Malu 'Aina

Press Release:  Army invited to PUBLIC community forum on Depleted Uranium Monday Aug. 30th in Keaau
further contact: Jim Albertini 966-7622  ja@interpac.net

Below is a copy of a letter of invitation mailed today to Pohakuloa Commander Lt. Col. Rolland C. Niles from Malu ‘Aina.
Email versions were sent to Celso Tadeo at Pohakuloa (celso.tadeo@us.army.mil)  and Mike Egami, Army Public Affairs officer on Oahu  (Mike.Egami@us.army.mil) with a request that the invitation be extended up the chain of command to Col. Douglas S. Mulbury. Commander, US Army Garrison – Hawaii.  The Aug. 30th DU forum will go on whether or not the Army accepts Malu ‘Aina’s invitation to participate.  “The Army promised transparency.  We’re still waiting,” said Jim Albertini.

Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action

P.O. Box AB Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawai`i 96760
Phone 808-966-7622 email ja@interpac.net
Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org

August 14, 2010

Lieutenant Colonel Rolland C. Niles
Commander, US Army Garrison – Pohakuloa
P.O. Box 4607
Hilo, Hawaii 96720-0607

Dear Lieutenant Colonel Niles:

Aloha and welcome to our Island home.

We invite the Army to participate in a BALANCED PUBLIC FORUM on Deleted Uranium Health Risk Assessment.  Monday, Aug. 30th from 7-9PM at the Keaau Community Center.  The Army is invited to start the evening off with a 30 minute presentation followed by a 30 minute presentation from community representatives.  Public testimony and Moderated Q & A will follow.  The event is free and THE PUBLIC IS INVITED.
Please R.S.V.P. by August 23 to our organization which is the sponsor of the event. Contact information is listed below.

We are aware that the Army has scheduled a presentation on the Depleted Uranium Health Risk Assessment for PTA to be held Tuesday, Aug. 31st at 2PM at Pohakuloa Training Area.
We object that this presentation is:
1. “By invitation only”
2.  Not balanced with community representatives being given equal time
3.  Held at PTA instead of in the community (preferably forums in Hilo, Kona, Waimea and Na’alehu).  The winds, dust devils, and vehicles that travel through Pohakuloa travel around this island.  Everyone on this island is potentially at risk from military radiation contamination at Pohakuloa.

We appeal to you to come out of your bunker, your “Green Zone” on Hawaii Island, and meet and treat the people of this island with respect.  Democracy is not by invitation only.  Furthermore, it is we civilians who are paying for the military budget, including your salaries.

Mahalo for your consideration.

Jim Albertini
President

Malu ‘Aina Volunteers of all skills, and no particular skills, Needed!

If you are interested in organic farming and helping a non-profit peace farm grow food to share with people in need and support it’s work for justice and peace, please email me or give me a call.   We can use all kinds of volunteer help, from helping to find and coordinate volunteers, organizing or helping on specific projects that need doing –planting, weeding, harvesting, carpentry, painting, etc. — from an hour or more a week/month on the farm, to live-in residents.

I am particularly interested in finding someone to pass the torch to in coordinating overall responsibility for the farm.  After 30 years of farming, I would like to focus more on peace and justice organizing such as demilitarizing Hawaii, and turn the farm responsibility over to the next generation.

In addition to our present 8-acre farm, we may soon be acquiring an adjacent 11 acres of prime ag land that we would like to make available to serve the community in growing organic food.  We would like to involve individuals and groups in a cooperative effort to carry this project forward.  If any of the above interests you, let’s talk story!  Please pass the word to others who may be interested as well.  Mahalo.

Jim Albertini, President

Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action

P.O.Box AB

Kurtistown, Hawai’i 96760

phone:  808-966-7622

email: ja@interpac.net

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

Eyewitness To History

Israel’s Attack on the Gaza Flotilla

Colonel (Ret.) Ann Wright

Monday, August 16, 7:00 p.m.

Ka Huina Gallery (Mamo & Keawe St. Hilo)

Free Admission

On May 31, Ann Wright was aboard the Mavi Marmara, one of the ships carrying humanitarian aide to Gaza, shortly before it was attacked by Israeli Defense Forces. Nine activists were killed. The people of tiny, densely populated Gaza have been isolated and bombed repeatedly in recent years, all with U.S. support. Col. Ann Wright is a retired U.S. army officer and diplomat who resigned in protest over the war in Iraq. She has made five trips to Gaza over the past two years.

For more information, call 966-7622.

Eyewitness To History

Israel’s Attack on the Gaza Flotilla

Colonel (Ret.) Ann Wright

Remembering Hiroshima & Nagasaki!

1945 to 2010:

At 65, it is past time to

Retire Nuclear Weapons!

(photo of Hiroshima mother & child attached)

At 8:15 AM, August 6, 1945, a U.S. B-29 bomber named “Enola Gay” after the pilot’s mother, dropped a uranium atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and in the blink of an eye vaporized thousands of civilians — women, men and children.  Overall 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima.
At 11:02 AM on August 9th, the U.S. dropped a plutonium atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing another 60,000 – 80,000 civilians.  Many thousands more continue to suffer and die from psychological trauma and illnesses caused by prolonged effects of radiation exposure.
This must never be allowed to happen again!

Yet, the threatened use of nuclear weapons remains at the heart of U.S. “national security” policy.  Despite hopes for a dramatic change of course, the new Nuclear Posture Review reveals no substantial changes in U.S. nuclear force structure, retaining all three legs of the strategic triad — heavy bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles and strategic submarines, and declaring: “These nuclear forces will continue to play an essential role in deterring potential adversaries an reassuring allies and partners around the world.

Please Forgive us!

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 (August 6, 2010 – 464th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office