 And we are navigating the journey. Navigating the journey is dedicated to exploring the options of choices for the end of life there. And to assist people to talk about their wishes. It's time to transform our culture so we shift from not talking about dying to talking about it. It is time to share the way we want to live our lives at the end of our lives. And it's time to communicate about the kind of care we want and don't want for ourselves. We believe that the place for this to begin is not in the sense of hearing. Together as we explore the various paths of life and together we can make this difficult conversation easier. Together we can make sure that our own wishes and those of our loved ones are expressed and expected. If you're ready to join us, we at Navigate the Journey. In the past six months, we have invited members of various religious traditions to talk to us about the end of life customs in their culture. There is a nexus between your choices, options, the government, grassroots organizations. It's very simple. Grassroots organizations all inspire or challenge us to think about an aspect of our life in this way. Great leaders inspire actions. It all starts with the question, why? We at Martin Luther King June, the Wright Brothers, or Nikola Tesla, they all think, act, and communicate the exact same way. And it is complete opposite from the rest of them. Inspired leaders and organizations, regardless of their size, industry, think, act, and communicate from inside, why, out, what. Whereas everyone else goes from outside in, from clear thinking, what, to the fuzziest thinking, why. Today's guest is one of those people. Kristin Hamada, beautiful young lady, whose sole purpose in life is to make the world a better place. She has chosen grassroots activities as her vehicle. And my now, my new best friend, Kristin Hamada. Thank you so much. Welcome, welcome, and join us while we navigate this journey through life. And she is a beautiful young lady from Hawaii. And we were just talking about you being an immigrant in the UK. Yes. So, and since immigration is at the top of everybody's vocabulary these days, people that didn't know what an immigrant was are now talking about immigration. So tell us, tell us about Kristin and why you found yourself as an immigrant. You're originally from Hawaii, right? And now you find yourself an immigrant someplace else. So how does that happen? So I'm from my A.I. I was born and raised here. I ended up in the UK to study. So I went there for a year to do a master's program. And, you know, it's, it's something different to go sort of from country to big city. It was my first time really like living in a big city. And so it was exciting. After that, after I studied, I stayed on. And yeah, like you said, I learned a lot about immigration. And I think that some of how we discuss immigration needs to shift a bit. You know, in some circles you might call it, you know, issues around freedom of movement to think about how we can or can't move freely between places. And, you know, like we were talking about before, it's, it's difficult. My situation was not at all one that was the most dire or anything like that. I had a lot of relative privilege in a lot of ways. You know, we were saying that I spoke English as a first language. I was a computer literate, like educated through a certain level. And that all made going through that system easier. But I know that there's tons of other people, probably, you know, the clear majority of people out there going through that system are not in the same position that I am. And it's difficult. It is. It is. Yes, it is. And especially with the language. Now, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which the UK did ratify. The United States did not, even though Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the first authors, but it guarantees the right of movement. And yet, all of these countries ratified, all of them signed on. They're all members of the UN. And there is no right of, but it's, it's written. Somebody wrote it, but nobody bothered to read it, I guess. Well, I think too, some of it too is maybe thinking about people that want to stay in, like, settle in a place. Like, if I wanted to go to the UK, I mean, as an American, you know, we have a lot of privileges as well. I could go, I could visit, be a tourist, enjoy all of the really awesome cultural things about the UK and wider Europe as well. But it was really, you know, the process that I went to was really about settling there and staying there for a long time. And so there was all of these steps that had to be taken, you know, kind of as the years went on. So, you know, I might apply for a visa one year and then have to also apply the next year. I might need to apply then two years after that. So there's all of these different steps and also different criteria that you really had to meet in order to be able to stay there. And of course, too, it costs money. Oh, it does. Now, we have people, Americans all over the world who are in prison that they go and do the immigration process. And then they find themselves in prison and they don't know what they did. What is that about? Do you know? Did you encounter any of that? So in the UK, there are people who, you know, who haven't really committed a crime, who haven't necessarily broken immigration law, but are in privately run prisons, sometimes for years, just in detention. And it's really awful and it's dehumanizing. The prisons are mostly filled with, you know, people like us, a lot of people of color, sometimes children as well. And it's just, you know, it's not the right way to treat people who, you know, any person really who might have made an error or who, you know, really kind of deserves their freedom. And is there anything that the government, this government, the American government can do for them? So I don't know specifically about, I would say Americans that are maybe in the UK or anything like that. Usually in the UK, it's people that have come over from like maybe ex colonies and things like that. So I know, yeah, just less about Americans that might be there. And also too, I think that there's probably a degree of leeway that people might get as someone, you know, this is kind of like racialized or global privilege. You know, as somebody from the US, you know, you have an American passport, maybe people will be more lenient. I don't know if it's like a thing for sure, but I'm just saying that these things, you know, this is how kind of privilege works, you know. It's a little bit invisible sometimes. And yeah, and that's just kind of how it happens. So now you are a community activist. And for my audience, you must know that I'm absolutely in love with this young lady. I came into the world, I was born into Jim Crow and came of age in the civil rights movement. So I have been an activist all of my life. And if you read my resume, it begins, the first words are, I am a political junkie. That's who I am. It is absolutely delightful to meet this beautiful young lady who has that spirit, that energy, that glow. There is an inner something, and I don't know how to express it, that come when you can look at people and tell, that's an activist because it goes, it glows, that willingness to take a stand. That's really, just step forward. So tell us about your activities here in Honolulu as an activist. What are you doing? And I hate to say why, but our audience probably needs to know and why. Mainly why. And what is the goal? Where are you going with this particular activity that you're involved in now? Okay, so there's, I would say there's a few different things that I have gotten involved with. One of the things is really going to be focused around the 2018 elections and hopefully we can talk more about that in the future. And also kind of getting to understand what's going on kind of in the activist community as far as environmental issues are really important. Community housing is a really important issue here as well. Even things like education is really important. And the reason why I'm involved in all of these different, in different things. I think a lot of people who choose to get involved, I'm sure you know this, will be involved in a lot of different things. Because we're trying to change so many things. And we see how a lot of the injustices are linked to each other. And so, you know, you can't just do a single, work on a single issue and that's it. You know, a single issue kind of life is not, is not how we live. So I'm involved in different things. Really because I believe in the power of everyday people to get involved to make a change. I think that people, when given the opportunity, want to get involved and want to be a part of something. In Hawaii, it's really awesome because there's so many great community builders here. And we just, you know, build communities kind of around everything. And that's such a great thing. In addition to that, we can, we build community to find meaning for ourselves. And part of that is also feeling like you're giving back. But also creating some sort of positive change. So my, I guess broadly the goal is to create positive change in Hawaii. To see our communities coming together. To see our communities supporting each other. To see change really happen for people because Hawaii has changed a lot. Would, I know this is a strange question. Would we recognize change if we saw it? Because from where we were when I started to where we are now, wow, the change. But in the process, did we see the change? So I think that we do. I think that we do. And I think that in Hawaii, people kind of look for it. Because people understand very deeply their, their communities. You know, I guess one of the things I just thought of is that. You know, when you're driving someplace, people give you directions. They're like, you know, go through streets. It's like, there's a tree that looks like a lollipop. And then you got to turn the right across the street. So people know our communities so well. And so when things change, people know, like, and they notice. Like, yeah, when you live on an island, you sort of have to do that. Yeah. But now we are going to take a break. And when we come back, I like to talk, because I am a political junkie, I'd like to talk about the coming election, the legislature, and how do you see us moving forward with that? So we're going to take a break and we'll be right back. Thanks. Broadcast on cable OC 16 and O'Lello 54. Great content for Hawaii from Think Tank. And we are back with this lovely, lovely new best friend, Kristen. And Kristen is a community activist. And we are going to talk about my favorite subject, and that is the politics of living in Hawaii. And you're the new energy, and I love it, the new energy into the coming election, the legislative process, the whole what is going on at the capital, the bills that you like or don't like, and what have you. And so yeah, that's another three or four hours. But we're going to talk about it. So your plan for the election, let's start there. My own sort of personal plans, I guess. Or a community that you belong to, either way. So I always think it's good, just a general rule to have contested elections. I hope people stand for it. I hope that people put themselves forward, just because that's how democracy works, you know? Like we need to be having a discussion. We want you to do that. I mean, not you stand for elections, but we really want you to get people out there. Last election, we have 51 House members, 30 went unchallenged. That's not good. That's not good for democracy because they get so complacent. They don't have to do what the public wants, because there's no penalty for not doing. So you have to give them, make sure there is a penalty for not doing what the community wants. At least that's the way I see it. I think too, it's all of our jobs as just as citizens, members of society, and a lot too when I think about people getting involved and putting themselves forward for things. It's not just the 2018 elections. It's really, we need leadership at lots of different levels. There are so many different ways that people can be involved. It's very locally to them over a decision-making process that does impact their lives and the lives of people around them. Things like PTA, homeowners associations, different boards, even things like the Ethics Commission and Campaign Finance. These are all different ways that people can be involved and can put themselves forward for something. You've thought about it, Christian, that's the beauty of young brains. So many of those boards go unfilled. So you get same people over and over and over again when there is a process that you can apply, which most people don't. But I think you're right about those, we don't even think about the neighborhood board and the library and all of these other things that we can do to make a difference. And ordinary people, you don't have to be a PhD or a scholar. Ordinary people can do to really impact the community and we need that desperately. We need new blood because if you look at these, we see the same people regurgitated throughout the process. And that's part of why it is stagnant. Or at least I see it as stagnant. I think it's really awesome that there are some really committed people that have time and energy to do all of it. But some of it is just opening up the discussion. If we want a thriving democracy, there has to be more discussion, debates, people disagree on stuff. But we can't keep talking amongst ourselves. We have to invite new people in. And that's where new ideas come in as well. I think with the neighborhood board stuff recently, I guess the last elections people say there's a lot of people putting themselves forward, which is awesome. It was. And I hope for those people that have put themselves forward, if they didn't get elected, find some other way to get involved. There are tons of other opportunities. If you think about who makes decisions in your local area, and can I be a part of that? Can it influence that? What decisions are being made and how can we just make it better? Well, with the neighborhood board, you show up. Now you don't have to be elected. You be part of the audience and challenge. Active, young and engaged. And with this legislative, this is the second part of the biennial. For anybody that doesn't know, our legislature is a two-year process, and we have the first part is in the odd year, and the second part isn't even here. And so we have a lot of bills that are holdovers. A lot of bills died, so there'll be a new one. Now, usually there are about 2,500 bills proposed every year. There's no way. No way that any one legislator can read that many. So their office goes through and they give them a synopsis. So they don't really know what's in it. So unless you, people like us at our audience, show up regularly and say, this is what's in the bill, this is why we like it, this is why you need to act on it. Because they really show up and they count the yeses, yes, yes, yes, no, no, no, no. But do they really read it? So you then become the eyes and ears of whatever bill you're supporting. You know, when we talked about the suntan stuff, or whatever that stuff is, and you say, there's a bill against that. You say, what? But when you say, well, that's what's killing the coral, and without coral we don't have a healthy ocean, then it takes on a different meaning. So we need people to talk about that, to write off end pieces, to be a part of the community. And that's where I come from as an activist. That's the way I see it. Yeah, I completely agree. You know, a lot of organizing, I mean the foundation of organizing, as you know, is just the one-to-one conversation. You're just having to chat with someone about your issue, asking them about their opinion, and having a discussion about it. Maybe they agree, maybe they don't agree. But we need to be having lots more of those conversations with people who also, you know, who are not activists. People who are, what you want to be talking to is, you know, everyone else out there who has no idea what this sunscreen thing is, you know? Or, you know, they don't understand, you know, things about GMOs. That's all cool. Like we all, you know, there's so much out there to know. But we need to be having those conversations in mass. And some of the ways, too, is thinking about how do we communicate about these things. You know, and face-to-face conversation is a great way. Because, like, we're sitting here, chatting back and forth. And, yeah, it's a different mode of communicating than, you know, being in the press and things like that. Although those things are important, too. We need to start having conversations in mass with people about the things that are important to us and then also, at the same time, be really listening to the things that are important to them. Because they might not understand, or they might not even like the idea, you know, maybe they don't go beach that much. But maybe they, you know, something else is important to them. You know, they're family, and they really want, you know, to make sure that the environment is clean for their kids. You know? So we need to find out, you know, the things that are important to people and how they're going to access the issues that are really, like, important to Hawai'i, you know, Hawai'i's communities. We have so many, because we have such a precious and fragile environment, we need to talk to each other exactly what you said, Kristen, about the things. Is it, are the bees your issue? Is the suntan lotion your issue? Traffic. Everybody's traffic. Yeah, I know. What are we going to do with the rail? You know, everybody talks about the rail. Whether they like it or don't like it, they talk about it. People have a view on it. Everybody's got a view. Everybody's got a opinion. But I love what you said about listening, hearing the other person, really hearing their side. And somehow we can come to something that makes sense if we listen, I think. And listening to you is a real pleasure. Oh, it's so nice to see you. It is so refreshing to see that energy that drive, that sparkle that says, here I am, I'm going to make a difference in the world. That's really kind of you. Yeah. Well, I don't know that I'm being kind. I'm just saying that's what it is. And that's what it takes to make a better world. For people like you, Kristen, who love what you're doing and it shows. That's really, really nice of you. I really appreciate that. And I also do think that like listening is, it's really important because that's kind of where you, just understand where people are coming from. And, you know, again, it's important for democracy that we listen to each other. You know, we're never going to agree on everything. But if we can get to the point where we're able to, you know, disagree and like accept that that's something, but just understand each other, then it's just a much better place than not having that conversation at all or, you know, having a very limited conversation. We need to open the conversation up and also win people over, you know, through listening and then, you know, putting our arguments forward for why we think, you know, this needs to happen in order for the change that we want to occur. And, yeah, we just need to be opening those conversations, you know, many, many times over and just getting out there, talking to our neighbors. Well, it is a pleasure having a conversation with my new best friend, Kristin Amada. And you will come back, won't you? Yes, yes. Please. Thank you so much. This is delightful. And I want you to come back as fairly regular as we move through the process from today until the time of the election. You can just come back periodically. Let's see what progress is being made. Thank you. And I'm sure our audience will love it. Thank you so much, Kristin. Thank you. I really appreciate it. And thank you for being with us. And we'll see you next week. I love you.