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Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii Betsuin will host a voter education workshop organized by the League of Women Voters of Hawaii on Tuesday, January 28, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in our social hall. The event is nonpartisan and open to all. Interested citizens of all parties and political persuasions are encouraged to attend.

Topics to be covered include how party preferential polls work, how candidates are selected, and how delegates to the national conventions are determined. Representatives from the Democratic Party of Hawaii, the Hawaii Republican Party, and the Libertarian Party of Hawaii will explain their processes.

The workshop will also cover how Vote by Mail works and how to use the state Office of Elections website to register to vote. Representatives from the League of Women Voters of Honolulu will explain.

In discussing the possibility of hosting the workshop, Hawaii Betsuin leaders considered the writings of Bishop Yemyo Imamura, who served from 1900-1932. A 1917 publication by the Publishing Bureau of the Hongwanji Mission included — in both English and in Japanese translation — a set of five documents considered foundational to American democracy. In the preface, Bishop Imamura wrote, “Now is the time for those living in this country to be more than mere spectators.”

In an essay published the following year entitled, “Democracy According to the Buddhist Viewpoint,” Bishop Imamura wrote:

The ideals of the Shinshu… are founded upon the principles of absolute equality; they do not allow any artificial or manmade distinctions among us…. To be under the same conditions means that we are all brothers and friends. No wonder Buddhism as interpreted by St. Shinran is filled with the spirits of equality and fraternity­ — which are the fundamental sentiments of democracy.

From the early days of Jodo Shinshu in Hawaii, the orientation has been one of engagement. The voter education workshop on January 28 is hosted in this spirit. We hope our members as well as the public at large avail themselves of the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of voting procedures for 2020 and beyond.

Submitted by David Atcheson
Member, Social Concerns Committee