Quotes

• “For a nation forged by immigrants, wrestling with the legacy of slavery and racial injustice, we continue to aspire to live up to the founding ideals of America — of freedom, equality, and justice for all. Hawai‘i stands as a shining example of how to heal our nation and stand united through the power of aloha. 
• Aloha means ‘I come to you with an open heart, with love, respect, and compassion, and a recognition that we are all brothers and sisters — connected to each other and our planet.’ 
• In his address to the Hawai‘i Legislature on September 17, 1959, Dr. Martin Luther King said: “...we look to you for inspiration and as a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country, and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice.” (Email) 
• “This is a time where we as a country; starting at the top as President, but where all of us must stand up and condemn this hatred and bigotry and violence, whether it be based in religious reasons, or the color of your skin, or your ethnicity, or where you come from, we have to speak with one voice to condemn this bigotry, to make it so that it is not okay. Whether it be a slur, or worse yet, an act of violence, this is not who we are in this country, and this leadership starts at the top.” (Link)

Legislation

• H.R.1655 Community Economic Opportunity Act of 2015 To amend the Community Services Block Grant Act to reauthorize and modernize the Act.
• H.R.1897 MOMMA's Act  To improve Federal efforts with respect to the prevention of maternal mortality (particularly among African American populations)
• H.R.40 Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act To establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery.