AOC the know-nothing
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/aoc-the-know-nothing (
https://archive.vn/nDHPI)
It may be her most ignorant moment yet, and that is saying a lot for Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
The freshman lawmaker this week condemned
a statue of St. Damien of Molokai, alleging that its inclusion in the Capitol as a representative of the state of Hawaii is a reminder of America’s deep-rooted "patriarchy and white supremacist culture."
"Even when we select figures to tell the stories of colonized places, it is the colonizers and the settlers whose stories are told — and virtually no one else,"
Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday amid a larger rant about the lack of minority representation in the Capitol. “This is what patriarchy and white supremacy culture looks like! It’s not radical or crazy to understand the influence white supremacist culture has historically had in our overall culture and how it impacts the present day.”
“Check out Hawaii's statue. It’s not Queen Lili'uokalani of Hawaii, the only Queen Regnant of Hawaii, who is immortalized and whose story is told,” the congresswoman added, referring to the indigenous monarch who ruled the Hawaiian Kingdom until its overthrow in 1893. “It is Father Damien. This isn’t to litigate each and every statue, but to point out the patterns that have emerged among the totality of them in who we are taught to deify in our nation’s Capitol: virtually all men, all white, and mostly both.”
Where does one even start? This is like a matryoshka doll of ignorance.
First, Hawaii is represented in the Capitol by not just Damien, but also by King Kamehameha I, the indigenous ruler who governed the Hawaiian Kingdom in the 1810s.
Second, Damien is not even displayed in the Capitol Visitor Center, where thousands of guests would see him every day as the representative of the Aloha State. Instead, the saint is
tucked away quietly in a corridor
frequented mostly by members of Congress, staff, and reporters. But do you know who
is displayed conspicuously in the Capitol Visitor Center as the representative of Hawaii?
Kamehameha.
The Capitol is teeming with guides who can readily explain any of this history to anyone who asks. All you have to do is listen. Then again, listening clearly does not seem to be the congresswoman's strong suite.
Third, the states select which two statues represent them in the Capitol. In Hawaii’s case, its overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature nominated Damien in April 1965 to be the first of its two selections for the National Statuary Hall Collection. Later,
in 1967, the state chose Kamehameha as its second selection. On April 15, 1969, Hawaii’s state legislature, which included then as it does today a significant number of native Hawaiians, gifted the statues to the U.S. Capitol.
It was the multiethnic people of Hawaii and their representatives, not some shadowy, oppressive outside force, who selected Damien and Kamehameha. If Ocasio-Cortez believes the saint is
problematic, then she is free to take that up with the people of Hawaii, including their Democratic governor, their Democratic lieutenant governor, their two Democratic senators, their two Democratic House representatives, their 46 Democratic state House members, and their 24 Democratic state Senate members. She is free to do it, though may she find herself in an awkward position demanding that the people of a solidly liberal state reexamine their multiethnic forebearers' alleged contributions to the "patriarchy" and "white supremacy."
Lastly, of all people to use to make a point about racism, sexism, and oppression, Ocasio-Cortez chose Damien, a literal saint who gave his life ministering to lepers. Sacrificing one’s life to alleviate the suffering of others is the exact
opposite of oppression.
A
self-professed Catholic who proudly displays
the cross on her forehead on Ash Wednesday should know this.
St. Damien ministered to Native Hawaiians in a leper colony. Now, AOC calls him a 'colonizer'
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...-a-leper-colony-now-aoc-calls-him-a-colonizer (
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Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed to a Catholic martyr who gave his life to minister to the least fortunate Hawaiian natives. Probably knowing little or nothing about his life's story, she held up this saint and hero of Hawaiian history as the totem of “white supremacy,” apparently because he was an immigrant.
That’s the most charitable interpretation of her tirade centered on St. Damien of Molokai, one of two men the people of Hawaii (the least white state in the United States) have chosen to honor with a statue in the U.S. Capitol. As my colleague Becket Adams
wrote, "Hawaii is represented in the Capitol by not just Damien, but also by King Kamehameha I, the indigenous ruler who governed the Hawaiian Kingdom in the 1810s."
Ocasio-Cortez only obliquely tied the saint to white supremacy, but she explicitly called him a “colonizer.” The priest was nothing of the sort. He was an outsider, yes. He was born in Belgium. He crossed oceans to get to Hawaii, and at his first opportunity, he asked to be sent off to Molokai, a leper colony.
While there, according to the U.S. Capitol’s website, "He constructed a home for boys and later a home for girls. He bandaged wounds, made coffins, dug graves, heard confessions, and said Mass every morning. In December 1884, Father Damien noticed severe blisters on his feet without the presence of pain. As he suspected, the disease was leprosy."
Queen Liliuokalani, the very woman whom Ocasio-Cortez says they should honor instead of St. Damien the “colonizer," wrote a letter in 1881 to thank him and to bestow an honor upon him. Here’s the
letter:
Reverend Sir,
I desire to express to you my admiration of the heroic and distinguished service you are rendering to the most unhappy of my subjects; and to pay, in some measure, a public tribute to the devotion, patience and unbounded charity with which you give yourself to the corporal and spiritual relief of these unfortunate people, who are necessarily deprived of the affectionate care of their relations and friends.
I know well that your labors and sacrifices have no other motive than the desire to do good to those in distress; and that you look for no reward but from the great God, our sovereign Lord, who directs and inspires you. Nevertheless to satisfy my own earnest desire, I beg of you, Reverend Father, to accept the decoration of the Royal Order of Kalakaua, as a testimony of my sincere admiration for the efforts you are making to relieve the distress and lessen the sufferings of these afflicted people, as I myself had an occasion to see on my recent visit to the settlement.
I am,
Your friend,
Lili`uokalani, Regent
St. Damien died in his 40s of the disease he surely knew he might contract from caring tenderly in person for those ostracized and suffering victims of the disease.
So, according to Ocasio-Cortez, you are a colonizer if you lay down your life for people you never met before, halfway across the globe. If you earn the plaudits of the local queen for your selfless heroism, you are a colonizer.
But there's even more to the story.
The chairman of Hawaii's State Statuary Hall Commission, Hawaiian-born Louis A. Lopez, was the chief advocate of memorializing St. Damien in the U.S. Capitol. The state lawmaker who sponsored the legislation to honor St. Damien with a statue was Hawaii-born Frank Loo. Were these non-white, native-born Hawaiian public servants "colonizers"?
As far as St. Damien being a “colonizer” — well, Hawaii was never a Belgian colony. He wasn't there representing Belgium, either. He was there representing the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. And when the question arose in 1967 that St. Damien was an immigrant and not a Hawaiian citizen, Sen. Daniel Inouye rejected such nativism, pointing out how other states honored non-citizens with their statues, the
Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported.
The statue of St. Damien chosen for the Capitol was sculpted by a woman of color, Marisol Escobar, an immigrant who lived in New York and was renowned as a cutting-edge pioneer feminist sculptor. The blockish style of the sculpture partly
emulated native totem poles.
Her statue caused an uproar in part because it depicted St. Damien near his death, suffering in advanced stages of leprosy. At that time, that very human suffering struck some as out of place in the buttoned-up U.S. Capitol.
So, the statue Ocasio-Cortez objects to as a totem of white supremacy is a statue of a poor, sick immigrant social worker to the poor, whose work was honored by Hawaii's native queen. The statue was created by an immigrant woman who was a feminist artist of color and chosen by the people of the least white state of the union.
To be fair, one columnist at
Star-Bulletin, Sammy Amalu, had a decent critique of the decision to put St. Damien in the U.S. Capitol. (Keep in mind, Sammy wrote his columns from prison.) “Poor old chap,” Amalu wrote. "He had a hard enough life at Kalaupapa without adding to his agony by leaving him within earshot of the diatribes and harangues that punctuate each day’s passing at Capitol Hill.”
“What a fate to design for any statue. But to do it for a man who has already suffered so much for humanity’s sake is certainly stark brutality beyond compare.”
Today, that may be more true than ever.
St. Damien of Molokai, pray for us all.
