I was asked to speak at the Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) Equity Summit about the state of things in Hawai‘i. Preparing for the talk I was reminded of some pretty depressing things.

In our lifetimes, we’ve already seen a decline in the quality of education for our keiki, and in educational outcomes like high school graduation, college completion, and even literacy.

In the past decade, we’ve seen homelessness double, with working families forced into shelters, by an economic downturn that has cut earnings without cutting the cost of living. This downturn and the spike in homelessness show us how vulnerable we are as a people to economic downturns.

Speaking of downturn…In our lifetimes, we will probably see the price of oil back above $125 per barrel. When that happens, the airline industry will contract, and our tourist-dependent economy will contract with it. If tourism is choked off, our incomes would go way, way down and prices for things we import — from gasoline to chewing gum — would go way, way up.

We know the solutions to most of these problems, or at least, where to start:

In education, we know that the way teachers and principals are trained, hired, and held accountable must change. We know somewhere in the mix, evaluation should consider student learning. We know families need to spend more time supporting what happens at school.

We know that we need to invest in local food and energy production. That means investing some of our hard earned taxes to preserve agricultural land or build infrastructure. It also means we may need to change our diets, live with less variety, and pay a little more in the short run for food or electricity to ensure security and price stability in the long run.

We know that we have to set priorities and make tough choices about how we spend limited government dollars. This will mean things like shifting some of the substantial spending on tourism marketing into investment in new industries that will drive our economic future.

We know the tax code gives breaks to the wealthy and that the welfare code punishes the poor. We could take the current tax break for mortgage payments on multi-million dollar homes, and give them instead to folks who are working, but barely making it.

These ideas and many more like them have been around for a while. But we haven’t implemented them because they require some of us — in some cases all of us — to sacrifice. Unions and parents would need to change. Consumers would need to give up some choices or pay a little more, the wealthier among us would need to give our breaks to those in need, and all of us would need to do more as workers, parents, and citizens.

We’d all need to sacrifice something in the short run for the sake of the long run, or for the sake of the collective good.

Sacrifice is hard. It’s made harder by mass-marketing that emphasizes individualism, choice, and convenience. It becomes impossible if people don’t have two things: trust and hope. Why would anyone sacrifice for the common good, if we don’t think the next guy will? Why would anyone sacrifice when there’s no hope for change?

No hope. No community. No sacrifice.

No sacrifice. No change.

Faith has built communities with the capacity for sacrifice. Done it for centuries. Wandering 40 years in a desert isn’t possible without some serious hope and community. Faith is training in hope. And, it’s community built on shared values. It’s this kind of durable community — rooted in something other than problems and outrage — that allows people to face challenges, and even crisis, with solidarity and resolve.

How do we build this kind of community in Hawai‘i – diverse and in-flux?

It’s already here, but we don’t recognize or make much use of it. It draws on things like our immigrant sense of hope, our indigenous sense of interconnectedness, and a foundation of shared island values.

Here’s the evidence: If we were about individualism, career advancement, getting rich, and maximum convenience, we wouldn’t be living in Hawai‘i. Most of us made a choice at some point to live here — despite the fact that it’s more expense, that career opportunities are less abundant, that it’s harder to travel or keep on top of the latest trends. We make that choice because we value family and community, a culture that embraces diversity; because we feel a connection to nature, and a strong sense of home. We value these things more than being able to “go anywhere, do anything” and getting rich.

Values like ohana, community, diversity, kokua, and malama aina are not just words — they are priorities that many of us have already sacrificed for.

Having a community with demonstrated ability to sacrifice is the most important ingredient to building a better future. I have deep faith in the soul of our island people. It’s that soul that will help us fight off cynicism and selfishness, even in a crisis, and make the sacrifices today needed to build a better tomorrow.