APA to Meet in Honolulu
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.