Reminder: Besides the Friday Hilo Peace Vigil 3:30-5PM at the downtown Post Office, there will be an Armed Forces Day Peace Vigil, Saturday, May 15th 10-11:30AM on Hilo Airport Road near the national guard hangers.  Please come and pass the word.    Please come in a spirit of peace and non-violence toward all.  Be respectful.  Do not return insult for insult.  Mahalo.

Rescue the Troops from War!

It’s not just the troops that need rescuing from war.  It’s all of us — all of humanity, and the earth itself. The world is spending Trillions of dollars on wars and militarism which is contributing to our global crisis with unprecedented human and environmental needs going unmet.  The U.S. spends almost half of the world’s total military spending.  www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending

Besides the current wars consider the following: :The ongoing global financial crisis threatens  global economic collapse;  there is a global environmental crisis that threatens the sustainability of life on the planet; an uncontrolled oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has no end in sight.  Trust in religious institutions and governments to solve problems appear at an all time low.  Amid unprecedented concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, billion dollar bonuses and bail outs, ordinary people are hurting.  Look at the number of unemployed, foreclosures, homeless, and mounting debt.  People are afraid, angry, and confused. Many don’t know where to turn.

In the face of such crises, we need a new local and global vision of justice, peace, and caring for the earth, a vision that rejects violence as a solution to problems, a vision where the means we use must be in line with the end we seek.  The choice is now between embracing non-violence or non-existence.  And a big question locally and globally is can we recognize and end our addiction to war?  Or will we remain in denial?

The U.S. is now in its 9th year of war in Afghanistan, 7th year in Iraq, and now war in Pakistan.
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’s War On Iraq:  4,715   icasualties.org/oif/
Many troops are in their multiple year deployment.
Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan $992,517,275,108 http://www.costofwar.com/
The Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq “1,366,350”
www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
The number of casualties in Afghanistan and Pakistan are increasing daily and there is an increasing threat of a US/Israel attack on Iran.

1.  A majority of Americans says the war in Afghanistan is not worth its costs, the Washington Post reports. 56 percent of independents say it is not worth fighting, up from 47 percent in December. Among Democrats, 66 percent say it’s not worth it, including half who feel that way strongly.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2010/05/on_afghanistan_a_negative_shif.html

2)  Shootings of Afghan civilians by American and NATO convoys and at military checkpoints have spiked sharply this year, becoming the leading cause of combined civilian deaths and injuries at the hands of Western forces, American officials say.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/world/asia/09afghan.html

Cut off the war funds!  Bring the Troops Home Now!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc.
5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622.  Email ja@interpac.net  http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (May 14, 2010 – 452nd week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

Aloha Peace friends,
There will be a peace vigil with the theme “Rescue the Troops from War” this Saturday, May 15th from 10 to 11:30AM at the Hilo Airport Armed Forces Day events.   The vigil will be along airport road fronting the air national guard Black Hawk helicopters and the Civil air patrol area.  Please come and pass the word to others.  With escalating wars and military spending there needs to be a peace presence, to speak for non-violence, and a world of justice for all.  The Saturday vigil will be in addition to our weekly Friday vigil at the downtown Hilo Post office from 3:30-5pm, now in its 452nd week.
We need to redirect money squandered on war to meet the unmet needs of people and to clean up the mess we are making on this planet.
Let us stand together in solidarity for justice, peace and the earth.
Mahalo.

Jim Albertini

Aloha Peace Ohana,
Reminder: There will be a peace organizing meeting on Monday, May 10th from 7-9PM at the Keaau Community Center located behind the Keaau Family Clinic and Police Station in Keaau.
We meet on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month.  Mark your calendars:  May 24th and June 14th and 28th.
Among items for discussion this Monday are Armed Forces day coming up this Sat. May 15th at Hilo airport, ideas for discussion with OHA meeting on Thursday, May 13th, followup with NRC, etc. And of course creative ideas to protest the escalating wars.
We need everybody’s input and involvement to build a symphony of non-violent social change for justice, peace and the earth.
Please come and pass the word to others.
Mahalo.

Jim Albertini

The Army cannot be trusted!

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has joined Kanaka Maoli, and other community representatives in criticizing the Army’s radiation monitoring plan for Depleted Uranium (DU) contamination at the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) in the center of Hawai’i Island.

In an article written by Alan D. McNarie for the Big Island Weekly –“NCR to ARMY: DU Monitoring Plan Won’t Work”  (See  http://bigislandweekly.com/articles/2010/04/28/read/news/news02.txt)  the NRC said: “We have concluded that the Plan will provide inconclusive results for the U.S. Army as to the potential impact of the dispersal of depleted uranium (DU) while the Pohakuloa Training Area is being utilized for aerial bombardment or other training exercises,” wrote Rebecca Tadesse, Chief of the NRC’s Materials Decommissioning Branch, in a recent letter to Lt. General Rick Lynch, who heads the Army’s Installation Management Command.

The article went on to say “The Army’s handling of the DU issue at Pohakuloa is also drawing fire from some independent experts, including retired army doctor Lorrin Pang, Los Alamos National Laboratory consultant Dr. Marshall Bland, and Dr. Michael Reimer, a retired geologist with a background in radiation monitoring. And Sierra Club researcher Cory Harden has used recently released Army documents to challenge the Army’s own estimates of how much DU may have been released into the environment at Pohakuloa.

“The NRC review seems to vindicate Dr. Pang and myself for claiming that the monitoring was insufficient,” Reimer told BIW.

Dr. Reimer said, “Five-micron size [particles] would fall out within a mile.  Smaller sizes may be carried by the wind.” He recommended .45-micron instead of 5 micron filters to detect radiation possibly moving off base.  Someone compared the Army’s flawed efforts to using tennis racquets to catch BBs. Others say that reported cancer clusters down wind of PTA need to be investigated further.

Dr. Pang also challenged the army’s general credibility by citing a number of former army statements about DU that Pang said simply weren’t true.  “The Army stated to the Dept of Health Environmental Chief that inhaled DU (from exploding weaponry) was not a worry since DU is heavier than air and would not become airborne, therefore not inhaled…”   Pang also claims that an Army study setting human safety thresholds for DU inhalation was scientifically flawed.  “That study has been widely, publicly debunked by the scientific community,” he said. “The Army investigators did not count effects like tumors (both malignant and benign) in the exposed group.”

Peace activists have been saying for years that the Army cannot be trusted about safety claims of radiation contamination in Hawaii.  Now even the NRC seems to be agreeing the Army can’t be trusted.  There may be a lot more radiation and other military toxins at Pohakuloa than the Army wants people to know.

Military Clean-up NOT Build-up!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc.
5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622.  Email ja@interpac.net  http://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (May 7, 2010 – 451st week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office