even those who seem not to care, have nightmares, and deep rooted suffering with painful guilt. You cannot escape from your wrongdoings as long as you have a memory at all. You feel empty, and depressed because all your energy is focused on yourself, and you keep trying to find joy in being selfish. But, it's not going to happen.

Those who practice compassion, and care about the homeless, have a beautiful peaceful feeling after they do all they can to help them. That is how we know it is right to care and to help others, because it removes the pain from ourselves, it brings feelings of great happiness, it makes us feel "real" empowerment to know that we have the strength to actually succeed in solving problems with wisdom, and to help others also. The beauty of wisdom is that when you help others, you are also helping yourself.

Let us pray for these news reporters to learn how to practice journalism with professional responsibility. And, we pray for the officer who was injured to receive full recovery. And we pray that our society will learn how to help those who commit crimes so that we can resist evilness before it grows into violence. And, we pray for the homeless to endure with strength and peace while we find ways of solving the homeless problem in such a way that benefits them and benefits society.

The highest level of wisdom used to solve problems is a simple mathematical formula:

order + order = 2(order)

Thus, for our society to increase in goodness (order), or to improve, we have to find a solution that is good (order) for yourself and good (order) for others. That requires WisdomPeace.

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Copyright © 2008/5008. All Rights Reserved.
5008 + 1.5 x 10 ¹⁰ Universal  | Chérie Phillips, Editor

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