(note: the deaths of the following people occurred weeks ago, but time limits kept me from writing them earlier)
1.) Tracy Ryan
Tracy Ryan was a person ahead of her time.
She was a transgender activist who advocated for sex worker's rights and for drug legalization, back in an era where even many Democrats were too afraid to advocate for same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization, and the decriminalization of prostitution.
She was the head of Hawaii's Libertarian Party and even ran for governor!
I first knew of her in the early 2000's, when I was a college undergrad and was interested in the libertarian movement. While I was attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, I had a friend who was attending Hawaii Pacific University which had a pro-libertarian Reason Club. I attended a few of their meetings (usually some bull sessions at a coffee shop) and attended a few Libertarian Party events where Tracy Ryan spoke.
I haven't been to any libertarian event in over a decade, and while I still agree with Ryan's main issues of advocacy (ie LGBT rights, sex worker rights, drug legalization), I have distanced myself from much of the libertarian movement because too many other activists don't chose their battles wisely.
That being said, Hawaii, and the world is a better place because of activists like Tracy Ryan
Begley, J., & Blair, C. (2023, February 23). Honoring The Life And Work Of Activist Tracy Ryan. Honolulu Civil Beat. https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/02/honoring-the-life-and-work-of-activist-tracy-ryan/
David Nahinu Jr.
David Nahinu was a classmate in my 8th-grade homeroom class at Kawananakoa Middle School. This was back in 1994-1995!
I only knew of Nahinu for a very short time, since we ended up going to different high schools. I went to McKinley High School (should be renamed Honolulu High School) while he went to Roosevelt High School.
But those memories of 8th-grade homeroom was one of the funniest memories.
During downtime, we had the TV on, and it was sometimes tuned to MTV (back when they played music videos) and David would make funny jokes about the videos. He would even catcall when Adina Howard's video "Freak Like Me" was on!
He would also joke around with people, but always in a positive way.
I even remember one time I was walking the hallways, he was like "anybody there causing problems?", I was like "I'm good". Maybe I should've called him for backup when there was actual problems. Too bad we ended up in different high schools.
Decades later, I tried finding David Nahinu on social media. I contacted someone on Facebook with the same name, but it wasn't the same one I knew.
Then earlier this year, one of my other former middle school classmates mentioned on Facebook that Daivd Nahinu passed away. He mentioned some positive things about him, and showed pictures of him over the years (damn, he lost all his belly fat since I last saw him!)
With those memorials from his friends, I wished he was on Facebook and I wish I had the chance to meet him again during adulthood.
a brief obituary
