Progress Starts With You

Politics can be a powerful vehicle for change, but only if we get our communities involved at every level. When our government reverts to its worst tendencies – opaque processes, top-down leadership, and rigid power structures – it neglects its people’s value and drives them away. Let’s reverse that trend. Let’s build a government that represents us.

How do we align our government with the needs of our people? The first step is to facilitate active communication between our communities and our leaders. The people of Hawai’i have incredible ideas, many of which either remain unspoken or fall upon deaf ears when they are vocalized. I encourage you to bring your creative solutions, insightful stories, and
unique experiences to the table – we need to hear your voice.

Our government’s role should be to listen, then speak. Leadership should be a group effort. Our government should function as a platform for our
people’s ideas, as a common ground where different perspectives, approaches, and backgrounds combine to produce collaborative movement.

Over the past several months, hundreds of community members have shared their ideas with me: an elementary school teacher suggested that the State hire unemployed workers as distance learning aides; the president of an agricultural partnership taught me about the value of distribution networks for local farmers; a small business owner recommended that the government invest in shared manufacturing facilities. These voices need to be heard in the State Capitol.

In order to overcome the daunting obstacles that we face, we need grassroots change. That means combining the lived experiences of community members into a shared vision of the future. At every turn, let’s
remind ourselves and those around us that we all have the ability to shape the world in which we live. Progress starts with you.

Michael Chapman has worked for the Hawai’i State Senate, the State of Hawai’i, and both chambers of the U.S. Congress. A graduate of Georgetown University and Leilehua High School, he is the Democratic candidate for
State Representative of District 45.