Maui lost the best thing in The Maui News when it lost Ed Tanji (The Maui News, Sept. 13) and his weekly column, "Haku Mo'olelo." Other than through an exchange of emails, I never had the pleasure of meeting him, but as a journalist with even more time in the business than he, I easily recognized him as a true professional.
Ed's weekly columns exemplified good journalism. Before writing about a subject, he researched it, looked at all sides of the issue and laid out the arguments for his readers in clear, precise language, but as a columnist, offered his own well-reasoned conclusions.
It was obvious he put a lot more time into his columns than covered by the fee he received for writing them.
Even when once he misunderstood a nuance of an issue, he acknowledged he hadn't looked into it enough, responded professionally by putting truth over pride, did more homework and followed up with a correcting column.
His was an example we all could follow. Know what you are talking about before putting pen to paper, do research, know the credibility of your sources, check facts instead of lazily forwarding emails and, above all, use some common sense.
I will miss him at Friday breakfast.
Howard Fields
Lahaina
