This past Sunday was the feast of Pentecost: the day Christians believe the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and they began speaking in tongues. We are told that people from different parts of the Roman Empire heard them as if they were speaking to them in their native languages.

We need that gift today. We need the gift of hearing what is really being said through the lies, dog whistles and cacophony of this year’s often ugly political rhetoric.

At service this Sunday I was struck by the celebrant’s observation that the idea of the “self-made man” can be viewed as a “self-idolatrous, almost pagan” notion. It springs from a view of the world in which neither God nor government have their rightful place: the first in the private space of personal belief, the second in the public sphere serving the greater good.

The “self-made man” and the theory that government should “free” people to help themselves are popular themes with Wisconsin politicians like Paul Ryan and the embattled Governor Scott Walker who faces a recall election on June 5.

Ryan is Catholic and Walker is evangelical Christian. They would like voters to believe they are living their faith even as the proposals they advance run counter to social justice tenets fundamental to Christianity. Governor Walker’s policies have undermined the rights of women, unions, schoolteachers and other public sector workers. A recent effort by Walker supporters calls on parents to remove their children from the classrooms of “radical” teachers – defined as those who signed the recall petition.

Why should the fight in Wisconsin matter to people in Hawaii?

A Walker win will embolden those who are intent on union-busting, who play fast and loose with public education and the environment and who think nothing of taking away the rights of women. Walker recently signed a bill that repeals equal pay for women. This, in 2012?

We in Hawaii should care about what is happening in Wisconsin. It will tell us whether people are paying attention to the assault on truth and the power of money in this year’s election. Are people paying attention to campaigns like Gov. Walker’s that trumpet false claims to have created thousands of jobs even as Wisconsin ranks last in job creation nationally? Are people paying attention to the way Citizens United has allowed Walker to attract anonymous, out-of-state funds and outspend his challenger, Tom Barrett, 25 times over?

Despite the overwhelming lopsidedness of how the money is flowing, voter attention and grassroots energy could ensure a win for Milwaukee mayor, Tom Barrett.

Barrett offers a governing approach that a Milwaukee native, now resident in Honolulu, remembers well. Speaking from the perspective of someone who has spent 35 years in secondary education including serving as a high school principal and who has several relatives working as teachers, he laments the recent degradation of public education and the attack on teachers.

“I spent my summers on the playground,” he says. “We’d just go there and grab a bat, if we needed one and play. There’d be folks to coach us. I learned to play chess at that playground. I used to go to the gym at the police station and the officers would show me how to box. Public facilities were used by the public. It was great!”

“And I also remember being glad that the nurse would stop in and check on my mother,” he added. “I hope Wisconsin voters demonstrate the independence that I have always associated with them and give Tom Barrett the chance to make things right for the average working person.”

Walker Couldn’t Make a Believer Out of Flo

There is a Prudential ad in which a rival company’s executive tells outright lies about what his company provides in hopes of hoodwinking customers. He fails to persuade the Prudential ambassador, Flo – she of the scarlet lipstick and unquenchable good cheer. We join her in watching flames start to go up the pants of the lying executive as he speaks.

When I see that commercial, the face of the executive with his pants on fire becomes for me the face of Scott Walker. His lies are designed to hoodwink voters.

Where Walker ended protections for workers, Tom Barrett promises to restore collective bargaining rights. Where Walker slashed spending on public education and women’s health, and diverted millions of dollars intended for Wisconsin victims of mortgage fraud to plug holes in his budget, Barrett promises to reverse the damage done to working men and women. Tom Barrett’s commitment to the good of the community is a perspective the aloha state can easily identify with.

We may not be able to match Walker’s support from backers like the Koch brothers. But Walker will be hard-pressed to match an outpouring of aloha for Tom Barrett if the people of Hawaii look for ways to express that aloha in the critical week ahead. Here’s where you can start.

About the author: Dawn Morais Webster blogs on faith, culture and politics at www.freecatholic808.com.
She moved to Hawaii from Malaysia/Singapore more than 10 years ago and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. She is a Senior Advisor at Olomana Loomis ISC.