Archive for June, 2014

CONFIRMED! Ohana Ho`opakele Press Release! Attend the hearing if you can! Spread the word, if you can’t attend! Mahalo!

Thursday, June 19th, 2014

Confirmed! We go to hearing tomorrow (Friday), June 20, 2014 at 9 am, Hilo Circuit Court before Judge Glenn Hara on our Motion for Summary Judgement to stop the opening of Kulani prison on July 1st, 2014! Lawyer confirms we have a good case. Demonstration at 8 a.m. in front of the Law of the Splintered Paddle sculpture. Come, and bring your friends. Will be a historic case!

Subject: Ohana Ho`opakele Press Release! Attend the hearing if you can! Spread the word, if you can’t attend! Mahalo!

Press Release on Ohana Ho’opakele’s Motion for Summary Judgment against the State of Hawaii to block the reopening of Kulani Correctional Facility (KCF) is set for hearing 9 AM Friday, June 20, 2014 in Hilo Circuit Court before Judge Glenn S. Hara

 
Further contact: Ohana Ho’opakele President Palikapu Dedman (home) 959-4930, Treasurer Ronald Fujiyoshi (home) 959-9775; (cell) 345-9688, Also see www.ohanahoopakele.org and Ohana Ho’opakele on Facebook
 
      On Friday, June 20, 2014 at 9 AM Ohana Ho’opakele’s Motion for Summary Judgment (MSJ) against the State of Hawaii is set for hearing before Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn S. Hara. The (MSJ) is to prevent the State of Hawaii from reopening the Kulani Correctional Facility (KCF). The MSJ charges the state with failure to properly address issues required by State environmental law, including Act 117 passed in 2012 which directed the State Department of Public Safety (DPS) to work with Ohana Ho’opakele and others to establish a Pu’uhonua at the former KCF unless a better site can be found.
 
     Ohana Ho’opakele will be represented before the court by its attorney who also represents two pa’ahao (incarcerated) plaintiffs as well.  Ohana Ho’opakele Plaintiffs, Ralph Palikapu Dedman, Ronald Fujiyoshi,  Samuel Kaleleiki, Luella Nohea Crutcher, and James Albertini, have asked the court for an order to require the appearances of the incarcerated plaintiffs, Cedric Ah Sing and Van Kahumoku, in the proceedings.

     Ohana Ho’opakele President, Palikapu Dedman, says that DPS director, Ted Sakai, “has not taken seriously the requirements of the law in dealing with environmental impacts, especially to native Hawaiians who disproportionately make up more than 60% of Hawaii’s prison population. This is a violation of environmental law and Hawaiian civil rights. Furthermore, Sakai has not proceeded in good faith to follow Act 117 signed into law by Governor Abercrombie designating Kulani to be a Pu’uhonua, not a prison.  The State should not be opposed to Kulani being converted to a Pu’uhonua instead of a prison. It would be a feather in the Governor’s hat if he brought prisoners back to a Pu’uhonua rather than a prison. Supporting a Pu’uhonua at Kulani would get the Governor votes. The disproportionate number of Hawaiians in prisons should be a key Governor’s campaign issue. You can’t keep oppressing Hawaiians and expect the Hawaiian vote.”
 
      Dedman says, “Ohana Ho’opakele is asking the court to restrain the DPS from reopening KCF as a prison and require the State to complete a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that addresses Hawaiian concerns and Act 117 calling for a Pu’uhonua at Kulani. A Pu’uhonua is an answer to deal with the disproportionate number of native Hawaiians in the prison system in Hawai`i.” 
 
      Dedman says, “There are nearly 6000 people locked up under the DPS. More than 3000 are Hawaiians. Ohana Ho’opakele, with the backing of Act 117, is only asking that Kulani, instead of being reopened as a prison, become a model Pu’uhonua for 200 carefully screened pa’ahao with one year left on their sentence. Pu’uhonua is based on healing. Prisons are based on punishment and are proven failures and a waste of taxpayer’s money. In 2014 the DPS budget is $249 million or $41,000 per prisoner. The number of people incarcerated keeps increasing. Hawaii incarceration rates increased 709% between 1980 and 2008.  And now the State is inviting the Private Prison Industrial Complex to Hawaii to profit off the misery of Hawaiians and further fleece the taxpayer.”
 
      Dedman says “The State of Hawaii has an obligation under the Hawaii State Constitution (Article 12, Section 7) to stand up for justice for Native Hawaiians.  A Pu’uhonua at Kulani, not a prison, is a step toward justice that needs to be taken now. That’s what this lawsuit is all about.”
 
     Ohana Ho’opakele officers and supporters will be outside the entrance to the Hilo Court House at the Kanawai Mamalahoe sculpture  “Law of the Splintered Paddle” and available for comment at 8 AM Friday, June 20, 2014.


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 www.malu-aina.org

Step Up Non-violent Protest Against War!

Monday, June 16th, 2014

No More Troops &

Bombs to Iraq!

No More Lies & War!

Lies of war

The U.S. is about to go deeper into the lies of the Iraq war. Lies such as Saddam Hussein attacked America on 9-11.  Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. wanted to protect American lives, bring freedom and democracy to Iraq, etc, etc. These lies resulted in the deaths of 4500 and wounded tens of thousands of Americans. These U.S. lies and bombs also killed, wounded, and displaced millions of Iraqis, destroyed their country’s infrastructure, and contaminated people, land, and water with depleted uranium and other military toxins. And now the U.S. wants to head back to Iraq with more troops and bombs to compound the lies, violence, and chaos it created with troops and bombs?

      Iraq war vet, Jim Wright, put the current situation this way: “The same old motley cast of characters, the warhawks and the chickenhawks and the billionaires and the simple-minded saber-rattlers and the same old hate-filled pundits, they just can’t wait to jump back into Iraq…. Why? What’s the goal? What’s the objective? Is it to end terrorism? Is it to enforce peace at the muzzle of a gun? Is it it to make defense contractors rich? Is it for jobs? Or is it for magic flying bunnies who shoot rainbows and cheap gasoline out of their … to the sound of Yankee Doodle Dandy?

      “Go on, tell us, go on. Wave your little flags and beat your fleshy chests, roll out the marching bands and tell us just how many more American soldiers (and Iraqis) should die. Go on, put a number on it….”See Iraq war vet Jim Wright’s full comments herehttp://bit.ly/AbsolutelyNothing

War – what is it good for – Absolutely nothing…”

Stand Up! Speak Up! No More War!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, 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 489 Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622. Email:ja@malu-aina.org  http://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (June 20, 2014 – 665th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

Vision for Peace!

Saturday, June 14th, 2014

Peace Movements’

Common Vision: The

Abolition of Militarism

by Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate

      “People are tired of armaments and war… we need to acknowledge our common humanity and human dignity… We need to recognize our life and the lives of others are sacred and we can solve our problems without killing each other. We need to accept and celebrate diversity and otherness. We need to work to heal the ‘old’ divisions and misunderstandings, give and accept forgiveness, and choose nonkilling and nonviolence as ways to solve our problems. So too as we disarm our hearts and minds, we can also disarm our countries and our world.

      “Our problem is not that people do not like what we say, what they understand correctly is that they believe little can be done, as the world is so highly militarized. There is an answer to this problem…

      “If our common dream is a world without weapons and militarism, why don’t we say so? Why be silent about it? It would make a world of difference if we refused to be ambivalent about the violence of militarism. We should no longer be scattered attempts to modify the military, each one of us would do our thing as part of a global effort. Across all divisions of national borders, religions, races. We must be an alternative, insisting on an end to militarism and violence…”

Mairead Corrigan Maguire won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for peace in Northern Ireland. Her book The Vision of Peace (edited by John Dear, with a foreword by Desmond Tutu and a preface by the Dalai Lama) is available from www.wipfandstock.com. She lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland. See: www.peacepeople.com. See the complete article of the above edited version here: https://www.transcend.org/tms/2014/06/peace-movements-common-vision-the-abolition-of-militarism/

Aloha NOT Hate, Militarism

& Violence!

Resist War & Injustice with

Aloha!

Sacred Before Profit!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, 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 489 Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622. Email:ja@malu-aina.org  http://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (June 13, 2014 – 664th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

Pu’uhonua NOT Prisons

Saturday, June 14th, 2014

Support Ohana Ho’opakele in Hilo Court Friday, June 20th  for Pu’uhonua NOT prison

Aloha Peace Ohana,
Mark your calendars for Friday, June 20th at 9 a.m. for our Ohana Ho`opakele hearing before Judge Glenn Hara (Hilo Circuit Court) on our Motion for Summary Judgment! State of Hawai`i may seek a continuance, so stay tuned for a confirmation later. Come at 8 a.m. for a demonstration at the Kanawai Mamalahoe (Law of the Splintered Paddle) sculpture for Pu’uhonu NOT Prison at Kulani.  Ohana Ho`opakele, its board members and two pa`ahao are plaintiffs in the case. This hearing will determine if Kulani opens on July 1st as a prison or not!

Please pass the word to others and encourage them to join us June 20th.
Mahalo.
Jim Albertini

Abolition of Militarism & War!

Wednesday, June 11th, 2014

Peace Movements’ Common

Vision: The Abolition of

Militarism

by Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate

People are tired of armaments and war… we need to acknowledge our common humanity and human dignity… We need to recognize our life and the lives of others are sacred and we can solve our problems without killing each other. We need to accept and celebrate diversity and otherness. We need to work to heal the ‘old’ divisions and misunderstandings, give and accept forgiveness, and choose nonkilling and nonviolence as ways to solve our problems. So too as we disarm our hearts and minds, we can also disarm our countries and our world.

Our problem is not that people do not like what we say, what they understand correctly is that they believe little can be done, as the world is so highly militarized. There is an answer to this problem…

If our common dream is a world without weapons and militarism, why don’t we say so? Why be silent about it? It would make a world of difference if we refused to be ambivalent about the violence of militarism. We should no longer be scattered attempts to modify the military, each one of us would do our thing as part of a global effort. Across all divisions of national borders, religions, races. We must be an alternative, insisting on an end to militarism and violence…”

Mairead Corrigan Maguire won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for peace in Northern Ireland. Her book The Vision of Peace (edited by John Dear, with a foreword by Desmond Tutu and a preface by the Dalai Lama) is available from www.wipfandstock.com. She lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland. See: www.peacepeople.com. See the complete article of the above edited version here: https://www.transcend.org/tms/2014/06/peace-movements-common-vision-the-abolition-of-militarism/

Hawaii is the most militarized state (occupied) in the most militarized nation the world has ever known.

We have a lot of work to do to demilitarize Hawaii!  Let’s get to work!

Aloha NOT Hate, Militarism & Violence!

Resist War & Injustice with Aloha!

Sacred Before Profit!

 1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, 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 489 Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622. Email:ja@malu-aina.org  http://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (June 13, 2014 – 664th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office