Gary Cordery - Change in Hawaii
Speaker 1 (0s): Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the true life podcast. We are here with a mentor, a leader, a builder, and an amazing individual. Who's going out talking to the community. And in my opinion, I think he's changing the world we live in. So let's talk to him a little bit. Gary Corey, it's a pleasure to see you back. I'm so excited to talk to you for those who don't know you, you can reach out to Gary. You can see them on Instagram. We're going to put all his stuff in the show notes, but let's just get us started. Gary. You've been, you've been out on the political trail.
You have been talking to the community. You have been not only talking to them, but more importantly, listening to the community. And what's, we're going to talk about today. Tell us a little bit about how the journey is going,
Speaker 2 (45s): George. Good morning. Good to see you again. I know you're down for bug and good to see you back. Smiling, cheerful as ever. I love that about you. Joy is a, is a great, you know, is a great aroma for human beings. So it's good to see you, you know, the journey you ask about the journey, what it means to run a political race, a campaign for the governorship of Hawaii. It's been a, it's been a journey. And really, I just feel like we're just waiting in we're ankle deep and in the process of kind of understand what that means. But along the way, it's been an amazing experience and really rooted in the conversations that you get to have with people learning about people's perspectives, strategies, really diving in and finding out what's working for people and not working for you, but really it's about, it's about gathering wisdom for the proc, for the purpose of understanding.
And once we understand that we can actually make policy changes, that benefit the very people that we're just talking about, the citizens of Hawaii and not only the line, but we, we will be establishing, you know, benchmarks and, and principles for other other states to, to look at and to embrace. I believe that this is how it works. So it's been great. It's been great fun. Like I said, we're just getting started, but it's a exciting,
Speaker 1 (2m 5s): It is exciting. You know, I, I was following along on Instagram and I have noticed you're doing some beach cleanups. I've noticed you at Punchbowl Memorial. And I really admire Gary that there's no, you have like this. It seems to me, you have like a motor that's always going, you know, and I don't like you are out and about, and you're listening to people and you are, you just have such a good vibe about you. What is it that really motivates you to get up every morning and do these things and have a plan and care enough about people to go out there and try to make a change?
What, what do you attribute that motivation to,
Speaker 2 (2m 42s): You know, George, honestly, 4, 4, 4 20 this morning, long before the sun rose, I rose to be with the king of heaven. You're gonna know it brings me motivation. That's what brings me motivation. The fact that he loves me and he has plans for our lives. And that, that part of part of life is as his understanding his, his goal, his desire that his presence would be known in the lives of people. And so it just removes all, all the restraints and it opens up nothing but possibility.
So up until only 20 minutes ago, this has been my morning and it's an amazing experience and what I would have just encourage everybody to participate in, but going out. And I think that, I think that, you know, as I mentioned, even your joyous and invitation, that which lives on the inside come outcomes comes out out of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so what you put in your heart, what you put in your mind, that's, that's who you are in the community. And people are either drawn to it or not.
And, and I, I'm hoping that this time that we have together, both on this call, but in, in life, it would create a beauty for people to live and to be free. So it sounds kind of lofty in my mind when I say it's kind of lofty, but as that's actually what I believe.
Speaker 1 (3m 60s): Yeah. I don't think there's anything wrong with lofty. In fact, I think that the world could use a little bit more loft. You know, I, yeah. It's when I, when I think about our community, I think about the, this is like a real melting pot here in Hawaii. There's so many different cultures and there's so many different kinds of ideas that are out and about, and you've really been hitting the ground hard. You you've been to different debates and you've been talking to different groups, socio-economical backgrounds.
Is there some similarities that are, that all these groups are talking about when you go there and you listen to what they have to say, what, what is it that you're getting from all these different communities that may be, they may share the same, same vision,
Speaker 2 (4m 49s): George. One of the things that I, I, I hear over and over again is the revelation, the understanding of how government actually functions in Hawaii. Most people, including myself prior to get involved in the campaign, lived on sets assumptions. We, we presume things that were th that things were functioning a certain way and they were for our benefit. And they were thoughtful, not realizing that rarely, rarely are the decisions made by government thoughtful. They they're, they're not designed to actually, to, to integrate policy with humanity.
And it's the missing piece. People, people are across the board, people are groaning, but they don't actually understand why they're groaning. They know that life has hard, but they can't put their finger on it. And so the process of just illuminating the way government functions and what's possible creating hope for people. It is really been, it's been amazing to watch the expression of people, the hunger for more, for more, for more information, you know, people say information is power. I don't necessarily buy into that.
That seems like a cliche to me. I think the application of information is, is makes change. People know what they need to do, but they must do what they know. And this is the difference between being free versus living free. But people in Hawaii that people go, I believe people around the globe, honestly, desire Liberty, that the actual application of Liberty is. And the fruit of it is freedom, you know, to think free, to act, to not be constrained and be told how to live and what to think.
You know, we used to have, we used to have a education process that taught people how to think. Now they're taught how to follow. This is this, this, the fruit of that has completely changed in our society for people who are aware and taking responsibility for their lives to people who follow the lead of others. Those who offer a carrot and say, if you follow me, I'll give you this. But when, but then at some point that, that, that metaphor, that way of relating comes up empty because humanity has only so much to offer.
And, and Liberty and freedom is a PR is a part of your very being and to exercise and to walk in that is really where hope and, and freedom and purpose and passion have their core. That's where they get that's the foundational pieces. So I see, I see, and talking with people not often, not, not necessarily directly, but between the lines and the lines between the lines of their conversations, the longing to be free to exercise self-government and to live in abundance.
It is it's universal for the most part. It's universal
Speaker 1 (7m 39s): That's. So well-put like, I, I couldn't agree anymore. It seems to me that when we're, when we are treated, like when you, when you're not, when you not, when you're not given the tools to learn how to think critically, then you don't know the path you're on. Isn't so much a path as it is a forced lineup, you know, Hey, get behind me. And when you're, when you're in the lineup, you're in the shadows and it's dark and you don't have the ability to understand where you're going is not where you want to go, because you're just following the leader.
It doesn't work. And so, yeah, I, I, I heard a story. I was talking to some people at my work about you and some of your policies. And I was treated to an interesting story about the liquor commission and how the I was relating the story that you told me about. The governor appoints everybody in powers of authority in the top positions. And I was rewarded with a story. This is, you know, George, the guys that run the liquor committee, they've also set up the insurance company.
So if you want to get a liquor license, you have to go through these people. They set up his little, own little government within a government where you have to be part of the family in order to get the thing. And it's that type of corruptive nature that leads to the people being unhappy. And they don't understand why they're being unhappy, because there's all these rules. They don't even know they have to follow. You can't even see the people you need to get the permits. You can't even see the people you need without knowing someone. And it does make me unhappy. It does make my wife unhappy.
And I think it makes a lot of people in Hawaii, unhappy. There's this unfairness, this inability to achieve even the smallest goals without knowing the right person that that is the corruption. I, I think that you're hoping to tear out, at least for me. And I'm thankful for that. So thank you.
Speaker 2 (9m 32s): Well, you know, I've been saying for awhile that what a society needs, what Hawaii needs is equal justice. And I think when I say those terms, I think about the court system and law and the, the adjudication of law and proper sentencing guidelines and attorney generals that actually, you know, you know, tell the, the prosecutor and offers what to prosecute, but that's not necessarily equal justice that you're referring to equal justice means equal access that people should have access to their government period.
There shouldn't be no hoops to jump through no doughnuts to purchase, to get it off, to get a conversation. This is not equal justice. This is pay to play. And I, and I told, I told my wife last night on our way home from, from, from sine wave, in of all things at camp shopping center on leaky leaky highway, I said, you know, I just keep illuminating this stuff pretty soon. Everybody's going to hate me access. I, wow, who's going to even entertain the idea, but you know what? It was no, no.
The principle of equal justice and doing what is right is the absolute foundational piece for societies hopes and dreams. People lose hope for the future, right? They lose vision for the future and they cast off restraint. They just disappear. And they fall into the Malays of atrophy. This is, this is the struggle that people in. They they've lost hope and their government, they no longer see access. There is no equal justice and they don't see anybody raising a red flag.
They see everybody trying to make do with a little bit. That's leftover from those who are, who are actually benefiting from all these policies. And I'm not saying everyone is corrupt. Obviously this is not true. There are numerous people who talk to me that are deeply entrenched in these administrative pieces who are sick to their stomachs, who don't sleep, who live in anxiety, who live in unrest, because our cottages are working. The conscience is saying, this is not right, but this is the form that I'm in.
These people are longing for somebody to raise a standard, to say enough. These are the people who should be running these organizations, not those who are setting up these policies to benefit themselves. I just came up the other day in a political conversation, a bit of a digression. Why does Hawaii have such a late primary? Our primary is August 13th. Only far, only a few months before the general election. This is not an accident. A primary comes into the candidate and somebody who's not already in office, not an incumbent.
They come in and they have to, they have to get their entire campaign together and defeated a complete incumbent in four months am. I'm not complaining. I'm just saying it is not an accident. So this strategy to maintain power and control, to benefit, to have your handout, if you want something brings something, this is not right. So people are in despair about that. And longing for I've said before, this is about righteous leadership.
What is right? And that's what people want.
Speaker 1 (12m 52s): Yeah, I agree. I, I think that that's the main thing. People want to feel like they have a voice. People want to feel like the system they are in is just, and that they can make a difference if they choose to be. And here in Hawaii, we've just seen, it seems to me the same way our nation is moving from crisis to crisis. So is Hawaii moving from crisis to crisis. We've got problems with the sheriff problems with the sun, some guy getting radiation poisoning from changing a tire. You know, there's, there's just so much happening here and we never really get to see underneath the hood.
We just hear these headlines and we never get any kind of clarification of what's happened. It's it's kinda mind blowing.
Speaker 2 (13m 35s): It is my boy. I was just considering it myself yesterday. Why does Hawaii lead in all these categories? Why do we have the highest homeless population per capita in the nation? Why does Hawaii have the highest taxes in the nation? Why does Hawaii have nearly the lowest proficiency tests in school education in the nation? Why are we in the lead? In all these categories? One only has to look at the principles of government that are pushing these policies.
You have to go back, you have to go back and say, where did this ball go out of bounds? And you have to go back there and you have to start addressing that. You have to bring, you have to terminate these policies. Leadership requires the leaders to stand. We can no longer keep saying it'll be okay. It's okay. No leadership actually requires somebody to identify that, which is wrong and make it right.
And if that means people need to change and change their job, job description, then so be it. I mean, we, we serve, honestly, we serve a God of redemption who always extends this mercy and grace to those who will change. That's all, that's all that we want as a society. I don't think anybody out there and myself included is, is righteous. Really? No, none of us are, but we, you know, you're responsible for you can no longer know something and ignore what you know.
And this innocence may be the very reason why I'm running enough already. I know what is wrong. I know what's wrong in my own life. And it's an invitation for people to say, you know what? I'll stand with you in that change. And that's what I hope for. That's what we hope for. I think that's what you hope for Jordan. I just experience of you. That's what my wife hopes for my kids long for. And so, and they, they, they want this to happen in the private place. They want these changes to be happening on the inside in the heart.
So that, that was just on the inside. And your private home is the same person, the same exact person who shows up in the public square that there's no inconsistencies, but there's actual integrity. It doesn't mean that there's not need for changes, always room for change, but they should be congruent. So we can not have platitudes from government saying we're going to fix things and then go and behave completely differently. That's exactly what we have. We're going to get, we're going to live. We're going to have transparency and then do, do everything behind the closed door.
I, I don't know what to say. I mean, it's just obvious. It's so blatant.
Speaker 1 (16m 20s): Yeah. You could argue that. That is the very thing that, you know, people, people are upset, but they don't know why it's like that deep down. They know they're being lied to, but on the face of it, they're being told these platitudes, Hey, we're doing this. No, you're not. You can clearly see it. You can see it in people. When they say things that they don't follow through on, you can see it in people when they promise you things, but they don't follow through it on. And you can see it in the way the society is run.
When the leaders say things, but they don't mean them. And I, Gary, I love it. Like when you, when you, when you move to on your campaign, I think that you're showing people this, like, I think that you are truly showing people say what you mean and follow through, and that message alone. If you you've already changed me and my family, if you can continue to do that with people through the state of Hawaii, that's such a huge win Gary. Like, I'm so proud of you and what you got going on.
Like it's a huge win to go out every day and change the way people live with a message like that. And I hope any, everybody listening to this takes time to go to your site and listen to you and, and follow through and come out and wave signs and donate and be part of it because you have a great message that can change Hawaii. And you're doing that by being out on the trail every day. Thank you. It's true. It's true.
Speaker 2 (17m 51s): Now I actually have a very good already, you know, we're just starting something new. By the way, we started the zoom calls. They can go to the website, they can log on to a zoom. We're having, you know, we're having two, two zooms a week. One is topical ones in general. We had, we had a zoom call last night. The topic was the health of Hawaii. We had a, we had a physician come on and tee it up simply because she has wisdom that I don't have. She illuminated things that only somebody who practices medicine would know the ins and outs of the way medicine is funded.
The way reg regulation is implemented, how it's almost impossible for a private practitioner to survive in the state. And so she just, we just said, wow, will you just, will you just come and talk to us for a few minutes? And she did. She just went through a five points of things that people would not know unless you're a medical professional in the business, writing both sides of the check, understanding how to integrate work with insurance, with protocols, with preset payment schedules, with trying to serve a patient with this limited resources, or are counted on Medicare or Medicaid, understanding these elements.
She just shared what was. So, and then we just talked about it as a, as a, as a zoom on a zoom. So there we've been averaging, you know, I have anywhere from 50 to 150 people on these zoom calls from all over. And it's just another great opportunity to listen to what the people are saying and to speak the truth and to give people hope because the hope gives people, I mean, the truth gives people hope. So I, I hope that people will do, as you suggested, George.
I hope that, you know, when it comes time in the primary here in, in, in, you know, eight weeks that people go out and they actually take their ballot and they hand carry their ballot down to Honolulu, Holly or cappele and they vote for me just to be straight. You want to see change. Then that's how the change happens. I talk to people all the time are you voting? You have to actually enroll them in voting. I said, do you understand that voting is almost unique in the world that the people have the actual Liberty and the responsibility to put into office.
Those whom are going to govern them, wow, what an amazing opportunity and that people don't seize that opportunity. Then people, then you, then you, you can't complain. You, you know, you have what you have because your participation is what it is. And that's poorly said. But my, my hope is that people are listening to your podcast, talk to their friends, go to the website, get on the zoom call. I can tell you, or, or have a meet and greet. They can go on the website and they can have a meet and greet.
I I'm hoping that various industries we're going to meet with a general contractors association here soon. I am. So looking forward to it, to people who actually understand what it means to have a dialogue as sober conversation about what's really going on and are they willing? Are they willing to stand? And this is the, this is the Clarion call.
Speaker 1 (21m 0s): It is the Clarion call. How, how you've been to a lot of different meetings and different debates. How, what is your feeling of the way people are responding to you after the debates or after the meetings? Like what is the feeling you're getting? And some of the feedback people are telling you after such meetings,
Speaker 2 (21m 18s): You know, you're in is so encouraging. You know, we go to these meet and greets or we go, so a meet and greet is where a S somebody hosts an event. And they, they invite their friends and neighbors anywhere from 10 to 50 people. And or you go to these candidate debate forums, or we don't really have debates. I don't know what the, I don't know when it's going to take to get a real debate, but you have a candidate forum where everybody gets up and shares their perspective about things afterwards, George, the response is 20 to one 30 to one.
They're all in the actually hear somebody who's thoughtfully thinking through what it means to change the face of Hawaii. Not, not a list of this is what I think this is what I believe in carefully crafted messages or no messages at all. Some people don't even share. They don't have, they don't even share. They don't even send me. We don't even show up to these candidate debates. Right. And, and the fact that they don't show up is a complete dismissal of those whom they hope to govern. And so these conversations that we have, I, I, I don't, I don't have a, I don't use my phone.
I don't have a list of cue cards. It's just whatever people say, well, this is what you should share. And I said, well, we'll see, you know, it's like our conversations. I don't know. I don't have a, you sent me some notes on, let's talk about this. I, I never prepared George. Right? We just come in and have a conversation. And this is how it is. So, and this is how it is at these events. But without exception at a meet and greet 20 out of 20 at a debate, I dunno what the ratio is.
But I, I honestly, without 85, 90% say, yes, I get it. We're in, we're gonna, we're supporting you. Now. We know who we're voting for. Now. We understand, I never knew that about government. I never knew it was possible. I never had hope before. These are the comments that we hear on. Every time I speak and I'm not ringing the bell, I'm just saying, this is the response. This is an answer to your question. People say, I, there is hope. There is hope for Hawaiian.
We can change a why by working through these departments, we must change the function, the leadership within the departments that create policy for the people. This is the resonating message for people. When they realize they will have access to their governments at the makers, not the legislative piece we've been told for decades. Now vote for your senatorial candidate candidate in your district, or your representative in your district. They're going to go and represent you at the state house. They are not, this is not their job.
When you get, when you break through the Malays of how government works, you realize that the legislators collect the resources from the people through taxes and fees and regulations. They consume the wealth of the people. Once they've consumed, as much as they can possibly take, which is determined about how much the people are willing to give. Then they allocate those funds to the departments. The departments make requests, the governor and his office, they weed through these requests, but they pass them on.
They never reduced the request. By the way, it's an automatic given that they get what they had the previous year and they build from there. They never go backwards. They never account for the, what their resources are. They never account for the spending. They just take, take, take, and the legislators bring more laws, constraining people's ability to participate in government to participate in life. This is the process. This is the struggle. We are going to create access for the people at the department level.
This is going to radically change the way government functions, because no longer will these departments have carte blanche and do what they want. There'll be actually engaging with the people. Think of it right now. Can you tell me which department head is, is in the department of health. Who's managing the homeless resources. Of course you cannot. Nobody knows. Why do zoning changes happen? How can people get seawalls?
How can roads get paved? And others don't. These, these decisions are made by department people, policy makers, utilizing the resources allocated by the legislative branch implementing policy that determines what happens in your life and in my life, what happens to the drinking water? What happens to the watershed? What happens to the local industry to travel, to shipping, to imports, to exports, everything.
It's all policy and people need to know this and that. And the people who are making policy must respond with common sense policies, that account for the monies of the, of the, of the citizens. And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's profound, but it's not complex. There's a lot of administrative pieces.
Of course, I'm not saying not complex in the sense that there's not a lot of decisions and data and structure of the course. That's a part of the deal, but I'm talking about the principles, the principles of government.
Speaker 1 (26m 53s): Yeah. You think that they, they purposely like, this is my thought. And tell me if you think this is accurate. I don't, it seems to me that the people in government purposely try to keep us from voting because it cuts into their revenue. It cuts into their profits. Like they hurt. It seems to me. And I don't know if this is true, but it seems that we're being almost put in a state of fear or almost in a position where we're told our vote doesn't count because we would get in the way that we don't want to do it.
The people want to do cause that'll cut into our profits. So they don't. It seems to me, I don't, I shouldn't say they, it seems to me that there are people in government that see the people as an obstacle to moving their agenda forward. Does that sound somewhat accurate?
Speaker 2 (27m 42s): Well, I, you know, I think it's accurate. I mean, Dennis Prager, whom I love, he said the bigger the government, the smaller the citizen. So I, so if the idea is that the, that the government works for the citizen and there are no citizens telling you how to, how to do, then you get free rein, right? He holds you to account. So the less people who are watching, who are participating in government basically are just getting a line and automatically by tacit consent, agreeing with the policy of the government.
This is not, this is not self government, and this is not a Republic. We live in a Republic. Right? So the idea that there's no great push for, people's voting. You hear these? I don't actually believe they're true. I think you have policies nationally, and you have policies locally that brings additional people into the voting, into the voting system with an agenda. Similar to what you just mentioned. The vote is a tool for some, the vote is not about a representative that you would represent the people's wishes.
Politicians now see the vote as a way to either maintain power and control. Because if the people won't stand, then they'll do whatever they want, the bigger the government, the smaller the citizen. So I think that's the role of people to understand their authority. It's Lisa all conversations about authority, by the way on it, right? Authority is given and authority is exercised. Those who give it, they have their role. And those who exercise it have their role. When those two things are out of balance, you have chaos, you have corruption.
Speaker 1 (29m 29s): Yeah. I mean, it seems, it seems in a world where there's all of a sudden, all these emergent emergency powers that governors and even the president and Congress, and be it state or national have given themselves this extra, Hey, we're in a time of crisis. Now we can do all these things that we couldn't do before. And that, that seems to fit right in with the jumping from crisis to crisis, to crisis. If we're always in a crisis, that means that they always have extreme powers, which means that we always have a little bit less freedom.
Speaker 2 (29m 59s): Yeah. I think you're right. You know, I I've heard these things. We just had this shooting in Texas. This is horrific, right? Once again, the tragedy of falling humanity is now a vehicle to push legislative policy rather than, rather than account, rather than actually embrace the fact that our society has real issues.
It has real mental health issues. It has real issues about truancy and kids not going to school. It has real issues about fatherless homes. Yeah. Who's raising these kids, these young people. What does a school system teaching? The young people? These society issues are either supported by government or enhanced by government. So the idea that government would somehow use a tragedy that happened in Texas as a political football to deal with second amendment rights.
This is everything that's wrong. It's what you just described. It's the government government uses everything. Edits, edits at its disposal to self ProAct, perpetuate their power and control over the people. We need term limits. We need a governor in the state of Hawaii who has a lot less power. We need a government in Hawaii that has constitutional amendments that make sure that the attorney general and the sheriff and the ethics department and the board of education are elected by the people.
Nope, no longer should the governor have these kinds of powers, let alone this ability to execute executive orders without restraint. The th th these, these powers gone unchecked have brought us to where we are today. And you would like to think that humanity would be different. It is not every human being loves power. Every human being loves accolades. Every human being wants to be seated at the head of the table. Let's just be honest, but in all honesty, let's exercise.
Self-discipline that's for me, I'm talking to myself, the F the way that we see our society crumbling is because of a lack of self-discipline and honor, and respect starting in the family. Honestly, George, for me personally, and I appreciate this. If I really want to know what kind of a husband I am, I just have look at my wife. Is she, is there joy about her?
Is there, is there a piece about her? Cause if there's not, I don't have to make her wrong. I have to look at how I'm sewing. How am I being with her? That's just a microcosm out of that relationship. My kids will understand what it means to be a father and a mother and a husband and a wife. These are the things when, when we, when we talk about right leadership in government, it's not just about making sure that people's taxes are appropriately spent.
It's about stating from the head that this is the way we should behave as a society. Am I saying, I'm going to discern how you should behave. No, I'm just saying that. Love your neighbor. That's all I'm saying. Righteousness do what's right to your fellow, man. It's not that complicated, but it goes against the grain of the human of the human dilemma.
So I don't have a, you know, I, I don't know. I have, I asked, that's not true. I have a lot to say, I don't know this is the right platform for it. Yeah. I, I, you know, sometimes I sometimes go, you're talking, you're preaching too much. You know what? I'm not George. I'm just sharing with you what lives in me. And so if there's some benefit in that, I'm grateful if people misunderstand what I'm saying, I understand that as well.
I'm just saying that there's a better way. And that we, as a society are crumbling and we are being crushed by our government. And our government is not creating space for families to thrive. Moms and dads have to work two jobs. Who's to raise their kids. Who's going to raise their kids. Families go to a restaurant and all four of the family are on their phone at the same time. How are we going to get along? Where's the practice ground?
Where can I be wrong and recover? So I, I just hold that out to the people I say, there's a better way. There's a better way that we can live. We need to create government that reduces the burden so that people don't have to work two and a half jobs so that families can stay together and raise their children and have a legacy. And their kids don't the kids don't did it get a degree in Hawaiian can't work here and families have to move to the mainland because they can't afford to pay rent, let alone buy a house.
These are policy issues. It's going to take a while to, to have these changes in policies actually change the cost of living in Hawaii. But without hope people are going to check out, literally people who love Hawaii, who would never think about leaving Hawaii are leaving Hawaii. This is bad policy.
Speaker 1 (35m 54s): Yeah, that was really well said. And I find myself a lot of people in my circle, I think find themselves having to choose between, you know, getting up and working 14 hours a day and not seeing your kid. And then being at work, thinking like, well, what am I doing? Like I'm making just enough money to pay my mortgage, to have a little bit of time on my phone, but I don't even see him. I don't even see him. My wife's working on work and my kids going to school. It's like, you have to work this hard just to make ends meet, you know, every year with inflation, with taxes.
It's like every year they just take a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. And I see so many officials that seem to be doing better and better and better. I w what's difficult for me to, to square is that, you know, I agree that power corrupts absolutely. And that the people, once they get in power, you know, they probably started thinking to themselves. The only way I can make this happen is if I force it down their throats, you know, I, I gotta think that some of the people in positions of authority think they're doing the right thing.
I mean, I, I wonder. And you're out of all the people I've reached out to JT, thank you. You're the only person that's willing to talk to me. I've reached out to a lot of other candidates. They won't even get out of here and we don't want to talk to you, you know? And it's, it's that, that makes me think, well, maybe I'm not important enough to talk to them. And that makes me think, you know, once they get empowered, do they think they're doing the right thing? Because it's crumbling all around us? How can they, how can they think they're doing the right thing when everything is crashing? I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (37m 30s): You know, I, I think has a lot to do with how you understand promise and commitment. How do you measure promise? How do you measure commitment? How do you know whether you kept your promise or not? Because you send forth your word, you're going to do something. You're going to accomplish a task. You're going to make a declaration about what is so, and how do you measure it? You look, and you see the tangible results. The physical universe is speaking. It's always speaking around us. You're describing it right now. How can you say you're doing good things and you have great intentions when everything you're doing, producers reduces dung.
This is the distinction. People no longer operate in promise and commitment. They operate in one too. I hope so. I'm sorry. I'll try harder. So we, we, so we, we lack distinction, our words, lack power, because there's, there's no actual, there's no measuring of it. I can tell you if I tell my wife, I'm going to be home at five and five, o'clock roll around it. And I realize I'm not gonna make it five. I am tripping on the inside.
My conscious is going off. My stomach is a notch. It's all I realized. Quickly, renegotiate your promise, call your wife on the phone and say, I'm trying to get home, honey. I'm going to be late, but it's going to be five 15. I know that you're working hard to do what to do, what we plan to do together. Will you please, will you please forgive me for not arranging my schedule to be there at five o'clock. This is how simple it is. You reset your promise. It honors the relationship. And it's the same thing in politics or business or school or any aspect of our lives.
You just have to look at the physical universe. And if you have a friend and I have friends like this, I have friends who have come to me and said, Gary, I thought you said you were going to do this. I'm like, ouch. I, we,
Speaker 1 (39m 31s): And
Speaker 2 (39m 31s): It hurts. And it's a gift. People don't come on your show or George, you wondering why they don't come on your show. They're afraid. They're going to say something they're going to regret. So be it. I am going to say things that I'm going to regret guaranteed. I guarantee you on this podcast, people are going to be offended. And if, if, and that's, so I hope that they'll reach out and say, you know what you said, bothered me. And I'll at least know that I'm being sifted and I can account for it.
And that's how it is
Speaker 1 (40m 7s): Honoring the relationship. That is that that could be the foundation for all human contact that can make the world so much better honoring the relationship. Be it politics, be a business. Be it your wife, your kid, your friends honor the relationship. I mean, that's what it comes down to. He said, you're going to do it, do it or call and say why you can't do it. You know, it it's, it's fascinating to me that we could break it down to fundamentals. And that fundamental is the jump shot that everybody should be working on right there.
Speaker 2 (40m 43s): My friend told me I used to play basketball and I was always terrible at it, but I love sports. So whatever, whatever sport was in the season, that's the one that I played nice. And he said, he said, yeah, when he was an excellent basketball player, he was amazing. He says, I always start shooting the basket right next to the basket. And he would start right there. He would just shoot a one foot jump shot and use the Blackboard. And they would move around the basket and work back and forth. And he was stepped back three or four feet and go again. This is the basic building blocks of life.
It's simple, George, if we would just operate in this simple thing that your USBs and your nobody, no period, just start right there. Wake up a day and declare today. When I say yes, I mean, yes. And I will complete what I said yes to. And if you can't do it, you must say no, no is also an appropriate answer. The fear of man, fear of man as a trap, we want to say, yes, everybody knowing darn well that either we really don't want to say yes or we say yes, out of compulsion, the sense the need to please what actually, maybe, you know, I would love to help you, but no, I cannot help you.
I don't have time to do that. I empathize and understand your request and would love to say yes, but honestly, if I say yes to you, I'm going to break my promise. And we're going to have less than we had before. How about that conversation? How about we just walk in enough humility to understand our own inability, to complete what we hope for in a day. That sounds self. That sounds terrible. It goes, I don't know if that sounds terrible, Gary, but honestly, it's like, you know, we're going to be on this call.
I have an appointment at eight 30 in my office. I know that it takes 22 minutes to get to my office from my house. That means me eight minutes, an eight minute window. That's how life is. I don't know about you, but that's how my life is. My days are planned out. Literally in minutes, I have minutes to spare. I told my wife this morning, I need a five minute nap before this call at six twenty five. I said, honey, waking me up at six 30. I got to get ready to be with George. There it is.
You don't know how life is. That's how my life is. That sounds crazy. I don't know. I'm I'm really rambling today. Please forgive me. I, I don't know that I, you may just want to delete this video.
Speaker 1 (43m 12s): Are you kidding me? Like some of the, I feel great right now. I I'm thankful for what you said. It's one of the most honest conversations I had. And I think we've, I think that we've really touched on the very foundation of relationships. I think we've touched on the foundation of the relationship between friend and friend, between citizen and politician and wife and husband. And it's these particular conversations that flesh out some of the best knowledge and I'm thankful for it, right? I really am. I think the conversations like this make, make relationships better, and I'm thankful to be here with you.
I'm thankful for your time. And I'm thankful for getting to play a small part in moving your campaign forward. I, I care about the people of Hawaii and I care about you and my family. And I share the vision of wanting things to be better by being honest. And even if, you know, sometimes honesty is hurtful. Sometimes being honest is painful, but in life, what you give you get to keep and what you fail to give you lose forever. And so, you know, relationships and honoring relationship let's, let's leave it with that one right there.
Let's I think that's profound wisdom honor. The relationships ladies and gentlemen, and where can people find you out? What do you got coming up, Gary? What can people do to donate? Where can they find you? What's next on the agenda?
Speaker 2 (44m 32s): You know, thank you Jordan. Again, thank you for your kind words, your, you know, I, I appreciate that about you. And I really do believe that those intimate conversations and what I mean by intimate is you get to see into another person into me. You see intimacy, right? That actually creates value. People are often afraid that other others might know, oh my gosh, you think that way too? It may. I just say that everybody thinks the same way that we all struggle with the same basic principles of am I good enough?
Is it, is it acceptable? Is there enough to go around these? These are conversations that of humanity. I don't think you can change the change. Just spin the globe, put your finger down. I think it would be so there as well, but what's going on this week, you know, there's a thing at the veteran's center near the stadium. It's a city that was Seth castle. He is, he's a election integrity guy. I don't know if you've heard his name before. Seth is spelled S E T H Kessel, K E Kessel.
K E a S E L castle castle. Anyway, he's a, he's a, an ex captain in the military, retired for the last, since 2020. He's gone around the country, evaluating election integrity state by state. He was here in Hawaii. He's very sophisticated, you know, with data and these kinds of anyway, he's hosting a, an event at the veterans center. It's called election integrity in Hawaii. I think there's a, there's a fee to get in. The candidates will be there for the most part.
I'll be there. Some candidates BJ won't be there. He doesn't come to events anymore. W I dunno, I dunno. I understand that. Why, but nevertheless, he won't be there, but the candidates or candidate forum, so people can actually come there. They'll hear him talk about election integrity. What that means, how to get involved, tried to preserve election integrity and Hawaii exceedingly important, you know, start solid set. It's not who voted, who council votes. You know this, I think you said it to me before. So we needed election integrity in particular, in Hawaii, since we're, since, by the way, if you look at a chart by way of color of what is the most corrupt state in the nation, Hawaii is red, which is at the highest level of corruption along with most of the coastal states.
So Hawaii has plagued by corruption. So this is an event you can go online. We have meet and greets. If you go on to the line, Gary quarter-inch for governor.com, go on there. There's an opportunity to look at events upcoming. They're not, it's not, it's it's changing daily. I would suggest that you go to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, telegram, the website, all of these are different aspects or elements that people can understand what's going on and how to engage.
You can actually actually go, go on the site and help us raise money. I can tell you that we're heading into the final weeks of the campaign. We've hired another top professional from Colorado to help manage, understand what it means to campaign. He's laid out a plan, a plan to actually articulate our, our policy to people. But it's expensive. It's far more than we have. So if you have listeners out there, but you know, people out there, whether you know this or not, you can actually make a donation for our gubernatorial candidate, $6,000 per person.
That sounds like a lot, but there's people who see this, actually, what it is, it's an investment. You know, you hope w we make investments all the time and hope for a return. That's why we invest. This is what, this is what a campaign donation is. Those of you are watching. You are not throwing your money to the wind. You're investing in your legacy. This is your life. This is your KCI. This is your Ohana. So run with us, you know, there's a way to donate. So even your program, Georgia speed on your program is, is, is a great blessing to us, to me as a person, as a human being, as a friend and as a candidate at all, it's all, it's all the same.
You do not separate these things, so,
Speaker 1 (48m 35s): Yup. Okay. Can I introduce you to someone beautiful here as my daughter? Pretty impressive. Pretty impressive. I love you lady. Okay. Give me a few minutes. Okay. Love it. Okay. All right, Gary, you know what so much for everything and I will touch base with you soon. Thank you for spending time with me and, and doing everything you're doing.
You're making some great sacrifices and I hope that you truly see the change that you're making. You are making changes. You're making things better, and it's a huge compliment. And it's a huge for me. It's almost like a mentor program to talk to you once a week. So thank you very much. I really appreciate it,
Speaker 2 (49m 25s): Jerry. Just, okay. I Rayful I'll look forward to talking to you next week and for your, so those who are watching the podcast Aloha make me God's grace beyond you, George, and your listeners. That's my hope. You would know his love and his grace this day. Hello.
Speaker 1 (49m 42s): All right, give me, thank you. Thank you. Yeah.