It’s a Honolulu newspaper institution, a beacon of light and clarity that has served as a lifeline to perplexed and curious readers for a half-century.
Now, after more than 19 years of writing the venerable Kokua Line column, veteran Honolulu journalist June Watanabe is retiring and passing the torch to Honolulu Star-Advertiser opinion page writer Christine Donnelly.
A Hawaii journalist since the late ’80s, Donnelly in August will take over the uniquely Hawaiian question-and-answer column that also features "mahalo" (for acts of kindness) and "auwe" (complaint) notes from readers.
Donnelly, a former Associated Press reporter and Honolulu Star-Bulletin writer and copy editor, will continue to generate editorials and opinion pieces for the newspaper for now before launching into the reporting and writing of one of the newspaper’s most popular features.
Donnelly said she can’t wait.
"Like any reader, I’m a fan of Kokua Line," she said. "I think it’s a real touchstone for community engagement. As a reporter, it’s really very exciting. I’m looking forward to learning a lot and following in very big footsteps."
The column, which runs five days a week, plays an important role in the newspaper as it captures the pulse of the community in reader-submitted questions on a wide range of topics — everything from the condition of streets to overarching political and policy issues, Donnelly said.
"The whole spectrum of life in Hawaii is reflected in that Kokua Line column," she said. "It can be very newsy and heartwarming and friendly."
The column not only gives readers an opportunity to complain and vent but to express gratitude for the good things and pleasant surprises in life.
"In the ‘mahalos,’ you see that people are out there helping one another on a daily basis without anybody asking, without asking for payment, just out of the goodness of their heart. And then the people who are helped want to publicly express their gratitude, which I just love," Donnelly said.
Don’t look for many, if any, changes to a feature with a winning formula.
"I really want to maintain a real sense of relationship with the reader," Donnelly said. "Whatever you want to talk about and tell us about and complain about, express gratitude about, ask questions about, seek follow-up, seek action, Kokua Line is the place to do all of those things."
Donnelly, an East Honolulu resident who grew up in Arizona, said she enjoys writing editorials and opinion pieces but that "Kokua Line is just too exciting an opportunity to pass up."
Watanabe, meanwhile, retires after a career in Honolulu journalism that dates to the 1970s. Before taking over Kokua Line in 1996, she covered politics, crime, hurricanes and every other aspect of life in the 50th state for the Associated Press, The Honolulu Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin.
Watanabe recalled that when she first took over Kokua Line, there seemed to be more consumer-related complaints, such as being billed wrongly by Reader’s Digest or wondering about the letter they received in the mail saying they won millions of dollars and could collect if they just paid a "small" fee.
"I was so naive in the early days that I would drive out to someone’s home to try to convince them (usually an elderly person) that they did not actually win all that money," she said.
It was then that she realized she didn’t have the time to go to those lengths — despite some readers believing she had a "staff" of people to boss around.
Over the years, the complaints evolved to focusing more on the frustrations and annoyances of daily life — trying to get a driver’s license with all the new requirements; potholes everywhere; people parking illegally or blocking others from parking; traffic, traffic and more traffic; noise from mopeds, ambulances, barking dogs, crowing roosters and construction; people not picking up their dogs’ poop; neighbors not trimming their invasive trees; people saying their pet dogs are service animals and taking them into grocery stores and restaurants; the homeless blocking sidewalks; and telemarketers and scammers constantly calling.
"After nearly 19 years of doing Kokua Line, I’m still learning things I didn’t know or didn’t realize," Watanabe said last week. "One of my more memorable ‘really?’ moments came when I found out it wasn’t against the law for women to go topless in Hawaii."
Kokua Line is truly the people’s column, Watanabe said, because it is driven by their questions. At the same time, the "auwe" items allowed readers to vent, she said, while the "mahalo" notes provided a means to thank mostly strangers for unexpected acts of kindness.
"The ‘mahalos’ have proven to be a very popular feature of the column, reaffirming that the aloha spirit is not an elusive catchphrase, but a code of everyday living for many people," she said. "Sometimes, all readers want to know is that there still are a lot of nice, caring people in this crazy world."
Watanabe added, "I can’t say I will miss hearing and reading complaints every day, but I will miss the mahalos thanking Kokua Line for helping them in some way."
