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| Colleen Hanabusa, right, congratulates Tulsi Gabbard after both women won their Hawaii Congressional district seats, Japanese Cultural Center, Honolulu (AP/Marco Garcia). |
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| Senator Colleen Hanabusa (THR) |
There were a lot of firsts in faith during the 2012 election season according to
The Washington Post and some firsts in Congress. Among them are the election of a Buddhist to the Senate and a Hindu to the House, which will help make those chambers more accurately reflect the increasingly diverse religious landscape of the United States.
Democrat
Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii was elected, succeeding
Representative Mazie K. Hirono, who ran for the US Senate.
An Iraq War veteran, Gabbard was born in American Samoa to a Hindu mother and a Catholic father and had served on the Honolulu City Council and in the state Legislature. Whereas California used to lead the way with firsts, now [the MIC is using] Hawaii has taken that distinction farther west.
Hirono, who is Japanese and Buddhist, was also elected on Tuesday. In 2006, she and
Georgia Democrat Hank Johnson, who is African-American, were the first Buddhists elected to Congress.
In 2010, Buddhist Colleen Hanabusa, a Democrat from Hawaii, was elected. She will become the
first Buddhist senator when the new Congress convenes in January,
Religion News Service reported yesterday.
On the Darker Side
On the tragic side, Monsanto Corporation won its preposterous bid (
Proposition 37) to continue keeping secret when its genetically-manipulated human-experiment grains and organisms are sold as food to the general population of California (and the rest of the world. Food insecure Russians no longer accept their corn, prompting the European Union to take another look at their policy).
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| Christian fundamentalist candidate Bachmann |
And an
anti-sex trafficking bill (
Proposition 35) on steroids passed, perverting one of the most important causes of all to further the police state. And former Republican presidential candidate hopeful
Michelle "Crazy Eyes" Bachmann and Romney running mate Paul Ryan (shown above) were re-elected, even as they failed in their other bids.
