Paper regrets A WASHINGTON STATE newspaper columnist and editor are publicly apologizing today for a column that questioned the patriotism of people in Waikiki and angered many Hawaii residents.
Hawaii article
A mainland columnist had written
that Waikiki lacked patriotism
after the terrorist attacks>> The editor's complete apology column
By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.comThe Tri-City Herald "grievously offended many of our fellow Americans in Hawaii" with "a column we published last Sunday recounting a small part of staff writer Karen Zacharias' time spent stranded there" after the Sept. 11 attacks, wrote Executive Editor Ken Robertson.
Zacharias wrote in her Sept. 23 column that "the spirit that prevailed in Waikiki was not a patriotic one. Corner chatter continued to focus on surfing and snorkeling conditions and tan lines."
Both Robertson and Zacharias wrote apologies that appeared in today's edition of the 48,000-circulation daily that serves the cities of Kennewick, Pasco and Richland in south-central Washington. The columns also will be posted on the paper's Web site. Robertson provided a copy of his column to the Star-Bulletin, but Zacharias did not.
Robertson said he spent much of the past week "poring over the hundreds of messages" in response to Zacharias' column, most from angry Hawaii residents who did not appreciate its implication.
The volume of e-mail on Thursday crashed the newspaper's e-mail system for about 30 minutes, Robertson said yesterday.
Zacharias said in an e-mail message yesterday: "If the Aloha spirit is alive and well, then I hope you each will understand how much I wish I could find the words to assure you that I in no way meant my impressions to be reflective of the whole state. But I fear, I have alienated many of you and that at this point nothing I say will have any credibility.
"But I will say it anyway. I am sorry to have offended you faithful and proud patriots of America. That was not my intent.
"I hope (you) will read this Sunday's column on the web at http://www.tri-cityherald.com and I hope you will find the grace to forgive."
Zacharias also said in her e-mail: "Sadly an apology I make will never have the impact the column did. I only wish you all could have read the column I wrote the previous week. About the trips my daughters and I made to Whitmore Village, to Helemano Elementary, to the Arizona, to the chapel at Punchbowl, where I left behind a picture of my father. The man who first took me there days before he shipped off to Vietnam. Only to return in a casket."
THAT COLUMN did not circulate among isle residents, as did the one that questioned Hawaii patriotism.
"There are people who I think wouldn't be happy even if we conducted a public execution (of Zacharias)," Robertson said. Some comments were so rude that the Tri-City Herald did not post them on its Web site. Many of the dozens that are posted are blunt, to say the least.
"We certainly needed to be more sensitive and we deserve to get smacked for that," Robertson said. "But there have been some people who got way wound up, more than it seemed to me was called for."
Robertson said he sent dozens of e-mails to "all the people who I felt like were receptive to hearing an apology."
His column today quotes an e-mail he received from Honolulu resident David T. Pegram, who wished that Zacharias could have met him or "anybody I know" so she could have witnessed the prayers and concern of Hawaii residents in the wake of the tragedy.
"I wish we had crafted our words with the same gentle care," Robertson concludes. "And I'm sorry we did not."
IN AN INSTANT on Sept. 11, our world was stunned when that first jet crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. Washington newspaper sorry
it questioned Hawaii’s patriotismBy Ken Robertson
Herald executive editorFor nearly three weeks now, we all have been reeling from the results. Many were obvious immediately. Others have shaken all of us as they became apparent.
At the Herald, we failed to recognize one of those results and have grievously offended many of our fellow Americans in Hawaii. A column we published last Sunday recounting a small part of staff writer Karen Zacharias' time spent stranded there has ignited a storm of protest.
The focus of the piece was intended to be that one part of the islands -- Waikiki -- appeared not to have been swept into the shock and had not responded with the wave of patriotism expressed elsewhere.
Regrettably, this snapshot of a moment in time addressed an incredibly sensitive topic with a tone that, in retrospect, was unmindful of the islands' diversity and cultural pride.
The world's tenor had changed, and we as a newspaper failed to recognize that fully. Patriotism had a very different meaning on Sept. 12 than it did on Sept. 10. The result has been an avalanche of e-mail, phone calls and letters.
We've spent the week poring over the hundreds of messages and reviewing our personal and professional standards that faltered in this instance.
Many who read the column online replied with an indignation tempered by the generous spirit many islanders rightly claim. Their messages stung us most deeply.
David T. Pegram of Honolulu was especially poignant:
"My only regret is that while you were here you did not get to meet me. I could have brought you to any one of the many religious services held around the islands, including the one that was held just outside the hospital room where my wife and I were staying after the birth of my son on Sept. 14.
"I could have introduced you to those families that did in fact lose loved ones in the very same tragedy that has so steeled your own patriotism. ...
"Maybe you would have offered me something to wipe the tears from my eyes that appear every time my mind is allowed to concentrate on what has happened.
"Maybe if you had met me, maybe if you had met anybody that I know, things could have been different."
I wish we had crafted our words with the same gentle care. And I'm sorry we did not.
Executive Editor Ken Robertson can be reached
at (541) 582-1520 or via e-mail at krobertson@tri-cityherald.com.
