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Jerry Burris, editorial page editor of the Honolulu Advertiser, joined bank executive Robbie Alm and State Senator Mike McCartney to examine whether Hawaii was entering a period of civic renewal. Burris, whose front-page article on the subject appeared that morning, argued that polling and community conversations suggested a perceptible shift from powerlessness toward individual engagement. Alm pointed to the spontaneous organization of Kamehameha Schools alumni around Bishop Estate governance and the Live Aloha movement as evidence that citizens were beginning to act without waiting for institutional leadership. McCartney, announcing his departure from the Senate, contended that political parties had become structurally incapable of addressing complex problems and that genuine change would have to originate outside formal politics. All three guests identified education as a central obstacle: without a stronger school system, civic and economic renewal would stall. The show attracted fewer calls than usual, which the guests interpreted as a sign that broad public engagement had yet to take hold. The question at issue is whether the scattered signs of community self-reliance detected in 1997 mark the beginning of durable civic renewal or merely a response to prolonged economic hardship.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.
Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
