 politics in Hawaii with Dennis Isaki on Think Back Hawaii. Today we'll be speaking with Gloria Borland, president of We Talk Starry, Inc., who had her own magazine publishing business covering tourism around the world and even had a TV series about business. I met her through mutual friend in Rodney Sato along with Kenny Nguyen. She grew up on Oahu, went to work in Washington, Lacey, worked for Senator Inouye and others, including Betsy Megh and the Capitol Hill Women's Political Caucus. She also started the magazine. She did too many things to list here. We only have half an hour. Gloria, welcome to politics in Hawaii on Think Back Hawaii. Aloha. Aloha, thank you. Please tell us a little more about yourself and what you do with your podcasts. Well, I grew up here and I really believe that when you grow up in Hawaii, you always carry Hawaii with you no matter where you go. And so I went to college in Washington, D.C., and I always felt like still the local girl. My father was in the Navy, so my father's black, my mother's Japanese. And so I just loved the fact that I grew up in Hawaii. And so when I started, that was my lens. And I did a documentary that I started years ago on Barack Obama because when he was running for president, people on the mainland, all the Washington press corps kept saying, why doesn't he act like the angry man from Chicago? He doesn't act like the black man from Chicago. And I'm like, well, he was raised in Hawaii. It's different when you're raised in Hawaii. And so my friends told me to start that film and I did. And it's a big epic film. It'll be released in 2024 for the next presidential cycle. And there's a companion book along with the documentary film. But while I was working on that, I ran into Kenny Noy, Senator Noy's son. And I wanted to interview him about the friendship between Senator Noy and Barack Obama. And so we were talking, I went over to his house and we were talking and I was filming him. And then it ended up being just three hours of talk story. And I said, this is great information. No one knows the stuff. And so we decided to do a short documentary film. And so that's Senator Noy told by his son. Inside stories about this fabulous person who really had an impact on Hawaii and stories that no one else knows. And so that's that. And then when I was in Washington, I also was awarded a fellowship with Patsy Mink. And but I couldn't take it because I was working for Senator Noy, but I did work with women's issues in the 1970s. And so when her 50th anniversary came about, I decided to launch similar to Senator Noy's project, Patsy Mink Untold Stories. There's so many untold stories about this remarkable woman and she really changed America. So that's my mission. Untold stories, historical, honest, authentic stories about people that really had an impact. And they're from Hawaii. Yeah, great. You're getting back to Senator Noy and his son, Kenny. What are the some of the untold stories? I know I saw your thing, which was really interesting with Robbie Alm. That was really good also with talking about Senator Noy, right? Right, there's so many. Yeah, one thing, people don't know this that Senator Noy became a Senator because of his wife, Maggie. That's an untold story. He was a congressman and in those days you couldn't come home to campaign and he was going to run for Senate in 1962. So his wife, Maggie, and she's brilliant. She went to Columbia University back in 1947. How many Japanese local girls go to get their master's at Columbia back in those days? So she went there and got her master's in education and speech. And so she's brilliant. And so she campaigned every day from 10 o'clock in the morning till 10 o'clock at night for her husband who was stuck in Washington. And she campaigned door-to-door grassroots and she turned because Congressman Dan Noy was supposed to lose because his opponent, people don't know this, was Dillingham, the son of the wealthiest man in Hawaii, Dillingham and part of the big five and had all the money in the world. And they threw Luaus all the time, free Luaus, I mean, and so, but Maggie and Noy did it. And she with her sincerity and her honesty and her authenticity was able to grassroots get people to support her husband. So when he finally came home on recess, it was like, oh my gosh, you know, that's how he won. That's an untold story. And that's on our part of our Senator Noy told by his son. So what race was it that Senator Noy actually beat Betsy Meng? It was another race, right? Yeah, that was in 1959 when we had the Congressional seat open up, when we became a state. And she always had her eye on that to be the representative. And he was gonna run for Senate. But John Burns changed things around. He didn't like that. And he wanted Noy to be the representative and then let's two other people run for Senate. And it was a real stressful because Noy wanted to run for Senate, not for the rep. But Burns, he was in charge. Burns was, he created the machine, you know, he has that cop, he was a cop background. He controlled. Yeah, and we're jumping around, but Betsy Meng later ran against Joaquin Matsunaga also for Senate, right? Right, 1976, and she lost that, yeah. Yeah, that's, yeah, it's, you get a lot of things, you know, going on with Senator Noy. I recently, we had the David Distrario named after him. Right. That Kenny was involved with, like Christian A. Right. I think he also had some other ship. They wanted to name it after him. He told him to name him Kai Manheela. And Congressman Abercrombie had a tugboat name after him. Gonna really fit him. Okay, let's get it to your, Betsy Meng on full stories. Yes. Well, one thing about Patsy, people don't know, she was born and raised in Mali, absolutely brilliant. And she was raised in her family. Her father did not want, she didn't have to be the traditional Japanese girl. She was raised, isn't equal to her brother by her parents. And so she was the student body president at Mali High School. She was valedictorian at Mali High School. Ever since she was four years old, she wanted to be a doctor. And when she applied to medical school, she was turned down by a dozen of them because she was a girl. And so that's kind of prejudice based on your gender is what motivated her. And she always focused on education. And in my research, I found out that when she was chair of the Senate Education Committee here in the state Senate and the territorial Senate, she allocated more dollars per people, per capita per people, back when she was chair of that committee in 1958 than all the year since. She always put money into education. On the federal level, when she went to Washington, she helps, see President Johnson, people don't know, Lyndon Johnson was a school teacher before he got into politics. And so they had a kind of a partnership of like minds. So she helped him with Head Start. So the program all across America for youngsters in preschool, Head Start, that was something she worked with President Johnson getting funded. Also special education before that, if you had a disability, there was no room for you in public schools. She created a program where there was federal funding for public schools across America for children with special needs that needed special education. She funded that. Also when you were immigrant children who came to America who didn't have, English wasn't their native language and they needed to have bilingual education in the beginning so they could adapt. She created that program and federal funding for that. And so now you have bilingual education or English as a second, they call it now English as a second language, she created that. And that benefits all of America. So this is the stuff she did in the 1960s way before Title IX. So it was all America, yeah. Yeah, a lot of us just think of that to make in Title IX and women's sports this up, so we know. So I'm glad you're bringing all this up. Yeah, and Title IX wasn't originally for sports. It was originally for education because if you wanted to go to med school, it's very hard for you to get into med school or to law school or to business school or to engineering school or anything because they didn't allow women. So originally Title IX was for education to end that discrimination. The reason why it got associated with sports is all the football coaches were like angry, no, you can't include sports. You're gonna take money away from football? You can't do that. You're gonna take money. And so they complained the most and because they complained the most, they got the press attention. So for two years after Title IX passed in 1972, for two years, the athletic directors all across America, especially the football coaches and the basketball coaches complained and they were calling press conferences and they even got Senator John Tower from Texas, powerful Senator to introduce legislation to exempt college football and exempt college basketball from Title IX. And Patsy went back and fought, fought, fought, fought, fought and she defeated that exemption. She beat John Tower, you know, but that because of all the publicity, that's how Title IX became associated with just sports. It includes sports, but it's more now. Like if you look on TV and you see during the pandemic, when we were all home and we're watching doctors, they had all these women doctors talking about the pandemic and COVID and, you know, what to do, women doctors that 50 years ago would have only been white men. But because of Title IX, you have all these women doctors now. That's Patsy Nink, that's Title IX. Yeah, but discrimination, you know, all around and even she saw it in her father, who was a civil engineer, no pastor or promotion at the sugar plantation because of his race. Right. And he resigned to study his own land surveying company, like me. Yeah. In which he was the first of many in Congress, first woman of color, first Asian American woman, first woman elected to Congress in Hawaii, among other things. And she really was a fighter. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, there's another side to Patsy that people don't know here. She loves Hula. She was a Hula dancer. She loved that. And she also had a side to her, you know, there's people think she's just that angry lawyer, legislator, fighter. That's true. But outside of that, she was very caring. She had Aloha in her. She always was a very generous person. I heard somebody talk who used to work for her and they said that she would crack jokes and it was so funny that she had them laughing for hours. So she was stern at work, but at other times she could be funny. And that's how she was an effective legislature. She had a relatability. And Senator Noe had the same thing too. You had a personality that you could relate to people. So that's how you were able to persuade and get them to support your bill. And Noe had that, Patsy Mink had that. And really great leaders, political leaders have that ability to talk story and be real and be authentic. That's how you get somebody from Texas to support what you want to do. That's how you get somebody from Massachusetts to support what you want to do. And you're from Hawaii. So would you know why a lot of other name politicians kept running against her? What happened is, goes back to Burns. Burns wanted control that was a cop, but also espionage, he wanted control. And Patsy Mink was independent and totally really liberal. And he could not control her. And so he ran and it was really a sad part, but it's in Patsy Mink's daughter wrote a book just came out a couple of weeks ago. And in the book that Wendy Mink wrote, she talks about how the Burns machine ran candidates in the primary to primary her all the time. So she had to fly back home to deal with constantly. Her rule was every two weeks, to every two weekends she was back home. Whereas others in the Hawaii delegation could stay in Washington for a month or two before they came home, but she had to deal with a sabotage. So because she was too independent, she did not want to be part of the machine. She was sabotaged her, but that's the reality. That's how it was. How did the unfold story, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, she kind of back to her fighting spirit. She was not afraid to fight the EPA, for example, on the nuclear testing. You know, went to part in nuclear testing in Aleutian Islands. Well, also here in Hawaii in the 1950s, Johnson Atoll, Johnson Island, which is about 750, you're Kauai. Yeah, so 750 miles from southwest of the island of Kauai, they were doing open air nuclear testing. And so because Patsy Mink, because she wanted to go to law mid-school, she had a scientific mind and her daughter talks about it in her book. So she knew biology, she also majored in chemistry. So because of her scientific mind and her husband John Mink was a geologist. So when you have scientific minds, they looked at it and said, this is dangerous, open air testing is dangerous to human beings, it's dangerous to all light. So she in the 1950s organized and helped protest. No more nuclear testing. Cause that, and also Wendy talks about it. She was six years old, going into the first grade. Her parents took her to, they drove up Kunia Road to a ridge and they were able to watch and see a nuclear blast from Johnson Island, which was 700, 800 miles away. They could see the night light up. Imagine that, yeah. Yeah, I worked down in the Marshall Islands where they did some nuclear testing, well, before I went, but after FACTS was there, yeah, and getting back to her suit against the EPA and everybody else bought it. Even, you know, this went through different parts and that didn't stop her. Then it was even with that legislation and it was vetoed by the president, but then she had it overridden, you know. She fought all the way. Yeah, because could you imagine having that so close to Hawaii and everybody in the Pacific, you know, the nuclear testing, it was just too dangerous for life, you know, human beings, everybody. Yeah, so, but that's an instance of her speaking truth to power. She always had that. She wasn't afraid to speak truth to power. And so when people look at her life story, hopefully it can inspire those of us today, young people today to say, you know, when I see something that's wrong, something that's an injustice, you know, they need to have an inspiration to be courageous to speak truth to power. Yeah, so what else does her daughter say? Oh, so much. About Hawaii, she talked a lot about her mom's values come from here. One thing that I didn't know, Patsy Nings' grandfather who immigrated from Japan, her grandparents, her grandfather first got into a plantation on Oahu and Aiea, but he was abused by the plantation. So he ran away, like a fugitive ran away, hot on a boat and got to mount, but he was a fugitive. So he hid, he lived in the jungle. I mean, I wouldn't, I don't know what you call it, but he was like off, he lived because he was hiding and his wife, well, his second, she was her first marriage, her first husband beat her and she was abused. So she, and so they both, you know, they went to Maui, but the plantation system, you know, the stereotype is that, oh, everyone got along and everyone was happy. No, it was a very, very horrific existence. You know, the plantation workers were abused, a lot of them were abused and her grandfather said, and he left. And after hiding for a couple of years, his first job on Maui, he was a ditch digger. He dug ditches for the irrigation water and isn't that amazing? He dug ditches, his son was the first Japanese to go to UH and get a degree, you know, and then his granddaughter becomes a congresswoman. He was that amazing, but he did not want to be abused and he left, he stood up, you know, truth to power. He said, I'm like, I'm not gonna be abused and he left. So that kind of spirit from her grandfather, her grandparents was in her. Yeah, I can understand that, you know, that the plantation might, my dad was with the plantation during World War II when he, although he had a degree in the sugar chemistry, you know, because of his race, you know, he was not looked upon fondly, so he just quit and farmed on his own. So I can understand that. Yeah, a lot of people did that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and those stories need to be told, you know? And she was also, at one time, I see she was a assistant secretary of state for oceans and environmental and scientific affairs, as you mentioned, you know, because of her knowledge. Right, yeah, president, after she lost to Maksunaga, President Jimmy Carter appointed her that. Another thing people don't know, and it's in Wendy's book, her daughter's book, she was so admired, Patsy Meade was so admired for who she was and her authenticity, that I don't, most people don't know this, but remember when Vice President Walter Mondale won, he was a Democratic nominee in 1984 against Reagan, you know, Reagan's second campaign. So Mondale was looking for a female Vice President. He was considering Patsy Meade, but instead he picked Geraldine Ferraro from New York, but he admired Patsy Meade enough that she was considered on his shortlist. He also said that if I, because I didn't pick you for Vice President, if I become President, I will nominate you for the Supreme Court, Patsy Meade. So yeah. She also ran for president, right? Right, 1972, it was the anti-Vietnam. She ran and she was on the ballot in Oregon. And so that, she was the very first Asian-American woman to run for president of the United States. Of course she didn't win, but she wanted a platform to be able to go on debates, to be able to speak about how we needed to get out of Vietnam. Yeah, I mean, like you said, she was a fighter and he spoke her piece, but the one she came to, for example, came to Kauai, she's like, very humble. Yeah, yeah. She had a personality where she could, on all facets, if she had to talk to President Carter or President Lyndon Johnson or whoever, she could and be very prepared and speak as a Congresswoman. But she could also, when they, I heard a lot of people say this, when the Democratic Party had, after the, during the convention, they always have these hospitality suites. Hawaii puts on a hospitality suite at the convention. They bring out the Hawaiian musicians, they dance. She loves dancing. Oh yeah? Yeah. Some people said she was a great dancer. She lived, yeah. Yeah. And your daughter was dancing hula up in Washington, D.C. also, right? Yeah, with a halau, yeah, in D.C. She was a, just put it all as holocaust queen, 2020. Oh yeah, all right, terrific. Yeah. Is she out of school already? Yeah, she's now two years of college. Well, COVID really messes things up at two years of college, yeah. She's in, she's in New York. Oh, is she studying politics? Global studies, but she's now 20. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's a different world now. Right, but the younger generation, they want to hear about these stories of their, of these people because that inspires them to be like them, you know, to have the strength and the courage to be like them. So, so getting back to your, on those stories, who else do you have on your list of people? Well, I'm gonna do one on Sparky Monsenaga too. I'm also gonna talk about Patricia Psyche. She did a lot with a small business administration. People don't know, she's an amazing woman. So, you know, it's not all Democrats. I'm doing, she's a Republican, that's amazing. And so it's just people from Hawaii that did incredible things in Washington, D.C. And that ties into my Washington, Hawaii back and forth. Yeah, I'm glad that you're going full speed ahead with your podcast, your stories. But when going back to, when you worked in, with Senator Inouye and Patsy Meg, what did you do there? Well, I worked for, I needed a, I was a college student. So Senator, I was just a low level clerk. It was a college job with Senator Inouye. And Patsy Meg offered me a fellowship for the summer that I was there in college, but I couldn't take it because I was already on the Senate payroll, but I did volunteer to help her with the women's organizations there. But so my experience there was very young, but when I was 21 years old, I started my first business, publishing magazines, Washington, Philadelphia, New York for the travel industry. And that was, I've been an entrepreneur in media all these years. So you still keep in touch with Senator Inouye's song? And Patrick DeLeon, Patrick DeLeon, Senator Inouye's. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant chief of staff. And he's in Washington, and I guess, and he, everything that Senator Inouye wanted to do sent Patrick, made sure it was done. Yeah, here's the man. In a way, when you got a time, you got any last words or those statements? I firmly believe right now, we have a young person who is another Senator Inouye, we have another Patrick, Pat C. Nink out there. We have the talent, Hawaii produces brilliant people because of the culture that we're raising. We produce, Barack Obama, we produce brilliant people and political leaders. And so out there, there's our future. And they just need to know that because they're from Hawaii, they can do great things because the values that you get, the character development you get from growing up here and take you to the topist level. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for joining us today. Gloria Borland, mahalo to our wonderful guests, Gloria Borland, mahalo to the viewers on Think Tech Hawaii. If you like the Think Tech free media shows, please help support this nonprofit platform. Aloha, mahalo, agudo, mahalo, mahalo. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.