The sun sets on 2020, and in the past I made a list of "best things" about the year. This year,  my list is shorter. No travel, but lots of learning. This will not be in chronological order, or in order of importance.  Except for the first one, the things will be posted as they come to my mind as I relax with this adult beverage.

If I had to choose a word to describe how I feel about 2020, I would say fortunate. Though I am sad to have lost loved ones I will never see again  (two cousins, a beloved husband of a good friend), for the most part, I have been fortunate. Instead of feeling restless and frustrated, I feel gratitude. Grateful that I have a place to live, an income (pension, investments, social security), a family, friends, health, a sense of purpose. 

Many of you who know me might be shocked to know that the women’s retreat I went to last year was a psilocybin (aka “magic mushrooms”) retreat, so this is a “coming out” of sorts. I had been meaning to write about my experience at this Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) women’s retreat in Oaxaca, Mexico ever since I returned a year ago. But it is better that I waited a year; I can now write about how it affected me.
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My psilocybin journey connected the dots for me in many ways and I am convinced this particular gift from nature has much to offer the world. I wrote a detailed account which I will publish in total at some point. In this essay, I skip the activities and descriptive details and instead share how it helped me to break through spiritual, creative, and psychological blocks.

Another opinion piece for my local paper.

The Dec. 1 Bloomberg Opinion piece on education policy reminded me of the bad old days of former presidents George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind and Barack Obama’s Race to the Top, with its anti-union undertones and that trigger word — “accountability.” 
It paints unions as protecting members, devoid of accountability. No one goes into teaching because it’s easy, or because they can do whatever and be protected by a union. If you ask educators why they went into the profession, their answers will most likely be altruistic. Teachers want to be successful in their jobs, but most know that success measured by test scores is shallow and demoralizing. Encouraging positive relationships, assigning meaningful long-term projects, promoting collaboration with others, fostering creativity, reading to pursue their own interests, applying critical thinking are goals that don’t get measured but contribute to measures of success for most teachers.

The Bloomberg piece encourages Biden to expand charter schools. We do have successful ones in West Hawaii, but expansion means the opposite for traditional schools — reduction. Again, the Bloomberg piece demonizes unions, saying they have “waged war” against charter schools. In Hawaii, charter schools are represented by the same union as traditional public schools, so there isn’t the same antagonism that other places may have. However, there is some resentment between the two types of schools, having to do with funding.
In the Biden-Harris administration, I am hoping for a new era of respect for public education. Opportunities that we provide can be monitored and elevated. Besides securing the basics, we can note if students are getting the counseling they need and the arts that would enhance their learning; if their physical environments are conducive to learning; if they are safe; if they have nutritious meals; if they are learning how to get along with each other; if they are connecting to their communities and the world; if critical thinking is valued and implemented.
Test scores are only one piece of information about student development, but if it’s the major thing you consider, everything else will take a back seat.
Diane Aoki is a resident of Kealakekua

Another of my letters to my local paper. 

Democracy or republic? Electoral College or not?
I agree with Patricia Knox’s letter on Nov. 24 that civics education needs to be mandatory. Just as important is thinking skills, which can be taught all across the curriculum through all grades. This includes the ability to process complex issues, such as whether the United States is a democracy or republic, or the merits of the Electoral College. Ms. Knox claims that we are not a democracy. A democracy is a government by the people either directly OR by their elected representatives. In a republic, laws are made by elected representatives and governed by a constitution protecting its citizens’ rights. So, we are both.

The Electoral College was a cunning deal, with the slave-owning states gaining the upper hand. Counting their slaves as 3/5ths of a person, gave them more representatives and electors, which served them well. Now that we have Constitutional voting rights protections, does the Electoral College still serve to perpetuate racism, as it did at its onset?
One thing to consider: A vote in California, which has a very diverse population, carries less weight than a voter in Wyoming, a very white state, when translating the numbers into the Electoral College. A vote in states with large urban areas, which are racially diverse, have less weight than states that are largely rural, which are mostly white.
The times demand of us to be critical thinkers. Civics education must include the history and impact of this racism.

Published on Medium aokidiane.medium.com/i-dont-know-why-you-still-love-him-7c63545c4361

I have a friend who was writing lyrics to old songs as a way to vent her anxiety about our current political situation. She shared the lyrics on Facebook a while back — maybe 2 months ago. That inspired me to write this one. I had written this song in 2015 as a broken-hearted love song, (I Told A Man I Loved Him) which I never shared except at a songwriting workshop at the Hawaii Songwriting Festival. I used the same melody for this song, so I didn’t have to work out a new tune, and the words came easily.

I had taken classical guitar lessons in college many moons ago. Once when I was low on money, and out of frustration for my skills, I sold my guitar. I finally replaced it when I was in Baja Mexico in 2000, where I bought a small guitar (size of a big ukulele) for about $30. I’d been practicing noncommittally over the years. In the pandemic, I decided to re-learn guitar. so I took a class from Great Courses, then signed up for a free 3-month trial from Fender.

When I wrote this song, it was with the intention to share it as part of the movement to vote Trump out. But I just could not get to the point of mastery and time was running out, so I made the decision — mistakes and all — just post it. So today, I posted on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. My hope is that I will have some musician friends — at least 1 — who will learn it and share it. I really never wanted to be a performer, but I do want to be a songwriter. I realized early on in my songwriting journey that I would need to have some kind of performing skills in order to share. So, I’ve been working on that. In fact, I set my writing aside for a while in order to put in my practice time for this.

Here it is. Mistakes and all. For what it’s worth. MUSICIANS! If you would like to learn it, sing it, share it, please do, I’d be honored. Just credit me somewhere.

​Link to YouTube Video

Do you wonder why Christians you think are reasonable can STILL support Trump, even if they know he’s immoral and incompetent? It’s because they think they’re saving babies. He doesn’t need to be eloquent or even have policy plans. All he has to do is say certain magic words, like law and order, and in this case, abortion. For good measure, say “nine month” abortion, and you have secured a moral imperative in which the ends justify the means.

It’s not about saving babies though.

If it’s about saving babies, you would be FOR birth control, right?You wouldn’t have pushed for the 2014 Supreme Court decision that allows private companies to deny birth control coverage to their employees if it opposes their religious beliefs. Women earning less than a living wage will not be able to afford birth control and therefore possibly be faced with unintended pregnancies. Will they have abortions? Maybe, maybe not. But you didn’t have to put them in this position! You could’ve just allowed them the contraception and the education to prevent unintended pregnancies. Voila! No abortion necessary.

If it’s about saving babies, you would not be so adamant about overturning Roe v Wade
The data is in: abortions have declined to its lowest levels since Roe passed. The reasons are unclear, but the theories seems to coincide with changing social norms, as well as increased access.
More women are expected to work, to get some postsecondary education, and to support their families, which make unplanned childbearing more costly and the benefits of delay much greater. The second reason is greater access to and increased use of the most effective forms of contraception, such as long-acting reversible contraceptives.( Sawhill and Guhot, Brookings, June 24, 2019)

If Roe is overturned, abortions will continue. If public opinion is a gauge, the majority of Americans are not opposed to abortion. 61% think that abortion should be legal in all or most cases while 38% believe abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. If a woman’s life situation compels her to end the pregnancy, she will, no matter the risk. Young people support abortion rights, and if their current fervor for activism is an indication, they will not easily acquiesce to rights being taken away.
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If you succeed in criminalizing all abortions, they would be moved underground as before, unsafe and illegal. Women with means would be able to have them safely, and women without means would likely resort to desperate unsafe measures. That’s how it was back then, in the dark ages. Mentioning the methods is just too sad, but you can google it.

Another of my letters to the editor during the election season.

Explaining the hate
Mr. Tombo Lono asks the question, why all the hate toward President Donald Trump? He goes on to lavish praise on him and his family. At first, I thought it was satire, then I saw that he was serious. Mr. Lono sounds like a sweet man, and genuinely confused about why there’s so much hate toward our current president. Mr. Lono and others, you have chosen to represent Trump, so you have to accept that a lot of people in “blue” Hawaii are angry at him.

They are directing their anger at you, his supporters. They are angry because almost every single day, even before the pandemic, he has given us reasons to be angry. From being elected president despite what he said on tape about grabbing women’s private parts to mishandling the pandemic to the last atrocity about not denouncing white supremacy, and thousands of reasons in between, he has made us angry and ashamed that he is our president. We equate Trump with incompetence, dishonesty, and racism. We hate that.
Diane Aoki
Kealakekua

Click here to hear the song on SOUNDCLOUD.

Why do you have to be that way?
The one who lies to self-protect
To ones who are less fortunate
You’ve got no heart no human respect
Why do you have to be that way?
So mean and proudly arrogant
To those who see things a dif’frent way
You call them names, meant to demean them
Why can’t you be the person who cares?
Who lets kindness be the guide
Knowing energy that we share
Is a power that can move a tide
We have power that can move a tide
We have power that can move a tide
Why do you have to be that way?
The one who can’t say racism’s wrong
Who values guns over children’s lives
Who thinks being mean is being strong
Why do you have to be that way?
Who denies climate change is real
Who thinks it’s okay to abuse this earth
Like colonizers and treasures they steal.
Come on here we are at the bridge
Still on opposite sides
I’m still a bleeding heart liberal snowflake
You’re still refusing to try
To meet me halfway. Ai yi yi!
There must be a way! Ai yi yi!
Conciliation!
I want to be the person who cares
Who lets kindness be my guide
Knowing energy that we share
Has a power that can move a tide
We have power that can move a tide
Power for justice can move a tide
We have power that can move a tide
Power for justice can move a tide

During the Election season, I was impelled to write letters to the editor of my local paper, West Hawaii Today. Here is one.  

Bruce Campbell posed a challenging question in the Sept. 1 letters to the editor. It’s a device — posing a question but embedding the answer he wants you to come to. He does it twice, the first time when he refers to 80% of “reporters” who consider themselves liberal. I could find no current credible source for this, but he planted a notion of reporter bias that is not backed by evidence. I did find a good study that concluded “no liberal bias in what political journalists choose to cover.” (Google terms: journalists political party)
The second time he did it is in his conclusion, asking if it is “progressive” to be moving God further from the equation. He is planting the notion that “progressive” means away from God. I’m assuming he means progressive politics, which is to make progress towards the ideals of democracy. When church people try to exert power in government, there is a danger of religious tyranny which was so strong it compelled the pilgrims to settle the colonies. It was so important that separation of church and state became a founding principle. While some practices, like slavery, change over time in the pursuit of justice, religious freedom still rightfully holds.

Religions and churches can be a community of support for each other to live what it means to be closer to God. For Christianity, It doesn’t get much clearer than: Love thy neighbor as thyself. All religions have a version of this essential tenet. We do need to have some kind of moral compass.
As a “progressive,” I am guided by a desire for a world that is more empathetic, humane, loving, and just. That, to me, is closer to God. Rather than just proclaim our godliness, we need to look for evidence, even in our opinions. For example, where do you stand in the Kenosha case? With the 17-year-old vigilante murderer or the Black father shot in the back seven times? With white supremacists or Black Lives Matter protesters? With an America who gives hope to asylum seekers or the one who pulls children from their parents to discourage it? What is closer to God?

Rather than leave you with an embedded question, I will make a statement: Please vote for the candidate who most embodies your values. Biden may not be the most progressive, but he embodies more empathy and hope for justice than the other choice. By far.
Diane Aoki is a resident of Kealakekua