"Don't Put Me in a Box": My Speech After Becoming Chair of the Maui Democrats

Last Saturday I stepped up to be Chair of the Maui County Democrats for the next two years.  I wrote this brief speech to deliver to the 75 people there, consisting of council members, senators, representatives, executive committee members, state leadership, and party members.  I ended up just speaking from the heart and not using this speech, but this how I told my story in writing.  Enjoy if you have a moment!

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Aloha Maui Democrats,

Thank you all for your support. 

I know most of you don’t know me well, or at all, but I am a fellow Democrat.  I share your vision of making Maui better through Democratic values, policies, and candidates.

To share a little about me. . .

I grew up in San Diego, attending Catholic schools in my early years.  From the Catholics I learned about social justice, service, and morality.

I studied History at Princeton, where I took to heart my school’s motto of “In the Nation’s Service, and the Service of All Nations.”

I’ve been a registered Democrat since I was eighteen.

A year out of college I moved to Hawaii on a one way ticket on my own at 23. I worked as a public school teacher in the Central District of Oahu, including Leilehua, Wahiawa, Waialua, Kahuku, and Haleiwa. 

In 2008 I moved to the S. Kohala district of Hawai’i Island. There I taught in country towns- Kohala, Waimea, and Waikoloa, and- learned about the people, places, and culture of that great island.

In 2010 I moved to Lahaina to continue my work as a teacher.  At long last I had found my home.  Here in 2013 I met and married my wife Leigh Fitzgerald, who also happens to be a charter school leader of Hawai’i Technology Academy in Wailuku.  Here I welcomed my daughter Nel into the world in 2015.  This is my community.

On Maui I’ve been most civically active as Chair for four years  of the Surfrider Foundation, a volunteer ocean advocacy non-profit that has done enormous good on Maui, including helping to protect the special places of Ma’alaea, Peahi, and Honolua; removing hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash from hundreds of Maui beaches over 25 years; and advocating for smart, visionary policy that improves Maui, like the plastic bag ban, polystyrene ban, the smoking ban, and the oxybenzone ban.  I continue as a Board member on the Surfrider Foundation, which continues to do essential work.

I became active in the Maui Democratic Party a few years ago when I became Chair of District 10, Precinct 5.  I attended the 2018 Big Island Convention, which opened my eyes to the strength, reach, and diversity of the Democratic Party of Hawaii.  This is when I realized just how Big the Democratic Tent is, particularly in Hawaii, and that our strength is the same as our challenge, which Keali’i mentioned: our diversity of perspectives and priorities.

At convention I was chosen to be the Maui County Non-Female Representative to the State Central Committee.   Since then I have attended a number of SCC meetings in the past year, including at Party Headquarters in Honolulu, at ILWU Headquarters in Wailuku, and often online.

As it happens, I have also served as the Chair of the Polling Place at the Lahaina Civic Center for the last two elections, running a pop up bureaucracy of twenty people for twelve hours nonstop to process thousands of voters.  

Today I come to you as a volunteer for the party.  I want to be as useful and effective as I can be in service to you all and the values we share. I hope to work closely with many of you passionate people.  At minimum, if you are in this room right now, I’d love to meet you and connect with you over the next two years.  I look forward to collaborating with  Chair Keali’i Lopez, her Executive Committee, and the State Central Committee.   Let’s work together with our time, treasure, and talents, to create the better Hawai'i we all wish for.

I have one request of you, and this resonates with what Chair Lopez just said.  Please don’t put me in a box.  There is no box.  I will commit to the same with each of you.  I want to meet you as people and talk about mission and vision and shared priorities.  The success of our Democratic platform for positive social change will be a function of the success of our relationships with each other.  So, in the coming months, let’s build relationships together.

Among the initiatives I hope to support, I am determined that Maui Democrat voters will show up on Election Day in 2020.  With an organized plan, we can increase party participation in elections by hundreds and possibly thousands of people.  I’ve done this before with high school students. I look forward to discussing and implementing this, and much more, with the Executive Committee.

I continue to be a student of the Party organization in Maui and Oahu, and I humbly request each of your help and support  in learning all I need to know to best advocate for our shared mission and vision: To create a better Maui, Hawaii, Nation, and World, through the Democratic Party.

I look forward to serving as your Chair

Mahalo Nui