(note: this should've been written last year, but too many distractions occurred and it was put on the back burner! Today, I have time)
In September 1922, the University of Hawaii at Mānoa had its 1st student newspaper, at the time titled Hawaii Mirror!
The following year, it adopted its new (and still current) name Ka Leo O Hawaii (Hawaiian for "The Voice of Hawaii). Many people just call it "The Ka Leo"!
Learn more at https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2022/09/13/ka-leo-o-hawaii-celebrates-100-years/
The Ka Leo became the training ground for many Hawaii journalists, and it also gave many others opportunities to work behind the scenes whether as editors, photographers, comic artists, marketers, and more.
For me, it was my 1st forum to publicly express my opinions.
I enrolled at UHM back in Fall 1999. At the time, the internet was so new that I rarely ever used it. The world was starting its transition from the analog to the digital, and I was still living in a mostly analog world. I didn't even know what blogging was, and social media as we know it today didn't even exist.
So anyways, back to Fall 1999. I would occasionally pick up the Ka Leo and I became very addicted to the Opinions section. At the time, it was very edgy and controversial. People would write angry letters in response to the articles. There was a lot of back & forth. And the most prominent opinion writer at the time, Lance Collins, was the biggest lightning rod of controversy on campus.
In my 2nd semester (Spring 2000), I wanted to join in the action. I became an opinion writer. And of course, I got some fans and detractors. People would come up to me to praise and debate my articles.
However, even at this edgy newspaper, we had standards. We had to cite sources. And eventually, we couldn't write an answer-back article responding to our critics. The mentality was "on to the next article".
Being that I had one fanatical detractor, and I wanted to respond back, I started this blog back in October 2003.
Then later, we had social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
So now I have multiple forums to express my opinions to the world.
But Ka Leo O Hawaii was the 1st forum to give me a platform.
And to them I give thanks.
Mahalo Ka Leo O Hawaii for giving me space to express my mana'o to the world.
(note for non-Hawaii people: Mahalo = thank you ; mana'o = thoughts, ideas)
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PS: You can find SOME of my Ka Leo articles online at https://www.manoanow.org/kaleo/ and type my name in the search engine. The problem is the online archives only goes back to 2001 so anything I have written before that can't be found there. Also note, that some of my opinions have evolved since then, which is what's supposed to happen over 2 decades of living. )
