In Hawaii, it is often difficult to separate our professional, volunteer and personal lives. We often wear many different hats all at the same time, representing one interest while appearing at “off-hours” events for another.
However, when personal lives come to politics, separation between professional or especially volunteer efforts tend to succumb to passion and agendas and provide the opportunity to blur in the name of “non-partisan” efforts.
The dictionary defines non-partisan as “not supporting or controlled by a political party, special interest group, or the like.” Synonyms are “uninvolved, disinterested, unimplicated.”
You would think it is up to us as a society to respect the effort that neutral organizations must not be affecting the coordination and support of political opportunity. Right!
You would also expect the common policy for nonprofits such as Waimea Community Association’s (WCA) scheduled forum for North Hawaii, as announced in the North Hawaii News section June 28, to remain non-political at least until the forum had concluded as everyone would supposedly go to hear out the “non-partisan” candidates for clarity and contribution to the “community” before engaging in their own support. Right on!
Not so. It’s a small town and officers and directors of WCA have already been seen sign waiving for their agenized candidate preference amidst organizing this forum and asking other “community” and nonprofit organizations to support their efforts.
As a nonprofit organization or group advocating for and implying themselves as a non-partisan entity for “community” educational benefits, even the appearance of political involvement, especially ahead of concluding their “community” forum objective, is a concern to purpose and agenda, especially for myself as a former WCA president when this in-name organization was just a “community” based 55-plus year “community” run group without the 501(c)(3) status it now has.
As seen in recent news, President Bill Clinton’s “run-in” with DOJ’s Lynch (how do you run into someone on a different plane?) causes the appearance of impropriety — remember the synonyms “uninvolved, disinterested, unimplicated?”
I, for one, am dismayed to know that local nonprofit community organizations are coordinating with candidates! As innocent as the volunteer efforts may be, the appearance of wearing the other hat, or mu’u mu’u, certainly leads to an adventurous mind.
Perhaps the Waimea Community Association should drop its “community” label and change its charter to a PAC for transparency and balance in the eyes of whom they purport to serve.
J. William Sanborn is a resident of Waimea