Hawaii in the year 2000 and Beyond

History

The events of September 11, 2001 overshadowed and indeed, defined the turning of a new millennium. The world would mourn again when an accident on the space shuttle Columbia killed all seven astronauts upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. However, tragedy would give way to overwhelming triumph when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, a first ever Hawaii born, Punahou graduated President.

In the shadow of these events, Hawaii herself experienced nearly a decade of historic milestones as well as its share of celebrations and losses.

In 2000, the Plantation era in Hawaii ended, as Amfac harvested its final sugar crop on Kauai. Also in this year, one of Hawaii’s daughters— Angela Perez Baraquio —was crowned the first Filipino, and consequently also the first woman of Asian-American descent to win the Miss America pageant.

Later, in 2001, a slew of notable events occurred. This year marked the death of singer and entertainer Loyal Garner as well as Auntie Irmgard Aluli, a beloved composer, writer and singer with more than 120 titles to her credit. Then, in a historic move, Hawaii’s entire public school system shut down when public school teachers and University of Hawaii faculty went on strike at the same time. And who could forget when Hawaii lost it’s “own” department store? Yes, 2001 was the year we would all say good-bye to Liberty House .

Fortunately, in 2002 and 2003 we could all cheer! 2002 brought us Kauai’s Andy Irons who won three prestigious surfing titles in a single year: the World Championship, Triple Crown and Pipeline Masters. Then, in 2003 13 year old Punahou student Michelle Wie stunned the nation with a youngest ever win at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship. All this cheering would be a warm up for the rise of Colt Brennan and for an awesome 12-0 University of Hawaii 2007 football season, under the leadership of Coach June Jones. And who could forget the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when Hawaii’s own, Castle High School graduate Bryan Clay, brought home the gold?

Then, in March of 2008, a sudden and sobering shut down of Aloha Airlines would leave about 1,900 employees jobless. In response, an outpouring from the community reminded us all that Hawaii is truly a place of Aloha. As we head towards commemorating 50 years of Statehood, a few realizations surface: as the 50th State we are utterly unique in our practice of ohana, steadfast about the local values based on our multi-ethnic communities and truly lucky we live in Hawaii because of our Hawaii Traditions.