The Wind Speaks
Hawaii Tribune-Herald Reporter Tom Callis and Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim
Aloha Tom and Harry,
The Hawaii Tribune-Herald news story June 29, 2017 on the military Pohakuloa Training Area PTA) said: “More than a dozen Protesters were outside PTA’s gates at the start of the ceremony.” Indeed, more like 40 plus and we had a message but not even one line of the article mentioned our message. But thanks for including the story of strong winds blowing flags standing behind the podium on top of Harry during his speech.. I’m glad Harry wasn’t hurt. The strong winds blowing reminds me of the ground breaking ceremony in 2007 for the Saddle Rd. Realignment. The ceremony was held on the new portion of the Saddle Rd. just Hilo side of Mauna Kea park. A large group of us were protesting the realignment because it pushed the road on the Mauna Kea side of PTA, through the Palila habitat and Mamane forest and opened up more area for PTA live-fire, etc. The day of the ceremony was May 29, 2007. Police unduly restricted our protest to Mauna Kea Park so we were kept at least 100 yards from the ceremony. The winds that day were also strong and coming from the south (PTA impact area toward the Park.) At one point dust devils appeared coming right at us and the ceremony. The winds became so strong, it picked up some of our large 4’X4′ heavy duty plastic signs and hurled them at the ceremony tent area. Police went running after the signs to retrieve them. Dignitaries –U.S. SenatorDan Inouye, Federal, State and county officials and business leaders were in the ceremonial tent. Probably Harry too was there since he was Mayor back then. Our radiation monitors that day registered 70-80 Counts per minute (CPM) when the normal background readings were 15- 20 CPM. We knew something was coming off PTA in those dust devils. Three months later in Aug. 2007 the military officially confirmed DU had been used at PTA back in the 60s, including at range 11 not far from Mauna Kea Park. Up until that point the military had repeatedly denied DU had ever been used at PTA or anywhere else in Hawaii.
Moral of the story: Beware of the Makani (wind) — as Bob Dylan said — “the answer is blowing in the wind.” The wind speaks. And sometimes we refuse to listen, even when signs are blown right into our tent and blown flags hit us on the head.
Aloha ‘Aina. Stop the Bombing. Stop Training to Invade. Wage Peace, not War! Cancel the PTA Lease. Shut Down PTA. Live aloha! The DU is in the DUst!
—
Jim Albertini
Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action
P.O. Box 489
Kurtistown, Hawaii 96760
Phone 808-966-7622
email ja@malu-aina.org
visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org
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