New Zealand: A Peaceable Kingdom

I recently vacationed with friends in New Zealand | Aotearoa and yes, it is as awesome as Peter Jackson's portrayal of Middle Earth, minus Smeagol. The air is pristine, the water is fresh, and Kiwis are by far, one of the most affable people on the planet.

While in Auckland, we walked through our Airbnb's Pt. Chevalier neighborhood and noticed something distinct: no locked gates nor drawn curtains. Home after well-manicured home, occupants were clearly visible inside; nonchalant and indifferent to the pedestrians on the street. To us, as Americans, it felt absurd that anyone could be so trusting - but why?

New Zealand felt strangely familiar - like Hawaii, but decades before the housing shortage, the homeless crisis and the kama'aina exodus to the mainland. I grew up in Kohala in the 1980s; running barefooted through pastures, swimming in clear streams, picking ripe guavas, and surfing til sunset. We never locked our doors - in fact, if we did, we’d be locked out as we didn’t own any house keys.

It seemed there was little to fear then.

As my friends and I walked through security checkpoints on the South Island's Queenstown airport, not once were we asked to present our passports. It then became apparent that New Zealand is one of the few Western countries still unscathed by a major terrorist incident. (To wit, take a look at their police recruitment ad.)

For eight tedious years, Obama's administration refused to say, "Radical Islamic Terrorism." Instead he used euphemisms like "violent extremism" to paint a version of the truth. Half the country saw through the razzle-dazzle and consequently toppled Bill Clinton's wife from a self-assured electoral victory.

In J.K. Rowling's world of wizards, witches and muggles, The Ministry of Magic to use the euphemism, "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," to describe evil. It drove Harry Potter to madness that even grown-ups refused to say Voldemort.

“To solve a problem, you have to be able to state what the problem is, or at least say the name.” -45

I once thought that our state and party leaders, political pundits and experts, had all the answers. I assumed that their political science or law degrees, and careers in politics made them more fit for government service.

I now know that most politicians have no practical experience with issues like housing, welfare or mass transportation. They are placed on committees overseeing multi-million dollar budgets of taxpayer monies and they cannot discern up nor down. And this is why progress in our state is like the endless Kilauea lava flow; going downhill and sinking as rocks into the Pacific ocean.

While in Wellington, I visited the Museum of New Zealand | Te Papa Tongarewa where the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi | Te Tiriti o Waitangi is on display. This is a conflicting government document that the British Crown forced Maori chiefs to sign, thus relegating their people to the fringes of society. To this day, the Maori people remain a minority in their homeland.

I cannot hold my breath while our generation is inundated with looney liberal sophistry like a Sanctuary State or a Universal Basic Income. Now is the time to be unafraid, to "state what the problem is," and most of all, to be Unapologetically Conservative until we're all red in the face.

And yes, I'll hold my breath.