Archive for February, 2022

Kahea: Justice Seekers and Peacemakers

Thursday, February 3rd, 2022

Kahea: Justice Seekers and Peacemakers

No More War!

Stand in solidarity to drain and close the Red Hill Fuel Tanks and prevent US war on Russia and China.

 
Join the Friday Hilo Peace Vigil 3:30- 5 PM at the downtown Hilo Post Office/Federal Bldg.
Please wear a mask and social distance.
See this week’s leaflet –Military Breach of Public Trust https://malu-aina.org/?p=7868
See last week’s leaflet — On the Brink of War, Again! https://malu-aina.org/?p=7852
Please share widely. Mahalo for your solidarity.
 
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
 
 

Military Breach of Public Trust Feb. 4, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet

Tuesday, February 1st, 2022

Military Breach of

Public Trust

 

  poison

      The U.S. military is resisting the State emergency order to immediately drain the Red Hill Fuel tanks that poses an imminent risk of further contaminating Oahu’s drinking water. By appealing the State order, the military is putting its interest above the common good of the very people it is supposed to be defending. The Navy has reneged on its previous commitment to comply with the State’s emergency order. Its action constitutes a breach of trust between the Navy and the people of Hawaii. Twenty Navy underground fuel tanks, each large enough to envelop Aloha Tower, sit just 100 feet above a major source of drinking water for Oahu. A hearing officer overseeing the case called Red Hill a “ticking time bomb” that posed an imminent peril to human health and the environment. Three of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply wells have been shut down out of concern that the Navy’s fuel contamination could migrate. Honolulu Board of Water Supply Chief Engineer Ernie Lau said that his concerns about potential contamination have yet to be assuaged and that urban Honolulu could face water shortages this summer as demand for water increases amid the curtailed supply.

      This recent military breach of public trust is nothing new. The military has used executive orders and $1 leases to repeatedly take over Hawaiian lands for military bases. The military refused to do an Environmental Impact Statement for the storage of nuclear weapons at West Loch of Pearl Harbor in the late 1970s. Here on Hawaii Island, the military repeatedly brought nuclear warships into Big island harbors in defiance of Hawaii County’s historic Nuclear-Free law. There are at least 57 present and former military sites on Hawaii Island totaling more than 250,000-acres in need a military clean-up. Many more sites on other islands too. And of course, the most outrageous breach of public trust was the US military’s direct involvement in the illegal overthrow of the legitimate government of the independent nation of Hawaii in 1893 and its illegal military occupation ever since.

      On Jan. 5, 2022, I emailed the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) new commander, LTC Kevin Cronin, wishing him and his family a Happy New Year. I reached out in good faith requesting a meeting with him and a few members of our organization in respectful dialogue. I submitted a number of concerns and questions. A copy of my email is available on our website here https://malu-aina.org/?p=7865  To date (Feb. 1, 2022) I have received No Response. More breach of public trust!

Pohakuloa Poisoning Land, Air, and Water!

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

Feb. 4, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1062– 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

Email to new Pohakuloa Commander

Tuesday, February 1st, 2022

To kevin.e.cronin.mil@mail.mil

Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) new commander

Jan. 5, 2021

Aloha LTC Cronin,

Happy New Year to you and your family.

In my more than 50 years in Hawaii I’ve seen quite a few military commanders come and go.  I try to reach out in good faith to all in the spirit of Kapu Aloha — non-violence.  I would hope that you would be willing to meet with myself and a few members of our organization in a respectful dialogue.  I would request the following:

1.  a discussion on Hawaii county Resolution 639-08 passed in July 2008  calling for a halt to all live-fire at PTA until there is a complete assessment and clean up of DU at PTA.  There were 7 other actions called for in that resolution.  To date, PTA has done none of the actions called for.  Why?  Of course there are additional toxins at PTA besides DU that concern us.  Things like perchlorate, PFAS, etc. 

2.  We would like to go to the ranges where DU rounds were fired, and would like a tour of the drone fields. We also would like an update on the water wells drilled nearly 9 years ago at PTA that are still not being used.  Why? What toxins are in the water?

3.  Over the years we have asked a multitude of questions to commanders that have gone unanswered.  Basic questions such as the number of live-rounds fired annually at PTA and the various weapons fired. The last figure released during the Stryker EIS process said 14.8 million live-rounds fired annually at PTA.  I am sure PTA files have a record of our questions.

I look forward to your response to this request and these and other questions.  Below is a copy of this week’s Hilo Peace leaflet.

With gratitude and aloha,

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

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