APA to Meet in Honolulu

At the most recent APA Board of Trustees meeting Jeffrey Akaka, M.D. (far right), was successful in his quest to obtain APA’s approval to schedule a future annual meeting in Hawaii. After the decision was made to meet in Dr. Akaka’s home state, gathering together for a photo on Capitol Hill were (from left) APA President Richard Harding, M.D., Hawaii Sen. Daniel Akaka (D), APA Speaker-elect Al Gaw, M.D., and Jeffrey Akaka, M.D., the Assembly representative of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Psychiatrists. Sen. Akaka has been a strong supporter of parity in the Senate for many years.

Sen. Akaka’s late brother and Jeffrey Akaka’s father, the Rev. Abraham Akaka, called for Hawaii to be known as “The Aloha State” at a special service on the day Hawaii became a state in 1959. This speech was entered into the U.S. Senate Congressional Record by the late Sen. Spark Matsunaga (D-Hawaii) when Rev. Akaka offered the morning prayer at the Senate many years ago. In it he defined Aloha in part as “seeking to do good to a person with no conditions attached, out of a sense of kinship.”

“It is in the spirit of Rev. Akaka’s words on the meaning of Aloha, and of what Hawaii had to offer to the United States as it became one, that we look forward to hosting our APA’s annual meeting once again,” Jeffrey Akaka told Psychiatric News. APA met in Hawaii in 1973.