Archive for the ‘Military’ Category

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Back from the Brink: The Dangers of Escalating War!

Tuesday, October 1st, 2024

The Dangers of Escalating

War!

     More than 1 million people have been displaced in a matter of days in Lebanon by Israel using US weapons while the death toll mounts. Bombs are flying in many directions. Israel is bombing Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria. Iran is now bombing Israel. Where will it end? Global Nuclear War?

“When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my own country may cease to want war, but above all that my country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable.”

the late Trappist Monk, Thomas Merton

     The US continues to send tens of Billions of dollars of weapons into Israel, including Bunker Busting bombs being used in dense urban areas, more and more weapons into Ukraine (including long-range missiles) that could trigger a nuclear war with Russia, increased militarization in Taiwan, the Philippines, Australia, etc. surrounding China – all for what? To make more war inevitable and maintain US global domination in a unipolar world, rather than make peace in a multi-polar world of civilized nations? The only winners in the current situation are the Corporate War Profiteers!

     Some good news: On Oct. 1, 2024, the Hawaii County Council Committee on Health, Safety, and Well Being, voted 7-0 on Bill 206 with Council persons LeeLoy and Kierkiewicz excused. Bill No. 206 Repeals the 1984 military exemption from Hawaii County’s Historic 1981 Nuclear-Free Law. Bill No. 206 will now go before the full council for a vote. Stay tuned to testify in support. Mahalo Councilmembers!

Negotiations for Peace Now,

Not More Weapons and War!

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, anti-Russian, anti-LGBTQ, 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 see https://www.malu-aina.org

Oct. 4, 2024, Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1201– Fridays 3:30-5 PM downtown Post Office

Posted in Climate Change, Hawaii Independence, Military, Pohakuloa, Public Events, Radiation, Social Justice, Take Action!, Vigil leaflets | No Comments »

Testimony to Repeal the Military Exemption from Hawaii County’s Nuclear-Free Law

Sunday, September 29th, 2024

My testimony below

Repeal the Military Exemption from Hawaii County’s Historic Nuclear-Free Law

Testify in Hilo or from other county locations.Support Bill 206
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH,SAFETY, AND WELL-BEING
on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 3:00 PM
If you can’t testify on Tuesday, Send an email in support to counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov by noon Monday, Sept. 30th.
Mahalo. and please pass the word to others. See more details here
https://malu-aina.org/?p=10510
Jim 

Sept. 29, 2024

Testimony to the Hawaii County Council Policy Committee on Health, Safety, and Well-Being in support of Bill 206.

I Support Bill 206 calling for the Repeal of the Military Exemption from Hawaii County’s Historic Nuclear-Free Law passed in 1981. This is an important step in protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the residents and environment of Hawaii County.

First I want to thank Councilman Dr. Holeka Goro Inaba, and his staff, for having the courage and doing the work to introduce Bill 206. And I want to thank this Committee for hearing the bill.

Hopefully, Hawaii County’s action will inspire other counties to take similar action. The military radiation and other toxic contamination are not limited to Hawaii Island.

I also want to thank and honor the memory of several people who have died since this historic Nuclear-Free law was passed. First, the late Moanikeala Akaka deserves major credit for pushing this legislation. I attach a 1980 photo of her and others (including former Councilman Angel Pilago, carrying the banner saying Make Hawaii and the Pacific Nuclear Free. I also want to remember the late Councilmembers William Kawahara, James Dallberg, and still living former council member and current pastor Merle Lai These three people introduced the original legislation. I also want to remember several late peace activists who acted to uphold the spirit of this legislation. The late school teacher Dexter Cate swam and climbed up on a US Nuclear submarine anchored in Kailua Bay and handed a copy of the Nuclear-Free law in a zip lock bag to the submarine’s captain. Also my two fellow swimmers in Hilo Bay in July of 1984 to protest the visiting nuclear-armed warship, USS Ouellet — the late former Naval officer, Hilo resident and businessman, Warren Wineman, and fellow farmer, the late Jim Snyder. May you all rest in peace. Thank you. A big mahalo to the hundreds of Big Island residents who came out on the Hilo docks on July 18, 1984, to pule, and stand up for a Nuclear-Free Hawaii against military might being directed against us.

Also Yugo Okubo, a WWII veteran who dropped out of UH as a freshman to enlist in the US Army following the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor. Yugo was sent behind German lines in a glider. Yugo said his claim to fame is that he went from hero to “Un-American” in less than 5 years following the war when he was jailed as an un-American – one of the Hawaii 39 for union organizing, under McCarthyism. Yugo was a printer for the Union paper –the Honolulu Record. Yugo was a 7 year resident of Malu ‘Aina before his death from heart failure. Your courage will never be forgotten.

My hope is that after passing Bill 206 the Council will take action as suggested by Isaac “Paka” Harp of Waimea to demand the US military and the US Dept of Energy finally take action on Hawaii County Resolutions 639-08 and 701-08 passed 16 years ago calling for a halt to all military live fire training activities at Pohakuloa and other activities that creates dust until there is an assessment and clean-up of the depleted uranium present. 701-08 named Dr, Lorrin Pang as the official Hawaii County representative. This assessment and clean-up must be done by an independent body that has the confidence of the community, not the military fox doing an assessment of the military hen house.

The clean-up at Pohakuloa should go far beyond the 133,000 acres of the base itself. Due to 80 years of bombing and shelling by a wide range of toxins beyond Depleted Uranium radiation, the assessment needs to include what military toxins are coming off the base, blowing in the wind, and also possibly contaminating our water. Dr, Lorrin Pang, MD and 24 years in the Army Medical Corps said Pohakuloa should be ringed 360 degrees for a full year with proper air filters to see what’s coming off the base. At a minimum Hawaii County should place air filters in Mauna Kea (now Gilbert Kahele) Park, and do soil sampling and tree bark sampling in the park to test for DU oxide particles and lead at a minimum. It should be noted that DU has a half-life of 4.5 BILLION years.

Finally, I want to note a few other points of Military contamination in Hawaii beyond Hawaii Island that must be urgently addressed. Pearl Harbor is a Superfund toxic site. DU weapons were fired at Scholfield Barracks and likely at Makua Valley and on Kaho’olawe. 2000 fifty-five gallon drums of highly contaminated tools, clothing, etc from nuclear refueling done at Pearl Harbor have been dumped off Oahu’s southern shores. Chemical and biological military weapons have been tested on several Hawaii Islands, including Sarin nerve gas in the Hilo Waiakea Forest area, Hilo’s watershed. Sarin gas kills at 1/50 of a drop.

I will bring to the Oct. 1st hearing copies of the following”

1. a map done by our organization 20 years ago documenting 57 present or former military toxic sites on Hawaii Island

2. A US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) published report in Nature Magazine, Volume 241, February 16, 1973, that lists Papaikou, Hawaii as the site with the highest concentration of Plutonium 239 radiation in the soil of 65 randomly selected sites tested around the world at various north and south latitudes. The correlation appears to be the high rainfall on windward Hawaii bringing down plutonium fallout from 12 US nuclear weapon tests at Johnston Atoll, located about 750 miles southwest of Hawaii Island. Plutonium has a half-life of 24,400 years.

Jim Albertini

President of 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

Moanikeala Akaka on the far right of the banner.  Angel Pilago in the center left

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yugo Okubo WWII 442 vet protesting a visiting nuclear warship on the Hilo docks

In the background –banana stock gifts to the warship crew to show our aloha.

Painting done by Setsu Okubo, Hawaii Island and Oahu school teacher and older sister of Yugo Okubo.  The painting normally hangs in the kitchen at 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

Posted in Hawaii Independence, Military, Pohakuloa, Public Events, Radiation, Social Justice, Take Action!, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Repeal the Military Exemption from Hawaii County’s Historic Nuclear-Free Law!

Friday, September 27th, 2024

Repeal Military Exemption from Hawaii County’s Historic Nuclear-Free Law

Testify in Hilo or from other county locations.  Support Bill No. 206
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH,SAFETY, AND WELL-BEING
on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 3: 00 p.m
If you can’t testify on Tuesday,Send an email in support to counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov by noon Monday, Sept. 30th.
Mahalo. and please pass the word to others.
Jim
 

-- 
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
 

Posted in Hawaii Independence, Military, Pohakuloa, Public Events, Radiation, Social Justice, Take Action! | No Comments »

Help Restore Hawaii County’s Historic Nuclear-Free Law!

Tuesday, September 24th, 2024

Restore Hawaii County’s

Historic

Nuclear–Free Law!

 

Repeal the Military

Exemption!

Support Bill 206

Send an email in support to counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov

There is a first hearing on Bill No. 206 at 3 PM on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 3 PM in the Hilo Council chambers before the Policy Committee on Health, Safety and Well-Being.  Call the County Clerk’s office 808-961-8255 to ask how you can testify via video from various places around the island.

Hawaii County’s historic Nuclear-Free Law #665 was passed in February 1981. Hawaii County was the first municipality in the U.S. to pass a law declaring itself a Nuclear-Free Zone. Since then, more than 100 or 200 other municipalities have passed similar laws.

     Forty years ago, on July 18, 1984, hundreds of people gathered peacefully on the Hilo docks to protest a visiting US Navy Nuclear-armed warship – the USS Ouellet. After 3 years of requesting the US Navy to respect our country’s Nuclear-Free law without success, (leave your nuclear shoes in Pearl Harbor) our organization announced a month in advance that we planned a non-violent peaceful swimming protest of the next Navy Nuclear ship visit. A Navy Nuclear ship visit was planned for the July Hawaii Japanese Chamber of Commerce Festival of the Pacific.

     On July 17, 1984, the day before the nuclear warship’s scheduled arrival, the Hawaii County Council, under the leadership of Council chair, Stephen Yamashiro, passed an emergency amendment “exempting the military” from the Nuclear-Free law.  Having an amendment to the Nuclear-Free Law to exempt the military is like having an exemption for smokers from the No Smoking laws.  It makes no sense.

     On July 18, 1984, the day the Navy Nuclear ship arrived, the US Coast Guard established a Federal security zone for the entire Hilo Bay at the request of the Navy. Anyone putting their toe in the water with a protest sign was subject to a felony violation. July 18. 1984 Hilo Bay was like a war zone.  Coast Guard Cutters escorted the Navy Nuclear warship.  Military helicopters patrolled overhead.  Naval Seal teams in zodiacs were in the water.  Hundreds offered pule on the docks, sang peace songs, and held signs — Respect County Law!  Nuclear-Free Zone! No Nukes! Peace Now! Approximately 100 people were prepared to enter the water in protest.  (For more on the Hilo Bay Warship Peace Blockade, see https://malu-aina.org/?p=10305

Make Hawaii Nuclear Free!  It’s in YOUR Hands!

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, anti-Russian, anti-LGBTQ, 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 see https://www.malu-aina.org

Sept. 27, 2024, Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1200– Fridays 3:30-5 PM downtown Post Office

 

Nuclear Never!  Hawaii Forever!

Nuclear-Free & Independent Pacific March through Waikiki in 1980. Hawaiian activist Moanikeala Akaka is on the far right, Angel Pilago is above “Hawaii” on the banner, and Lopeti Senatule of Fiji on the left.

The Waikele Nuclear weapon depot (now closed) was located in central Oahu. West Loch of Pearl Harbor is where all Navy ships load, or unload weapons. It is a major weapons depot on Oahu.  ASROC nuclear warheads were carried on US surface ships like the USS Ouellet that visited Hilo on July 18, 1984.

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.

Posted in Hawaii Independence, Military, Pohakuloa, Public Events, Radiation, Social Justice, Take Action!, Vigil leaflets | No Comments »

Letter to the Editor — Sept. 23, 2024

Monday, September 23rd, 2024

Sept. 23, 2024

Pohakuloa TOXIC Area (PTA)

Our Hawaii County Mayoral candidates, Mitch Roth and Kimo Alameda are a sad case regarding basic facts and awareness of Pohakuloa dangers.

Mitch and Kimo need to know that the current Pohakuloa lease of 23,000 acres from the State is not $1 per year (as they both stated in recent debates). It’s $1 for 65 years –from 1964- to 2029. If you don’t even know that, what do you know about Depleted Uranium radiation, lead, and other military toxins, spreading around our island blowing in the wind from military bombing and shelling?  What about the threat of military toxins to our groundwater?  Is Pohakuloa our Red Hill water disaster in the making? The military spends over a million dollars a year hauling water to Pohakuloa.  More than 10 years ago the military drilled two wells on the base and hit water at shallow depths, but they are still not using the water from those wells.  Why?  Are military toxins in the water?  The military admits to starting 892 fires at Pohakuloa since 1975.  One fire started in 2022 burned over 17,000 acres, including over 12,000 acres off the base destroying ENDANGERED SPECIES HABITAT!  Is Pohakuloa our Lahaina firestorm in the making?  Why are so many elected officials and candidates ignorant about the TOXIC ELEPHANT in the center of Hawaii Island?

The ignorance about what’s happening at Pohakuloa is an indictment of political responsibility.  It is also an indictment of our local news media’s lack of reporting about the toxic elephant in the center of our island and the military secrecy that violates the public’s right to know.

It’s time for citizen voices to be heard.  Stop Bombing Pohakuloa!  Cancel the State Lease!  Cancel the 1964 Presidential Executive Order involving PTA that seized more than 84,000 acres at zero cost.  Make the Military Clean Up its Toxic Mess, and return all the land at Pohakuloa (132,000 + acres) to the Hawaiian people.

PS.  Let’s make sure the military does a better job at clean-up than it did on Kaho’olawe.

Jim Albertini

-- 
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

Posted in Military, Pohakuloa, Public Events, Social Justice, Take Action! | No Comments »

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