Honor Rev. Martin Luther King
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Archive for January, 2022
“Peace & Good Will” Not Lie & Deny, Jan. 14, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet
Tuesday, January 11th, 2022“Peace on Earth – Good Will
to All?”
“Be The Peace You Wish To See In The World!”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
We have just finished celebrating the Holy season of “Peace on Earth –Good Will to All” but in many ways you would never know it. The War Drums seem to be beating louder than ever – both at home & abroad! Instead of Peace and Good Will, it seems more a season of “Lie & Deny!”
Last week in the US marked the anniversary of the January 6th insurrection at the US Capital to declare Donald Trump as US president rather than Joe Biden. The lines of division are drawn. Hate too often fills the air.
We seem to be living in an increasingly polarized world. We need more good will to bring peace to our communities and world. Sadly, the only thing that seems to unite Americans in a bi-partisan way – Democrats and Republicans is the US war budget. But instead of projecting good will, it projects imperial power and US global domination. The bloated US war budget reflects how out of balance Americans really are with themselves and the rest of the world. So many human needs go unmet.
The United States spends more on its military than the next 11 top nations combined. The US war budget this year is tens of Billions larger than last year although the US war in Afghanistan has finally ended – the longest war in US history. Compared with China ($250 Billion) the US military budget (at $768 Billion) is more than three times bigger. The US spends over 12 times more than Russia ($60 Billion) on its military. The US has 750 military bases in 80 countries around the world. How many foreign bases do Russia and China have?
When the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, the US repeatedly promised Russia that the US and NATO would not move eastward toward Russia. The US and NATO broke its promise, time, and time again. Lie and deny! NATO kept moving closer to Russia. Now tensions are rising fast with Russia and China, both nuclear powers. The tension with Russia is over Ukraine possibly joining NATO. Ukraine is on Russia’s border. Sign the peace petition here https://www.codepink.org/ukraine_nato?utm_campaign=ukraine_nato_us&utm_medium=email&utm_source=codepink
Also see https://consortiumnews.com/2022/01/12/robert-parry-americas-staggering-hypocrisy/
https://popularresistance.org/six-things-the-media-wont-tell-you-about-ukraine/
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/01/14/the-case-for-neutrality-to-defuse-crisis-with-russia/
More than 50 years ago Martin Luther King said “The US is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” That statement remain ns true today. “Peace and Good Will” diplomacy is needed now more than ever if the world is to survive in this time of a global pandemic, increasing climate crisis, and the hair-trigger possibility of global nuclear war. We all need to do our part now. Later is too late. Here in Hawaii, let’s start by ending the long illegal US occupation of Hawaii after the US led coup of Jan. 17, 1893. It’s way past time for the independent nation of Hawaii to be restored. And the US should pay reparations for damage done.
Aloha Not Hate! Aloha Not War! Aloha & Nonviolence always!
- 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
Jan. 14, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1059– Fridays 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office
— 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 & Pohakuloa — Jan. 7, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet
Tuesday, January 4th, 2022Shut down Red Hill & Pohakuloa —
Please join the Friday Hilo Peace vigil 3:30-5PM at the downtown Hilo Post Office and spread the word. This week’s peace leaflet about Red Hill and Pohakuloa is below. Mahalo and solidarity mauka to makai! #shutdownredhill
—
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/
Shut Down & Clean Up Pohakuloa Toxic Area too!
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!
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
Jan. 7, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1058– Fridays 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office
-- 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
Native Hawaiians Fight US Navy for Polluting Island’s Water
Sunday, January 2nd, 2022Native Hawaiians Fight US Navy for Polluting Island’s Water
Under the cover of pre-dawn darkness, Native Hawaiians surprised the gates of the US Navy Command with a civil disobedience action over the #RedHill fuel leak. Empire Files producer Mike Prysner was on the ground.
Support the efforts to #ShutDownRedHill! Learn how to join the campaign, donate and get the latest updates on the story :: https://twitter.com/oahuwp // https://twitter.com/kaohewai // https://twitter.com/sierraclubhi // https://twitter.com/hawaiipandj // https://instagram.com/oahuwaterprotec…
Navy continues fight against emergency order on Red Hill
The Navy is continuing its fight against a state order to drain its Red Hill fuel tanks and suspend fueling operations until the Hawaii Department of Health is satisfied the facility can be operated safely.
On Wednesday, an attorney for the Navy filed 43 pages worth of objections to a determination issued Monday by a DOH hearing officer that the state’s emergency order should be upheld. Navy attorney Craig Jensen argued that the basis for many of the state official’s conclusions lack supporting evidence and that the state overstepped its statutory authority in issuing the emergency order.
While the Navy already is working to satisfy many of the requirements detailed in the emergency order, it particularly objects to the requirement that it remove all the fuel from its underground tanks. The emergency order also makes the Navy subject to the state’s determination of when, and if, it can resume fueling operations.
DOH issued the emergency order Dec. 6 amid a mounting crisis in which thousands of residents in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam were displaced from their homes amid fuel odors coming from faucets. Approximately 93,000 residents on the Navy’s water system have been advised not to drink the water as the Navy works to flush and test it.
The Navy contested the emergency order, prompting a contested case hearing last week that involved roughly 13 hours of testimony from witnesses called by the Navy and DOH, as well as the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and Hawaii Sierra Club, which were allowed to intervene as parties to the proceedings.
On Monday, David Day, the DOH hearing officer overseeing the contested case, issued a proposed decision and order that called the Red Hill fuel facility a “ticking time bomb” that was guaranteed to continue to leak fuel. Day said the aging facility posed an imminent peril to human health and the environment.
The Navy objected to many of the findings and conclusions in Day’s proposed order, saying they lacked evidentiary support and that there was no indication the hearing officer weighed competing and critical evidence.
For instance, the Navy said that Day’s conclusions “about the nature of the imminent peril or the characteristics of the Red Hill facility as a whole” lacked citations that would allow the Navy to respond to the evidence on which they were based.
The Navy also argued that Day had “expressly refused to consider or weigh evidence” on the Navy’s actions to comply with a corrective action plan for the fuel facility that dates back to 2015, as well as its current efforts to address the petroleum pollution in its Red Hill drinking water shaft and distribution system.
“Arbitrarily excluding an entire category of evidence pertaining to the Navy’s testing, monitoring, sampling, environmental efforts and knowledge is an error, to which the Navy takes exception,” Jensen wrote.
The Navy also argued the state lacked the authority to issue the emergency order, which it said should relate strictly to the current water contamination crisis, not the broader question of whether continuing to operate the Red Hill facility is safe for human health and the environment.
The Navy also objected to findings in the proposed order that there have been 76 recorded fuel releases at the Red Hill facility since its construction in the 1940s, noting that 30 of those were tied to a now-removed leak detection system that was known to show “false positives.” An expert witness for the Board of Water Supply had testified there were likely many more leaks at the facility that were never recorded. But the Navy said there was no evidence to support this.
DOH Deputy Director Marian Tsuji now has 30 days to make a final decision on whether to uphold the emergency order, though that might not be the end of the legal wrangling. The Navy can appeal an unfavorable decision in court.
Navy officials have not responded to questions from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser about whether they intend to do so if the state keeps the emergency order in place.
The Navy filing was quickly panned by Earthjustice attorney David Henkin, who is representing the Hawaii Sierra Club.
Henkin noted the Navy has a right to file exceptions to the hearing officer’s proposed decision and order. “But it also has a moral obligation to acknowledge the reality that every day it fights this emergency order, is another day that O‘ahu’s (principal) source of drinking water remains at risk for catastrophic and irreversible contamination,” he said in a statement.
Dec. 31, 2021 Hilo Peace Vigil photo
Saturday, January 1st, 2022Dec. 31, 2021 Hilo Peace Vigil photo
Wage Peace Not War!
