Congratulations Gary

The Hawaii Independent is proud to see Gary Hooser, ‘one of our own,’ appointed by Governor Abercrombie this week to head up of the Office of Environmental Quality Control. Gary is a former journalist and business owner, and has been a real asset to our fledgling news source. We’re glad to see him move on up, right into the executive branch. Good for him.

On a related note: Hawaii needs more people who are willing to function as public intellectuals: staking out a position, advocating an idea, and debating it publicly. There’s a handful of bloggers who do this regularly – see here, here, and here. For our part, we’ll work on linking to the public debate wherever it’s happening, on blogs and such. If we’re missing important thinkers, please let us know. Mahalo.