Archive for March, 2014

Reminder on activist gathering with Martha Hennessy

Wednesday, March 26th, 2014

Aloha Peace Ohana,

Reminder!!!  Please pass the word to others!!!!

There will be an informal meeting, and opportunity to talk story, share insights, Q&A on activism, etc. with Martha Hennessy — on Thursday, March 27th 6:30PM at the Keaau Community Center.  This is a follow up to her recent public talk at UHH, talks in Waimea at a Homeless coalition gathering and several churches on the island.  Martha has been recently jailed for peaceful protest against U.S. Killer Drones at Hancock Air Force Base near Syracuse, N,Y.

Martha is the seventh of nine grandchildren to Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and is carrying on the work of her grandmother. The Catholic Worker provides hospitality, clothing and meals to the homeless, prints the paper – The Catholic Worker, (in circulation since 1933), holds round table discussions with a variety of speakers, and attempts to practice the Works of Mercy as taught by Jesus in the New Testament. The Catholic Worker celebrated the 80th anniversary of the movement in 2013.

Martha grew up in Vermont. She was trained as an occupational therapist, working for 25 years with children in the public schools and with the elderly. She is the mother of three and grandmother of six. Her husband works as a carpenter and they grow much of their food on 7 acres of the family farm.

Martha has traveled extensively including peace delegation trips to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Russia. She has participated in nonviolent direct actions and has been arrested in Washington DC to protest torture and indefinite detention at Guantanamo, and in Feb. 2014 spent a week in a N.Y. Jail for a peaceful protest of U.S. Killer Drones. Martha will speak about her jail experience, her travels for peace, as well as the Catholic Worker history and the importance of bearing witness for peace, justice, and the environment.

Please pass the word to fellow activist.  This gathering should provide for valuable discussion to deepen analysis and strengthen our commitment as activists.

Mahalo.

Jim Albertini

Email testimony opposing County take over of Mauna Kea Park

Wednesday, March 26th, 2014

Testimony emailed to kuulei.n.moses@hawaii.gov
Testimony OPPOSED
to MOA to let the County take over operations at Mauna Kea State Park.
FRI 3/28 9 am hearing on Oahu BLNR

Aloha BLNR members:

Our organization is opposed to the County take over of operations at Mauna Kea State Park.

     Our organization has detected radiation at the park on several occasions since May 29, 2007, three months before the military officially admitted, after repeated denials, that DU spotting rounds were fired on Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) ranges less than 1 mile south of Mauna Kea park.  The readings we detected were several times the background radiation.  We suspect that far more DU was used at PTA than what the military wants us to believe.  The Davy Crockett rounds were used beginning in the early 1960s.  Army Col. Howard Killian testified to the Hawaii County Council that DU was not prohibited in training until 1996.  What does that tell you?  It says to me that if it wasn’t prohibited in training, it was likely used in training.  But don’t look and you won’t find.  That’s why the military has stonewalled citizen calls for comprehensive testing and monitoring to determine the full extent of DU contamination at the 133,000-acre PTA, and if, and how far it has spread.    Less than 1% of PTA has been surveyed for DU, and that with questionable methodology.  Schofield Barracks, and other likely contaminated sites in Hawaii including Makua Valley and possibly Kaho’olawe also need independent thorough testing for DU.    Even the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has said the Army filter size in sampling DU at PTA was too large and therefore the Army sampling was worthless.

      Our organization is aware of three MDs and a Naturopathic doctor in Hilo who have patients that tested high for uranium in 24 hour heavy metal urine tests.  There appears to be a need for further testing and research to determine the cause of such uranium in urine and if it is related to PTA. In March of 2013 our organization requested PTA to offer 24 hour urine tests to some of its long term workers to see if uranium was showing up in their urine but the PTA commander, Lt. Col. Eric Shwedo, declined our request. So much for his good faith to the community.

 

      It should also be noted that on July 2, 2008 the Hawaii County Council, by a vote of 8-1, passed Resolution 639-08 calling for a halt to all live-fire at PTA due to the presence of DU radiation  The resolution also called for clean up of the DU along with several other action points, including monitoring to assure the confidence of the community.  The Army has ignored the Council’s call despite Army regulation 700-48 which says the Army must follow such requests by local governments.  The Hawaii County Council, Mayor Kenoi, DLNR chair, William Aila, and the State BLNR need to follow up with further action to Resolution 639-08 in pressuring the Army for accountability on DU.

 

     Back in the 1960s around the same time the military started using DU at PTA, the Army got a BLNR lease of crown and government lands in the Waiakea Forest reserve to do what the Army said was “weather testing.”  The Army was lying.  The Army tested chemical and biological weapons, some as deadly as 1/50 of a drop in Hilo’s water shed.  Many people said cancel the lease. And the state did.  Today many of us are saying the same thing over DU radiation testing.  Cancel the BLNR lease of nearly 24,000 acres at PTA being leased to the military for the grand sum of $1 for 65 years.  Over 84,000 additional acres of crown and government lands were seized at Pohakuloa under a Presidential executive order in 1964.  Not even 1 cent rent has been paid for that.  The military is making a multi billion dollar mess at PTA and it needs to be stopped.  I say to you BLNR –Cancel the military lease at PTA.  Do thorough testing at Mauna kea Park abd other State lands in the area.  Meanwhile put a moratorium on any action concerning Mauna Kea park transfer to the county until this issue is resolved.

 

      Regardless of who is liable – federal, state, and/or county governments, there are potentially serious health and safety concerns for residents and visitors at Mauna Kea Park with the increased use of Saddle Road, frequent strong winds and occasional flash flooding in the area, and military bombing of a base known to be contaminated with DU and other military toxins. When will public officials take responsible action to address these concerns? For now the answer is “Blowing in the Wind.”

Jim Albertini

Speak up: Bread NOT Bombs!

Wednesday, March 26th, 2014

U.S. $1

Trillion

Dollar

National Security

Budget!

     Take action to reign in the U.S. National Security State and redirect funding to much needed program to help meet human needs such as green energy, curbing pollution, housing, education, job training, health care, Head Start, cancer research, food assistance, etc.

      The official Pentagon budget request for 2015 was recently released, and in addition to nearly $500 billion in its base budget, there are lots of other hidden national security related expenditures. Examples include the Pentagon’s $79.4 billion estimate for the Overseas Contingency Operations budget which amounts to a multi-billion dollar military slush fund.  (Since 2001 more than $1 trillion dollars has been spent by the Pentagon in this special “Overseas Contingency Operations budget” to fund multiple wars.)

    Here are some other hidden national security budget items in the 2015 budget:

  • DOE Nuclear weapons activity                                                                                                                                $19.4 billion

  • International FBI activities, Selective Service, the National

    Defense Stockpile and other miscellaneous defense-related  activities.                                                                                                 $36 billion

  • Military retirement programs                                                                                                                                          $37.8 billion

  • Veterans Affairs                                                                                                                                                                  $161.2 billion

  • International Affairs                                                                                                                                                          $ 39 billion

  • Homeland Security                                                                                                                                                            $ 52.1 billion

  • Share of Interest on the defense related Debt                                                                                                     $ 82.7 billion

  • Misc. DOD Retiree Health Care Fund Costs                                                                                                                  $ .1 billion

        GRAND TOTAL U.S. National Security State Budget                                                                                                         $ 1,000 + billion

Source: http://truth-out.org/news/item/22495-americas-1-trillion-national-security-budget
http://act.credoaction.com/go/3786?t=6&akid=10243.6095158.ZzhVI0

The petition to Congress reads:
“Congress should rein in military spending and stop the Pentagon from using the Overseas Contingency Operations account as a slush fund to avoid much-needed spending cuts. We already spend far too much on our military and the Pentagon’s wasteful weapons programs.”
Sign petition here
3786

Cut Military Spending! Fund Human Needs!

The best security for all is building a just, peaceful world!

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.

Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622Email ja@malu-aina.org   http://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (March 28, 2014 –653rd week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

Oppose Private Prisons Coming to Hawaii

Saturday, March 22nd, 2014

Aloha Peace ohana,
Please send in testimony to the state legislature ASAP in opposition to SCR 120 which wants a public/private partnership for more prisons in Hawaii.  Please support Ohana Ho’opakele and Pu’uhonua as positive alternatives to prison.  Mahalo.  See my testimony and Ron Fujiyoshi’s testimony below.  To submit testimony go to http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/
register or sign in at the top right then click on button submit testimony and put in SCR 120  and be sure to click on OPPOSE.
Mahalo.
Jim Albertini

SCR120
Submitted on: 3/22/2014
Testimony for PSM on Mar 24, 2014 13:35PM in Conference Room 224

Submitted By Organization Testifier Position Present at Hearing
Jim Albertini Malu ‘Aina Oppose No

Comments: Our organization stands in strong opposition to SCR 120. We are opposed to more prisons –public and private. Put a stop here and now to the prison industrial complex of Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) or any other private prisons for profit coming to Hawaii to make money off the misery of Hawaiians, already disproportionately represented in Hawaii prisons. In the 1970s Hawaii only had a few hundred people locked up in the State. Today Hawaii has 6,000 people in lock up. Something is very wrong. Prisons are proven failure. No more prisons. There is more than enough room to confine people who are a danger to themselves or the community. It’s time to focus on Pu’uhonua as alternative to prison, places where people can heal, where we can restore offenders, victims, families, and our communities to wholeness. Build Pu’uhonua on every island. Pu’uhonua is our best hope at reducing crime, reducing recidivism, saving money and making long-term positive change. Otherwise, there is no end in sight to the number of people in lock up. At present rates of growth, in the next 30-40 years there will be 60,000 people in lock up and Hawaii will be spending more on prisons than education and all other human services combined. Is this the direction we want for Hawaii — Hawaii becoming a prison industrial complex along with a military industrial complexes and a playground for the rich while local people are homeless or in prison? I hope not. Pu’uhonua, not more prisons, is the way to go. Mahalo. Jim Albertini

TESTIMONY SENT IN BY OHANA HOOPAKELE ON SCR 120:
Legislators, wake up!
Prisons are not working!
Why continue to support what you know is not working?
Spending money on prisons is a bottomless hole!
The public does not want anything that smells of PLDC!
Take note of the following:
• On February 15, 2012 Treena Shapiro wrote a story for the Associated Press on the Pu`uhonua bill [Senate bill (SB3016)]. Do you know that eighty-two (82) media reports were carried in thirty-seven (37) different states in the U.S. plus Washington, D.C.? Why did so many different states cover an article of a Pu`uhonua or a Wellness Center? It was because all of these states know that prisons are not working! All eyes are upon Hawai`i to show a model that works at healing pa`ahao.
• Do you know that Attorney Eric Holder held a press conference on August 12, 2013 saying that federal prisons were “warehousing the most vulnerable members of society”? He has taken steps to eliminate Mandatory Minimum Sentencing for those not in gangs, not in prison for violent crimes, and not on the top level of drug-dealing. Even he knows prisons are not working!
• Hawaiians had working Pu`uhonua that worked; Pu`uhonua can work today at healing Pa`ahao. Build Pu`uhonua, not prisons!
• Look at our Ohana Ho`opakele website at www.ohanahoopakele.org and see our “Kahea (Call) to Support Pu`uhonua as an Alternative to Prison.” It has 1946 signers that include the majority of Hawaiian cultural practitioners, many religious leaders including all of the Justice and Witness Ministries staff of the United Church of Christ, more than 90 Pa`ahao at Saguaro prison, political leaders including Senator Daniel Akaka, Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa, Mayor Kirk Caldwell, Mayor Billy Kenoi, past mayors Dante Carpenter, Harry Kim, Lorraine Inouye, Senators Will Espero, Russell Ruderman, Laura Thielen, Brickwood Galuteria, Ex-Senators Pohai Ryan, John S. Carroll, Norman Sakamoto, Whitney Anderson, Representatives Sharon Har, Ken Ito, Chris Lee, John M. Mizuno, Calvin K.Y. Say, Marcus Oshiro, Georgette Jordan, Roy Takumi, Ex-Representatives Marilyn B. Lee, David Hagino, the late ex-Lt. Governor Jean King, Councilmembers Gary Hooser, Ikaika Anderson, Ex-Councilmembers Donald Ikeda, Fred Blas, Dominic Yagong, DHHL Commissioners Renwick Valentine Tassill, Michael Kahikina, Wallace Ishibashi, Gene Ross Davis, Kama Hopkins, Leimana Damate, Ex-commissioners Ian Lee Loy, Perry Artates, Director William J. Aila Jr., Deputy Director Gary Gill, OHA trustees Oswald K. Stender, Carmen Hulu Lindsey, Ex-OHA trustees Mililani B. Trask, Clarence Ku Ching, Moanikeala Akaka, Walter Ritte, OHA staff John K. Rosa, Leona M. Kalima, Ex-OHA staff Stephen Morse, Wardens Peter McDonald, Neal Wagatsuma, DPS staff Martha Torney, ex-warden Glen Hisashima, Hawaii County staff Wally Lau, Jane Horike, Ex-Hawaiian Caucus Chairs Joseph Lewis, Lela M. Hubbard, Prosecutor Mitch Roth, Ex-prosecutor Jay Kimura, Ex-warden David Winett, Lawyers Myles S. Breiner, Carrie Ann Shirota, Lorenn Walker, Kevin Block, Lanny Sinkin, Robert Merce, Tom Yeh, Alan T. Murakami, Lei Kihoi, Kali Watson, Georgette Yaindl, Professors Williamson Chang, Liam Skilling, Marilyn Brown, Sarah Marusek, etc.
Stop spending money on prisons! Turn to Pu`uhonua to heal pa`ahao! Enough already! Keep the Prison-Industrial Complex out of Hawai`i!

Abercrombie pledges corrections system overhaul

By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer

Gov. Neil Abercrombie told a class of 26 adult corrections officer recruits Friday that they are getting in on the ground floor of what he described as a statewide initiative to revamp and reorient the corrections program.

Visiting the class with state Department of Public Safety Director Ted Sakai, Abercrombie said that the planned reopening of Kulani Correctional Facility in early July is just a start, and plans are in the works to replace antiquated and overcrowded Hawaii Community Correctional Center in Hilo and build a jail facility in Kona.

“As you know, the west side of the island is growing in numbers and density and in ways there’s a new Judiciary complex over there. So, my plan includes building jail facilities, correctional facilities on the Kona side and eliminating the necessity of going back and forth with prisoners,” he said. “… What that means is there are going to be more opportunities in terms of professional openings on that side. … There are going to be new opportunities in what are now nonexistent positions and responsibilities. All that’s part of an integrated plan and opening Kulani is just a step in an overall plan for the Big Island.”

Abercrombie said that the planned reopening is “right on the kinipopo,” time wise. The plan is to eventually house 200 inmates in the minimum security facility on the slopes of Mauna Kea outside Hilo and to eventually return all Hawaii inmates housed in private prisons on the mainland.

“Part of the reason it’s taken us as long as it has … to get Kulani opened is that we were making the switch of the Youth ChalleNGe program that’s up at Kulani,” he said. The National Guard program for at-risk youth, which has been using the Kulani facility, is being moved to the Keaukaha Military Reservation.

The governor said he received approval Thursday of a $350,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to help fund initial training for an agricultural program at Kulani using inmate labor. He said it’s part of $8 million in grant funding earmarked for what he described as a sustainable program which will include greenhouses and other agricultural infrastructure plus recycling of green waste to energy.

“I think this is gonna lower the recidivism rate,” he said. “We’re not only gonna be training people, we’re gonna be giving people a sense that they are not just in a hopeless situation marking time … Road, water and power construction means there’s gonna be jobs in the construction industry, as well.”

He added that the program would tap the expertise of the state Department of Agriculture and the agriculture program at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

Abercrombie said he has a six-year plan for revamping the state’s corrections system that includes closing Oahu Community Correctional Center, which he described as “inadequate” from the day it opened. He said he believes he can find a private developer who can make a better use of the land OCCC occupies in the lower Kalihi neighborhood of Honolulu and who will fund and build a jail elsewhere.

The governor, who is up for re-election this year, is facing a primary challenge from State Sen. David Ige. A Honolulu Star-Advertiser/Hawaii News Now poll last month of registered voters gave the incumbent governor a 47 to 38 percent edge over the Leeward Oahu Democrat. That same poll gave likely GOP challenger Duke Aiona a 48 to 40 percent lead in a head-to-head matchup. Aiona was the lieutenant governor in the administration of Abercrombie’s predecessor, Linda Lingle, who shuttered Kulani in September 2009.

Abercrombie called the closure, which Lingle touted as a cost-cutting measure, as “a misstep.”

“When Kulani closed, it wasn’t just the facility closing,” he said. “… I know that people had to leave their families and leave the islands to take jobs elsewhere. I know that people got bumped because we didn’t have adequate personnel in the facilities that we did have. Closing Kulani caused a whole disruption in our corrections system.

“… The question that has to be asked right now is, ‘What’s the cost of sending people out of the state?’ Not just in dollars-and-cents terms, but in lost opportunities for dealing with our own difficulties, in our own way, inside our own home, inside our state.”

Asked afterwards about a lawsuit filed against the state by the Native Hawaiian group Ohana Ho‘opakele and joined by three inmates incarcerated at an Arizona facility over the state’s alleged failure to implement Act 117 and establish a pu‘uhonua or place of refuge or healing at Kulani, Abercrombie said he wouldn’t comment on the litigation.

“What we’re here today about is to see to it Kulani not only reopens, but that these young men and women who are thinking about having a career in corrections understand that they’re going to be part of an initiative towards the complete revamping and reorientation of the corrections program … throughout Hawaii. And the Big Island is the kickoff to that.”

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.

– See more at: http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/local-news/abercrombie-pledges-corrections-system-overhaul#sthash.FCpD1mte.276ggxMo.dpuf

Reminder: Martha Hennessy speaks at UHHilo Thursday, March 20th

Wednesday, March 19th, 2014
Martha
Hennessy

UH Hilo -UCB 100

6:30PM

Thursday,

March 20, 2014


(free parking)

Reaper drone firing

 

Recently Jailed for

Peaceful Protest

Against U.S. Killer

Drones

(at Hancock Air Force Base near Syracuse, N,Y.

     Martha is the seventh of nine grandchildren to Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and is carrying on the work of her grandmother. The Catholic Worker provides hospitality, clothing and meals to the homeless, prints the paper – The Catholic Worker, (in circulation since 1933), holds round table discussions with a variety of speakers, and attempts to practice the Works of Mercy as taught by Jesus in the New Testament. The Catholic Worker celebrated the 80th anniversary of the movement in 2013.

     Martha grew up in Vermont. She was trained as an occupational therapist, working for 25 years with children in the public schools and with the elderly. She is the mother of three and grandmother of six. Her husband works as a carpenter and they grow much of their food on 7 acres of the family farm.

     Martha has traveled extensively including peace delegation trips to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Russia. She has participated in nonviolent direct actions and has been arrested in Washington DC to protest torture and indefinite detention at Guantanamo, and in Feb. 2014 spent a week in a N.Y. Jail for a peaceful protest of U.S. Killer Drones. Martha will speak about her jail experience, her travels for peace, as well as the Catholic Worker history and the importance of bearing witness for peace, justice, and the environment.

Sponsors: Global H.O.P.E and Malu ‘Aina. Further contact: Jim Albertini 966-7622 ja@mau-aina.org