Please pass this on to all parents of school children, teachers, etc.

Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action

P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawaii 96760

Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org

website www.malu-aina.org

To Hawaii Island School administrators, teachers, and staff, March 27, 2024

Re: Experience Pohakuloa Day

First, aloha and mahalo for your important work of educating and supporting the students of Hawaii Island.

Experience Pohakuloa Day is set for Thursday, April 25, 2024, when school children and the public are invited to the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA). Please help circulate the Public Service Announcement below to all teachers on the island, DOE staff, and parents of school-age children about this event.

OUR ORGANIZATION ADVISES AGAINST ANY STUDENT EARTH DAY EXCURSIONS TO POHAKULOA TRAINING AREA.  We believe that an independent, comprehensive study needs to be done to determine the full extent of toxic contamination at Pohakuloa from more than 75 years of live-fire bombing involving a wide range of toxins, including Depleted Uranium radiation.  We call for a complete cleanup of the contamination before any further public events (such as Experience Pohakuloa Day) are held at Pohakuloa. Please be mindful of the Red Hill military contamination of groundwater wells on Oahu and thousands being sickened as a result.

Public Service Announcement (PSA)

Parents of young children and pregnant women are warned of the dangers of DU (Depleted Uranium) and other military toxins at the Pohakuloa Training Area!

Please view the short video of Dr. Lorrin Pang, M.D., public health officer and retired 24 years in the Army Medical Corps explaining the health dangers of inhaling DU oxide dust particles, including various cancers, birth defects, and genetic damage. (See https://vimeo.com/19153948). As Dr. Pang explains, especially vulnerable are young children and pregnant women.

Allowing children in your care to attend programs at Pohakuloa, unnecessarily puts them at risk.  For more information, contact Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action, P.O. Box 489, Kurtistown, HI 96760. Tel. (808) 966-7622. Email ja@malu-aina.org.  Website www.malu-aina.org

Mahalo for your prompt attention to this matter.

Jim

Jim Albertini, President of Malu ‘Aina  and former Hawaii school teacher

Pohakuloa  Toxins!                                                

     The Military Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) is hosting an “Experience Pohakuloa Day” on Thursday, April 25, 2024.  PTA is inviting school children and the general public to this Open House event on the base.  Teachers, parents, children, and the general public need to be aware of the dangers of Depleted Uranium (DU) radiation, and a wide range of toxins that have been used at Pohakuloa over more than 75 years of bombing and shelling.  Inhalation of Depleted Uranium (DU) oxide dust particles is “the most deadly form of radiation.” This is according to Hawaii resident, Dr. Lorrin Pang, MD, 24 years in the Army Medical Corps and listed in America’s Who’s Who Best Doctors.

      Let’s be clear. DU metal on the ground at Pohakuloa does not pose a serious health threat. But if that metal has been hit with high explosives it burns and turns the metal into DU oxide dust particles that can be carried long distances in the wind. If anyone inhales DU oxide particles those particles can remain in your body for decades causing a wide range of problems including cancer, and genetic damage to future generations. 

      DU was first used by the military at Pohakuloa in the early 1960s fired into the 50,000-plus acre impact area. That impact area has been subjected to decades of high explosives firing ever since. The military disclosed in an Environmental study in the early 2000s that over 14 million live rounds are fired annually at Pohakuloa. A current figure is not available. I suspect it is even higher now.

      There are dozens of various DU weapons in the US arsenal since the 1960s used by the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Modern DU weapons are known as “penetrators.” They are made of solid DU metal and explode at 3000 degrees. There is no documentation that DU penetrators have been fired at Pohakuloa but for decades there was no documentation that Davy Crockett DU spotting rounds were used either. Then in 2007 documents appeared that DU spotting rounds were used at Pohakuloa. It seems reasonable to conclude that DU penetrators, along with other DU spotting rounds besides Davy Crockett, may also have been fired at PTA. That’s why it is extremely important that independent comprehensive testing and monitoring be done to determine the full extent of Pohakuloa DU and other toxic contamination, and what’s coming off PTA blowing in the wind. If the military has nothing to hide it would welcome, and pay for,  such an independent study to assure the confidence of the community. But the military has been stonewalling efforts by the community calling for such a study since 2008. How come? Is it to keep troops, residents, and the tourist industry in the dark? Don’t we all have a right to know? See Hawaii County Council resolution 639-08 passed by a vote of 8-1.

Are we Inhaling DU Oxide Dust and other military toxins?

Contact: Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action
P.O. Box 489 Kurtistown, Hawai’i 96760 Phone (808) 966-7622. Email: ja@malu-aina.org  

See more information on our website http://www.malu-aina.org/

Extremely Dangerous Times!

With mass death and destruction being carried out by Israel’ (with US weapons) in Gaza, now including imminent mass starvation and the possibility of a widening Middle East war, the ongoing Russia/Ukraine war with increasing talk of direct NATO involvement, along with rising war tensions between China and the US, there is no question that we are living in extremely dangerous times.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said an open clash between NATO and Russia would put the world “a step away from full scale WW III.” Associated Press story in 3/19/24 Hawaii Tribune-Herald p.A7

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Aloha kakou, I stand in support of Council resolution 449-24, draft #2. that now includes an important call for a Ceasefire in Gaza, along with “demonstrating the aloha spirit and fostering peace, diplomacy, and unity…” But like the positive step of calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza in the face of Genocide being carried out in Gaza by Israel with US military weapons, the Council at some point needs to address the elephant in the middle of Hawaii Island and Hawaii in general. That elephant is the US military.

The military 133,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area, better known at the Pohakuloa TOXIC Area (PTA) in the center of Hawaii Island is a training ground for nuclear war.  Strategic nuclear bombers fly non-stop bombing missions to Pohakuloa from Missouri, Louisiana, and Guam to practice waging nuclear war.  Spotting rounds for US nuclear weapons have been fired at Pohakuloa contaminating our aina with Depleted Uranium radiation. DU oxide particles blow in the wind from PTA traveling long distances around our island.  The areas at PTA contaminated with DU radiation continue to be bombed and shelled with millions of live rounds fired annually, re-suspending and spreading DU particles and a host of other military toxins. Small DU oxide particles when inhaled can move through the lymph system causing a wide range of cancers, birth defects, and worst of all genetic damage passed to future generations.

Overall, the Hawaiian Islands are some of the most militarized places on the planet with more than 100 military installations, including Camp H. M. Smith above Aloha stadium on Oahu.  Camp Smith is the Headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific command, the US nuclear war command center for more than half the Earth.  How do Camp Smith, Pohakuloa, and the more than 100 US military installations in Hawaii square with “demonstrating the aloha spirit, fostering peace, diplomacy, and unity?” It reminds me of the Nuremberg war crime trials following WW II where a former German SS guard was asked about attempted escapes at the Auschwitz extermination camp.  The guard responded –why would someone want to escape.  Auschwitz, he said, was after all, “a family camp.”

Let’s be clear.  Military places like Camp Smith, Pohakuloa, etc. are not family camps.  They are not “demonstrating the aloha spirit, fostering peace, diplomacy, and unity.” They are the command center and training ground for global nuclear extermination.  This is an important part of education around disarmament and non-proliferation,  At some point, this county council needs to say that besides a CEASEFIRE in Gaza, we need a CEASEFIRE in Hawaii and our entire world. These places of training for global genocide need to be shut down, cleaned up, and the land returned to the Hawaiian people, “demonstrating the aloha spirit and fostering peace, diplomacy, and unity.”  Hopefully, this council and other government officials will speak and act soon, before it is too late.  Resolution 449-24 is a start.
Mahalo.. Jim Albertini

Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action

P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawai’i 96760

                             Phone (808) 966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org to receive our posts.

For more information see https:malu-aina.org

March 22, 2024, Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1173– Fridays 3:30-5 PM downtown Post Office

March 22, 2024, Hilo Peace Vigil photos

There will be a peace organizing meeting on Monday, March 25th from 6 – 8 PM at the Kea’au Community Center. Meetings are held on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month. Please mark your calendars. Zoom participation in the meetings is available from 6:30 to 7:15 PM. See the link here on how to join https://malu-aina.org/?p=9826

 

Please help pass the word to others. Mahalo.

Jim Albertini