HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY - KOA: Warrior; Brave, bold, fearless;
Largest of Hawaii’s native forest trees (Acacia koa) prized for its carved beauty
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY -
“When one learns to be a warrior, one must also learn to run.”

PATSY MINK
September 28, 2002: In Honolulu, Congressperson Patsy Takemoto Mink dies of complications arising from pneumonia, which sprang from chicken pox. She was 74.

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that Mink’s life was full of ‘firsts’. She was born in Pa’ia on December 6, 1927, and her political desires became apparent early. In high school, at what is now called Old Maui High in Hamakuapoko, near Pa’ia, Mink was elected class president in 1943, the first woman to be so honored. This was all the more remarkable because she was of Japanese descent during World War II, when Japanese Americans were often reviled and even imprisoned. She graduated class valedictorian the following year.

She attended the University of Hawaii, and then the University of Nebraska, where she found that non-white women could not room with white women. She formed a coalition of students, teachers, parents and alumni and ended the discriminatory policy. She earned degrees in both zoology and chemistry, and moved back to Hawaii to enter medical school. She applied to 20 medical schools and none would accept her because she was a woman. To change that, she went to the University of Chicago Law School and got her Juris Doctor in 1951. There in law school she met her husband, John Mink.

Her political career began in 1956, when she was elected to the Territory of Hawaii House of Representatives. In 1959, she was elected to the Territory of Hawaii Senate. She ran for U.S. Congress after Hawaii became a state in 1959, but lost to Daniel Inouye. She gave a speech on civil rights at the 1960 Democratic National Convention. In 1962, she won a seat in the Hawaii State Senate.

In 1964 Hawaii Representative Patsy Mink became the first Asian-American woman and the first woman of color in Congress; all 72 Congresswomen who preceded her were Caucasian. In the same year, Mink ‘ran’ for president in Oregon only. Already an outspoken critic of the war in Vietnam, Mink gave speech after speech against the war, and became one of the first ‘candidates’ to create an anti-war platform.

She lost a bid for the senate in 1977, was appointed assistant secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter, became chair of the Honolulu City Council, and was reelected to the House in 1990, where she served until her death. Among her lasting legacies is Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, which gave women equal footing as men in educational spheres, including funding of educational and athletic endeavors.

A Democrat first and last, the manner of her death stirred some controversy. Hawaii statute 11-118 reads: “In a special, general, or special general election, if, but for the candidate’s vacancy, the vacating candidate would have been elected, a vacancy shall exist in the office for which the race in question was being held, to be filled in the manner provided by law for vacancies in office arising from the failure of an elected official to serve the official’s full term because of death, withdrawal, or removal.”

In August, well before the deadline for filing new candidates’s names, it became apparent that Mink was unlikely to regain consciousness - she had been on a breathing regulator. When the deadline for filing had passed (forty days before the general election), the family decided to remove Mink from the machines and let fate take its course. The date, however, was too late for any ballot changes, giving the Republicans little chance of winning, guaranteeing that Mink would be reelected, and her seat would continue to be controlled by Democrats.

The Pa’ia Post Office is named for Mink. In Congress, there is a review underway to create a National Seashore which runs from Spreckelsville to Ho’okipa, and name it for Mink as well.

Patsy Mink would likely appreciate Naomi Klein’s new book. See YouTube …