Posted on: Wednesday, July 7, 2004

VOLCANIC ASH
Real leaders are in short supply

By David Shapiro

For Hawai'i audiences, a riveting moment of Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11" showed our late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink standing with the congressional black caucus in symbolic protest of the certification of George W. Bush's election over Al Gore in 2000.

This is not to argue the election results. If Gore hadn't been one of the few favorite sons to lose his home state, Tennessee, the controversy over the razor-thin Bush victory in Florida wouldn't have mattered.

But it took integrity for Mink to join in highlighting concerns that thousands of African American voters were disenfranchised in Florida, which Bush won by barely 500 votes.

Another former Hawai'i congressman, Tom Gill, was recognized last week by the Martin Luther King Coalition for his leadership in the passage 40 years ago of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The law protected the voting rights Mink stood for, barred discrimination in public facilities and mandated equal employment opportunity.

Gill was a principal author of Title VI, the heart of the bill that provided: "No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

The measure was later amended to protest gender as well as race.

Whatever our politics, we should respect Mink and Gill for the principled and independent leadership they represented, qualities desperately needed in public life today.

Mink and Gill ran for office to fight for causes they believed in, not to see what career opportunities might present themselves.

They held to their principles even when it didn't win them favor with voters. Both lost multiple bids for higher office.

And despite their independence, both were effective in achieving their goals.

Mink, a leading voice for better education and women's rights, was a principal author of Title IX legislation that changed the sports world by opening school athletics to females.

During his single term in Congress, Gill was in the middle of historic battles to reduce poverty, protect consumers and establish Medicare. Locally, he was a passionate voice for the environment and the dispossessed.

Post-statehood Hawai'i has been defined by two types of leaders.

Insiders such as the late Gov. John Burns and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye were geniuses at working the machinery of state and federal power to gain resources to build the modern Hawai'i.

Outsiders like Mink and Gill found their genius in keeping the insiders honest and reminding us of the principles of equal opportunity upon which our state was built.

If Hawai'i is to move forward again, our two political parties must do better at breeding both kinds of leaders.

Former Gov. Ben Cayetano says part of the problem is fewer great causes to inspire people to run for office.

"Burns, Inouye and the 1954 Democrats fought for social programs — workers' compensation, mandatory health insurance, land reform and equal opportunity under law — themes which inspired them," Cayetano says.

"Once those goals were basically achieved, the level of idealism declined and the level of self-interest increased."

He's right that inspiring causes are more difficult to find, but they exist if we have the vision to see that issues such as economic diversity, education reform, drug rehabilitation, homelessness and Hawaiian rights all have their roots in idealistic themes of equality and justice.

They'll become great causes when leaders with the passion of Mink and Gill rise to champion them.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net.