You Cannot Be Both!

Why do we refuse to recognize the economic consequences of our failed policies, or to halt the Bush/Obama war on Afghanistan? (And the other wars too!)  According to a U.S. Army lieutenant, “no one benefits from this war… Only the CEOs and executive officers of war-profiteering corporations find satisfactory returns on their investments…”

“The remains of villages destroyed by our bombs, the dead killed from our munitions, leave us, too, with bloody hands,” as Chris Hedges has said. “We can build a new ethic only when we face our complicity in the cycle of violence and terror.”

Flaunting our military power around the globe, we resort to brute force and economic domination.
Must we, as a people, squander our wealth and our young people in wars of conquest and intervention, financing 1,000 military bases around the world, funding corrupt dictatorships, and imposing “democracy”  on countries whether they want it or not…?

Dismantling a war culture that has undermined democratic governance and cultivating a peace culture mean promoting cooperative rather than domination models, locally, nationally, and internationally. Why not?  Initial steps in this direction require our (1) reducing the military budget, larger than all military budgets in the world combined; (2) abolishing tax breaks for the filthy rich and the multinational corporations; (3) reviving community self-reliance to reduce our dependence on agribusiness and foreign fuel.

Over the past fifty years, creeping militarism and unchallenged corporate greed have undermined our institutions one by one. Preferring comfort and complacency to confrontation, people who should know better, including academics and intellectuals, are silent, while members of the media frequently serve as a public relations agents for the Pentagon and legislators pretending to be “war hawks and deficit hawks” at the same time…

Nonviolent people power helped to remedy previous crises, to uphold justice and to de-escalate violence. Congress may eventually get around to voting on these issues, but by that time the hard work will have been accomplished by all of us joining to force them to do so.

In commenting on public issues, one wants to be balanced and useful, as well as to retain integrity and to be honest about the present state of affairs. Our present crisis, as in the 1920s or 30s or 60s, appears to require ordinary people resorting to demonstrations, sit-ins, and strikes, to sustain democratic governance and values that are dear to informed citizens.

The above is an edited article by retired professor, Michael True.  See the full 4/25/11 article at CommonDreams.org

Stand Up and Speak Out 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 (April 29, 2011 – 502nd week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

Aloha Peace Ohana,
Reminder: There will be a peace organizing meeting on Monday, April 25th 7-9PM at the Keaau Community Center. (2nd and 4th Mondays of the month)
Please pass the word and bring a friend.
Among agenda items:
1.  Fukushima & DU Radiation monitoring in Hawaii
2.  Failure of DU resolutions at State legislature
3.  Expanding wars
4.  your ideas??????
Mahalo.
Jim

GOOD FRIDAY

Time to Upset the Moneychangers Tables Again!

Today is Good Friday in the Christian calendar, the day Jesus was executed by the Roman empire for the crime of sedition (stirring up the people and upsetting moneychangers tables) in Roman occupied Palestine.  It is a good day to show we are not deterred by the U.S. empire’s endless wars and occupations on behalf of modern day moneychangers — criminal corporate robber barons.  Like many other places around the world, it is time to be stirred into non-violent action for justice and peace where we live.  Below is a list of the top ten moneychangers whose tables need upsetting today.

1.   Exxon Mobil’s 2009 profits totaled $19 BILLION yet according to its SEC filings, the company received $156 million rebate from the IRS.  IT DIDN’T PAY ANY FEDERAL TAX.
2.   Bank of America made $4.4 BILLION in profits last year.  This after it received a $1 Trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Dept. and a $1.9 Billion tax refund from the IRS.
3.   General Electric made $26 BILLION in profits in the U.S. over the past 5 years.  It also received a $4.1 billion tax refund from the IRS.  GE cut 1/5 of its U.S. jobs and is boosting jobs overseas where tax rates are lower.
4.   Chevron’s IRS refund last year totaled $19 million, but its 2009 profits were $10 BILLION.
5.   Boeing received a $30 BILLION contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers.  It also received a $124 million refund from the IRS.
6.   Velero Energy made $68 billion in sales and received a $157 million tax refund from the IRS.
7.   Goldman Sachs paid 1.1% of its 2008 income in taxes.  Yet it made a profit of $2.8 BILLION and received an $800 billion bailout from the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Dept.
8.   Citigroup profits last year totaled more than $4 BILLION but it paid zero dollars in federal income tax and received a $2.5 TRILLION bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.
9.   Conoco Phillips profits from 2007 through 2009 totaled $16 BILLION but it was still awarded $451 million in tax breaks.
10. Carnival Cruise Lines profits over the past five years totaled more than $11 BILLION.  It paid 1.1% in Federal Income Tax.

The above list is an edited version of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Guide to Corporate Freeloaders
Click below to share: Bernie Sanders’ Guide to Corporate Freeloaders
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207704&id=26884-18348625-VuPldFx&t=23

Stop All the Wars!  End All Occupations!

Fund Human Needs!

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 (April 22, 2011 – 501st week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

This Tax Day–
Bring the War Dollars Home!

April 15, 2011 marks our 500th consecutive weekly Hilo Peace Vigil in front of the downtown Post Office/Federal Building.  Each week we prepare a new peace leaflet for handing out on the corner and distribution worldwide via the internet. The five points at the bottom of each leaflet remain the same each week.  Anyone can sign up on our malu-aina.org website to receive notice of new posts.

We started this vigil on Sept. 12, 2001 to urge restraint not vengeance in response to the 9-11 attacks. It’s been nearly 10 years of endless, expanding, wars: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya.  Who is next?  Trillions of dollars have been spent on wars and militarism.

Let’s be clear.  Whether you believe 9-11 was an inside job or not, the “war on terrorism” is really a war of empire to secure control of oil and other global resources. Yet the entire world is becoming more and more insecure.  Wars continue with no end in sight.  The civilian death toll mounts, so too with refugees, people tortured, infrastructure destroyed, etc. etc.  On top of that  –Nuclear radiation is encircling the planet, global warming is threatening unprecedented climate change, the world food supply is in crisis, economies are on the edge of collapse –with people loosing homes, jobs, and health care.  Schools and libraries are being closed and basic human services are being cut.  Ask working moms, teachers, and union workers how secure they feel today.  One in six workers in the U.S. does not have a job.  And 6 million people have lost their homes to repossessions. And now in the name of deficit reduction major domestic program cuts are planned that aid seniors, children, and the poor.  But no one wants to talk about the gorilla in the living room — the need for slashing the military and war budgets!

Meanwhile,  big corporations and the super rich make obscene incomes and pay little or no taxes.  Take for example General Electric. GE made $14.2 billion in profits last year–but paid NO federal taxes, according to the New York Times  March 24, 2011.   And GE isn’t unique.   A fourth of the country’s largest corporations—including ExxonMobil and Bank of America—paid no federal income taxes in 2010.  In fact Bank of America was handed $45 billion—that is billion with a B—in federal bailout fund.   The big banks and Wall Street caused the current financial crisis yet many of these corporate super rich executives are given multimillion dollar bonuses and provided tax breaks and loopholes to avoid paying taxes.  Instead of a government “of the people, by the people, and for” the people, the U.S. has become a nation of, by, and for for the one percent, according to economist  Joseph Stiglitz.  And both major political parties are helping the corporations to rob the poor to pay the rich.

All U.S. citizens have a responsibility to get the U.S. empire off the backs of people around the world and here at home.  Stop all the wars and end all occupations, including the occupation of Hawaii.  The struggles for global and local justice are one.

Dismantle the War Machine & the U.S. Empire!

Slash Military Spending & Fund Human Needs!

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 (April 15, 2011 – 500th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office