Hawaii’s Patsy T. Mink’s record of achievement continues to follow her even in death. In Washington on Nov. 24, she will be formally awarded the nation’s highest civilian award.
The only thing topping being posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom this month is the fact that Hawaii’s late congresswoman actually posthumously won reelection in 2002.
Mink died in September of 2002 and her name remained on the ballot for the November general election, beating the living Republican candidate, now state Rep. Bob McDermott.
Earlier, Mink forged a good part of the heart and soul of Hawaii’s new Democratic Party when the issue was defining racial and economic equality for our new state.
At a time when Japanese-Americans found businesses closed to them, Mink became Hawaii’s first female AJA attorney. She was the first woman of color elected to Congress, and was one of the first members of the Hawaii congressional delegation to oppose the Vietnam War.
In Congress, Mink’s overarching achievement was in 1972 as she sponsored Title IX of the federal Education Amendments, which mandates equal financing for women’s athletics and academics at institutions receiving federal money.
An ESPN profile from the year Mink died explained her deep effect on women’s sports, especially basketball, which Mink played while attending high school on Maui.
"Women’s basketball should understand how much it owes Patsy Mink," wrote sports reporter Mechelle Voepel. "She should be memorialized at the Women’s Final Four in Atlanta next April. The NCAA, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, or both, should consider renaming or creating an award in her name. Too many people still don’t know that name, and it’s inexcusable."
Hawaii today has a chance to remember Patsy Mink. The idea was grabbed by state Sen. Michelle Kidani, who recalls that she was a Farrington High School student who needed help with a school project.
Kidani wrote for information from Mink and recalls that "she wrote me a personal note back and I was enthralled and started following her career; she was inspiring."
Today Kidani has the American and Hawaiian flags from Mink’s congressional office flanking her own desk at the state Capitol.
Kidani also has a good idea: to name the planned new public high school in Kihei, Maui, the Patsy Takemoto Mink High School.
The city’s Central Oahu park is named after Mink, but Kidani noted that it is rarely called the Mink Park.
Earlier this year, Kidani offered up her idea as a bill directing the state Department of Education to name the school after the late congresswoman — but the bill never even got a hearing in the House. Kathryn Matayo-shi, schools superintendent, cautioned that the DOE already has a process for naming schools and it doesn’t include having the Legislature do it.
"The process begins with the new school’s principal seeking input from their community," Matayoshi said in testimony. "The consensus recommendation is then forwarded to the Complex Area Superintendent who thereafter recommends this to the Superintendent for the Board of Education approval."
And folks wonder why the DOE is called a slow-moving bureaucracy.
Hawaii mostly names its public schools after locations and men. The men include a governor, Wallace Rider Farrington; two members of Congress, Prince Jonah Kuhio and William P. Jarrett; one mayor, John H. Wilson; and even the son of the owner of Hilo Sugar Company, Alvah Scott.
The reason Hawaii should name the new high school on Maui after Patsy T. Mink comes from that fine ESPN remembrance: "Because the Patsy Takemoto Mink story, at its very core, is about how much one human can accomplish in a world of 6 billion, no matter how many barriers are thrown in her or his way."
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
