Last week, my cellphone was filled with texts of turkeys — a spatchcocked beauty at my son’s Brooklyn apartment, a small brined number at my father’s house in the SF Bay Area, an unusual glazed version from my BFF in San Diego that she deemed difficult but delicious, even an overlarge chicken masquerading as a turkey from a former colleague now in Australia. The photos rolled in hour after hour, just like watching the new year ring in around the world, but with a side of wistfulness.
It got me thinking about all of us living on this small archipelago in the middle of the Pacific. Whether our roots are here, on other islands or distant continents; whether we moved away for a while but came back; whether opportunity or living costs lured our kids or parents off island — most of us experience this feeling of separation at times. It comes up a lot when we talk, a disconnect that connects us.
A recent media survey Civil Beat commissioned by News Revenue Hub of two of our neighbor islands took that conversation in a different direction. As coverage of Hawaiʻi beyond Oʻahu gets ever thinner, respondents from Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi island made it clear they feel increasingly separated from the rest of the state and from the things that matter most to them. This parallels similar responses from a Maui survey we did two years ago…