Malu 'Aina

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 Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org

Shut Down Red Hill &

Drain the Tanks

     The Hawaii State Dept. of Health has said to the US Navy – Shut down and drain the Red Hill Fuel Tanks where leaks allowed petroleum to contaminate the drinking water of nearly 100,000 people, and puts more than 400,000 people in Honolulu at risk.  Under the order, the Navy has 30 days to submit a plan to “safely defuel” its World War II-era fuel facility.  The military, which considers Red Hill to be a vital national security asset, has strongly protested the demand to drain the fuel entirely.  Twenty massive Navy underground fuel tanks have a total capacity of storing 250 millions gallons of fuel 100 feet above Honolulu’s main aquifer.

     Massive citizen outcries, lead by Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) and military families, have brought pressure to US militarism and its strong hold on political leaders and Hawaii’s economy.  Activists from around the world are now supporting local calls to close the Navy’s Red Hill fuel facility.
“At this very moment, the US government is committing a crime of historic proportions against the people of Hawai’i,” the group said in a public letter.  “Yet the US Navy continues to reject calls by residents and the state government to drain the remaining tanks. The health of hundreds of thousands across Oʻahu is now in jeopardy.”      
   
      The letter draws parallels between the Red Hill crisis and the military’s impacts on other places in the Pacific.  It cites “the Tomb” on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, “a nuclear coffin” installed by the U.S. military that is leaking radioactive waste into the ocean and the thousands of Micronesians who still suffer the impacts of 67 atomic and thermonuclear weapons the U.S. military detonated in the Marshall Islands in the 1940s and 50s.  For the complete letter and list of signers see https://www.civilbeat.org/beat/noam-chomsky-cornel-west-call-for-immediate-shutdown-of-red-hill-reparations-for-victims/ 

     The US Military’s  Pohakuloa Toxic Area (PTA), has been contaminating  Hawaii Island for more than 75 years.  Millions of live-rounds have been fired annually at PTA involving a wide range of weapons and toxins, including radioactive Depleted Uranium (DU) oxide dust particles than can be carried long distances in the wind.  In 2008 the Hawaii County Council passed Resolution 639-08 by a vote of 8-1.  That resolution called for a halt to all live fire at PTA until there was a complete assessment of the DU present and it was cleaned up.  7 other actions were called for.  The military did not do any of them.  Now what?
    

     Everyone on the Big Island is downhill and downwind from the 133,000-acre PTA, which is located in the center of the island at 6500 feet elevation. The land, water, air, people, plants and animals surrounding PTA, including the thousands of troops who train there, residents and tourists too, are all part of a Military Sacrifice Zone. Actually the Hawaiian islands are one of the most militarized places on the planet with more than 100 active US military installations and many more abandoned military toxic sites.  Enough!

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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 Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org

What’s Ahead in 2022?

      The US Military budget of $768 Billion for 2022 passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support. In fact, Congress added $24 Billion more to the military budget than President Joe Biden requested. Hawaii’s Congressional delegation – Mazie Hirono, Brian Schatz, Kai Kahele and Ed Case – all voted for it. Let’s face it. Weapons of war are the US modern day “Golden Calf” – False gods of metal. The U.S. needs a 12 step program to end it’s addiction to War. Red Hill military fuel leaking into Hawaii’s drinking water should be a big wake up call.

      In contrast to the ever increasing US Military budget, Biden’s proposed “Build Back Better” bill has been chopped from $3.5 Trillion to $1.75 Trillion or less over 10 Years. It still hasn’t passed. Do the math: $700+ Billion per year over 10 years for militarism equals more than $7 Trillion. Congress says No problem! But $1.75 Trillion over 10 years (¼ of military spending) for meeting critical human needs is a problem – money for child and health care, combating climate change, reduce prescription drug costs, college completion grants, public housing repairs, food security, forest and park preservation, etc. It shows what the US priorities are! It’s all about big guns over human needs.

      The US is saber rattling with Russia and China and the danger of nuclear war is ever present. Let’s remember, it was the US that promised Russia that NATO would not move eastward. The US broke its promise time and time again. The US and NATO are on Russia’s door step. The US helped initiate a coup in Ukraine and in many other countries. Remember the Jan. 17, 1893 coup when US troops assisted in the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and the independent nation of Hawaii?

      Overall, the US is a dangerous, desperate, declining, over extended empire and it must create enemies to feed its war machine even if it starves its own people. In biblical terms the US is great at pointing at the speck in another nation’s eye while ignoring the log in its own eye. Add to this situation the continuing Covid pandemic, and a growing dangerous domestic divide with Trump fascism hanging in the balance, and the picture is not bright. But all hope is not lost. No lie can live forever! Like the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, we need to celebrate, be joyful, live a life of non-violence, kapu aloha, and work for peace, justice, a demilitarized world, a free Hawaii, and a livable planet. Never give up!

Wage Peace Not War! Happy New Year!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject violence & war as solutions. 3. Defend civil liberties.
4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, anti-Black, anti-Asian, etc.
5. Seek peace through peaceful means and work for justice in Hawai`i and around the world.

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 www.malu-aina.org

Dec. 31, 2021 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1057– Fridays 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

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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 Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org

Letter to the editor: Military Toxins from Red Hill to PTA, etc.

Mahalo to all citizens, media and officials, especially Ernie Lau of the
Honolulu Board of Water Supply, for speaking out on the Red Hill Water Crisis. 
Shut down and drain the tanks. We need more public officials like Ernie Lau who put principle before
money and politics, and speaks out for the common good.

Here on Hawaii Island we have been raising questions for years about
contamination of air, land, and water from the many military toxins used
at the 133,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) in the center of the
island at 6,500 feet elevation.  Concern about a military toxic stew
include. lead, perchlorate, PFAS, Depleted Uranium (DU), etc. etc. 
Highly cancerous DU oxide particles can be carried long distances in the
wind.  Every year, millions of live-rounds, including howitzers,
missiles, bunker buster bombs, etc, are fired at PTA that create massive
dust clouds. Visitors and residents alike — people, plants and animals, are all down hill and downwind
from PTA which we call the Pohakuloa Toxic Area.  But instead of answers
to serious questions, all we get is silence from public officials. The
time for answers is NOW before it’s too late. What military toxins are
blowing in the Wind from PTA? And what military toxins are in the 2
water wells drilled nearly 9 years ago at PTA but are still not being
used?  PTA continues to spend $2 million/year hauling water to PTA which
the military now wants to expand by nearly 100,000 acres, according to
the Military Land Use Master Plan.

Jim Albertini

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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 Visit us on the web at
www.malu-aina.org

Christmas Eve Hilo Vigil for

Peace On Earth

      The United States Military Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) recently unveiled a new Hawai’i Land Use Master Plan (HMLUMP). The military land use plan documents the military’s extensive land holdings in Hawai’i. Military-controlled land in Hawai’i increased by 9% from 200,967 acres in 2002 to 221,981 acres in 2021. More than half of all military controlled lands in Hawai’i are on Hawai’i Island – the 133,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA). Now the military wants more land.

The Hawaiʻi Military Land Use Master Plan can be viewed at: drive.google.com/file/d/1Uov0HevmHkfMG-ma-iEzxYgECHue67aY/view

      Much of Hawai’i military controlled lands were simply seized by presidential or governor’s executive orders. Other Military lands are leased from the State. The leases at PTA, Makua Valley and other areas are all due to expire in 2029. At Pohakuloa, 84,000 acres were seized in 1964 by a presidential executive order under Lyndon Johnson. 23,000 acres at PTA were leased from the State in 1964 at a total cost of $1 total for 65 years, while the military creates a multi-billion dollar pollution mess. The military is notorious for walking away from messes it creates.

      Military expansion plans at Pohakuloa include the following: 413 acres of land near the main gate as a “security buffer,” an additional 1000-acre site off-base for relocating endangered species, 6,904 acres for air space lands, 25,927 acres outside boundary control, and a 2-kilometer land use control buffer (66,718 acres) around the entire installation. UH Manoa professor, Kyle Kajihiro says “To extend military land use control beyond actual installation boundaries, the HMLUMP proposes using land-use zoning mechanisms and conservation buffers such as the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) and Sentinel Landscapes. While these partnerships may provide some environmental benefits, they also enable long-term destructive impacts on adjacent lands while politically compromising groups who become beholden to military interests.”

      The HMLUMP states that the military’s top priority is to retain and expand live-fire training lands such as PTA. The military wants the State leases renewed and executive orders to remain in place. Military pollution of the water, air and land threatens all life – people, plants, and animals. The Military Red Hill water pollution is a Red Flag warning not just for Hawai’i, but the earth itself. No amount of military dollars to the economy can make up for that. The US military has become the greatest polluter on the planet. It is the largest consumer of oil and the largest emitter of CO2. It is the greatest contributor to Climate catastrophe and the growing threat of nuclear war. The process to de-militarize and end the illegal military occupation of Hawaii, and create peace on earth is up to us. It will not come from the military and the top down system that has created the problem. It must come from the bottom up – the people of the land and the spirit of aloha ‘aina and kapu aloha. Join us Christmas Day at PTA main gate 10AM till Noon. See https://malu-aina.org/?p=7777

No Military Expansion in Hawai’i. End Military Leases at Pohakuloa & other Military Sites.

Stop Bombing and Polluting Hawai’i & the World! 

Peace on Earth, Good Will to All!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject violence & war as solutions. 3. Defend civil liberties.
4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, anti-Black, anti-Asian, etc.
5. Seek peace through peaceful means and work for justice in Hawai`i and around the world.

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 www.malu-aina.org

Dec. 24, 2021 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1056– Fridays 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

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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 Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org