“We did not judge him by the color of his skin. We judged him by the love that he had for our people."
Posted on 08/03/2020 5:31:31 PM PDT by MarvinStinson
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez seems to have let the cat get her tongue over her insult to Hawaii's patron saint and most beloved figure, Father Damien of Molokai.
That's the 19th century Belgian priest who came the islands, learned the Hawaiian language, lived like a pauper, and spent his life caring for people with leprosy on the island of Molokai, before catching the disease and dying of it himself. The native Hawaiians loved him and honored him with a statue alongside King Kamehameha I as their state emblems inside the capitol.
Not an issue for the congresswoman, who singled Father Damien out as a 'colonizer' and an example of 'white supremacy.'
John Gage
AOC calls the statue in the US capitol building of Father Damien, a canonized saint in the Catholic Church, a part of “white supremacist culture.” Father Damien died of leprosy after spending his life serving others who had the disease.
She got a gale wind of blowback from grossly offended Hawaiians who actually know the story of Father Damien.
"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez picked the wrong statue to criticize," by Matthew Walther:
In an Instagram story uploaded Thursday, the congresswoman, who once complained about not being able to afford an apartment after being elected to a position that pays her $174,000 a year and will provide her with free health-care and other benefits for the rest of her life, singled out a statue of Damien, who lived in vowed poverty and eventually died of leprosy himself, as an example of "what patriarchy and white supremacist culture looks like."
Ocasio-Cortez is probably not aware that he spoke and preached in the Hawaiian language, that his feast day is a holiday in Hawaii, or that he is routinely named in lists of the most admired figures in modern Hawaiian history.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
"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 AOC says they should honor instead of Fr. Damien, wrote to Fr. Damien in 1881 to thank him and to bestow an honor upon him.
She doubled down on it today
“We did not judge him by the color of his skin. We judged him by the love that he had for our people."
If so, it is a strong argument in favour of colonialism and white supremacy.
Tell us more.
Even a casual tourist to Hawaii such as myself picked up on the Father Damien story during my visit. This was an amateurish own goal from AOC here.
US politician Ocasio-Cortez takes aim at ‘greatest Belgian ever’
Alan Hope The Brussels Times Sunday, 02 August 2020
https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/belgium-all-news/124779/brussels-fire-brigade-could-strike-over-inhumane-working-conditions/
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives, has been criticised after she singled out the Catholic saint and priest to the lepers known as Father Damien as a symbol of ‘patriarchy and white supremacist culture’.
“Even when we select figures to tell the stories of colonized places, it is the colonizers and settlers whose stories are told — and virtually no one else,” she wrote, beside a photo of the statue of the Belgian priest.
“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.”
Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, was referring to the National Statuary Hall in the Capitol building in Washington, which contains two statues sent by each of the 50 states to represent them and their history. Father Damien is one of the two statues representing Hawaii, together with former king Kamehameha I.
Father Damien was born Jozef De Veuster in 1840 in Tremelo in the province of Flemish Brabant, just 18km from Mechelen, seat of the Belgian church.
In 1873 he travelled to Hawaii to work with the people of a leper colony. In those days, the highly infectious leprosy was incurable, and sufferers were ostracised from society while they waited for the disease to kill them.
Damien joined the colony, ministered to them, shared food with them and eventually in 1884 contracted the disease himself. He died five years later.
Since then, he has been given the Catholic title of ‘martyr of charity’. He was named as Venerable by Pope Paul VI in 1977, beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995 and canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009. At the ceremony to mark his canonisation, King Albert II of Belgium was present with Queen Paola.
Before that, in 2005, the Flemish public broadcaster televised a programme putting the case for people nominated as the greatest Belgian of all time, to be voted on by the public. The TV audience voted Damien in first place, ahead of cycling legend Eddy Merckx (3), Jacques Brel (7) and Rubens (9). In a similar poll organised by the French-speaking RTBF, Damien came in third place, after Brel and King Baudouin.
The statue of Damien is a replica of the one erected in his home town, and was sent to Washington by the state of Hawaii. The saint is also commemorated by Damien Vandaag, an association based in Leuven to curate his life and work.
“Ocasio-Cortez has a point that there are many white men among those statues in Washington,” said coordinator Ruben Boon. “And Damien was undeniably a white man,”
But the choice of Damien as an example of white male supremacy weakened her own argument.
“Damien was not a white ruler. He spoke the language of the Hawaiians. He deliberately chose their side against the white rule. He eventually gave his life for them. In that sense – even for the Hawaiians themselves – he is much more Hawaiian than Belgian, white or whatever.”
AOC has not responded personally, but her office issued a statement:
“Fr. Damien conducted acts of great good, and his is a story worth telling. It is still worthy for us to examine from a US history perspective why a non-Hawaiian, non-American was chosen as the statue to represent Hawaii in the Capitol over other Hawaiian natives who conducted great acts of good, and why so few women and people of color are represented in Capitol statues at all.”
AOC has not responded personally, but her office issued a statement:
“Fr. Damien conducted acts of great good, and his is a story worth telling. It is still worthy for us to examine from a US history perspective why a non-Hawaiian, non-American was chosen as the statue to represent Hawaii in the Capitol over other Hawaiian natives who conducted great acts of good, and why so few women and people of color are represented in Capitol statues at all.”
When I visited Hawaii in 1977 we flew to Maui on an Island Jumper, the Pilot flew sideways over the peninsula where Father Damien had his ministry. There was no escaping that isolated place. He is a Saint. AOC is a fraud.
The thing about AOC is that she’s not embarrassed by her own stupidity.
What do you wanna bet that lots of those who could have had well paying Amazon jobs vote for her again anyway?
If it were only possible, AOC should die of leprosy herself with no one willing to minister to her. She is a blight on humanity.
“So where’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s apology for attacking Hawaii’s beloved leper saint, grossly offending Hawaiians?”
Makes no difference. Cortez is a democrat and those filthy ignorant democrat Hawaidiots...the same scum who gave us Maizie Horrible...will give her a pass.
bmp
Now we see what AOC is really like. Remember it was dems who trashed mother Theresa.
Doesn’t this stupid bitch A O C consider herself “Catholic”?
The dumb ass broad really stepped in it once again.
bmp
AOC is the future of the Catholic Church
National Catholic Reporter Jul 27, 2020
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/ncr-connections/aoc-future-catholic-church
I despise that ignorant, arrogant loud big mouthed AOC. A freakin embarrassment of a DemoRat ‘ain’t. You suck NYC electing this leftist imbecile just like her constituents.
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