Published by jalbertini on October 17th, 2024 in Hawaii Independence, Military, Pohakuloa, Public Events, Radiation, Social Justice, Take Action!, Vigil leaflets | No Comments
Restore Hawaii County’s
Historic Nuclear–Free Law!
Repeal the Military
Exemption!
Support Bill 206
Click on the link above to read the Bill
Send an email in support of Bill 206 to counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov
On Wed. Oct. 16th, the Hawaii County Council voted 9-0 to support Bill 206 Draft 2 at its meeting in Kona to repeal the 40-year-old Military Exemption from the County’s Nuclear-Free Law. This is very good news. Several people testified from around the island in support of Bill 206. As far as I could tell, no one testified in opposition.
Bill 206 Draft 2 requires one more council vote to move the Bill to the Mayor for his signature to become County law. That second vote will be in Hilo, likely on Friday, Nov. 8th at 9 AM, although the time and date will not be confirmed until 6 days prior. But please mark your calendar. Try to attend the Hilo meeting at the Council Chambers. You can now send testimony by email up until 1 day before the final vote. People can also testify via zoom from their homes at the next meeting, or from various county sites around the Island. Call the County Clerk’s office for more information. 808-961-8255.
Mahalo for your support.
Jim Albertini for Malu ‘Aina
More Background
Hawaii County’s historic Nuclear-Free Law (No, 665) was passed in February 1981. Hawaii County was the first municipality in the U.S. to pass a law declaring itself a Nuclear-Free Zone. Since then, more than 100 or 200, other municipalities have passed similar laws.
Forty years ago, on July 18, 1984, hundreds of people gathered peacefully on the Hilo docks to protest a visiting US Navy Nuclear-armed warship – the USS Ouellet. After 3 years of requesting the US Navy to respect our County’s Nuclear-Free law without success, our organization announced that we planned a non-violent peaceful swimming protest of the next Navy Nuclear ship visit a month later. A Navy Nuclear ship visit was planned for the July Hawaii Japanese Chamber of Commerce Festival of the Pacific.
On July 17, 1984, the day before the nuclear warship’s scheduled arrival, the Hawaii County Council, under the leadership of then Council chair, Stephen Yamashiro, passed an emergency amendment “exempting the military” from the Nuclear-Free law. Having an amendment to the Nuclear-Free Law to exempt the military is like having an exemption for smokers from Smoking laws. It makes no sense. For more on the Hilo Bay Warship Peace Blockade, see https://malu-aina.org/?p=10305 My testimony on Oct. 1st can be viewed here. https://malu-aina.org/?p=10529
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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
Published by jalbertini on October 17th, 2024 in Climate Change, Hawaii Independence, Military, Pohakuloa, Public Events, Radiation, Social Justice, Take Action! | No Comments
Join the Weekly Friday Peace Vigil in Hilo 3:30-5 PM at the downtown Hilo Post Office, across from Kalakaua Park, The Letter below was published in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald and West Hawaii Today on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024
Red Flag Fire Warning Oct. 16, 2024, includes Pohakuloa in the center of Hawaii Island
The 133,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) in the center of Hawaii Island is under Red Flag warning, yet troops from 10 nations have been doing war training there for several weeks. The latest draft EIS released by PTA said 892 wildfires have been started at PTA since 1975. One in 2022, a year before the deadly Lahaina fire, burned over 17,000 acres, including over 12,000 acres off the base in Endangered Species Habitat.
PTA is Hawaii’s Lahaina fire in the making. Millions of live rounds are fired annually at Pohakuloa, an area contaminated with many military toxins, including Depleted Uranium Radiation from 80 years of bombing and shelling. These toxins blow in the strong winds that frequent the area and can be re-suspended by high explosives and in the smoke from fires at Pohakuloa. PTA at 6500 feet elevation is located above the island’s main aquifer. Is PTA also Hawaii Island’s Red Hill water contamination in the process? PTA spends millions of dollars a year hauling water to the base. Yet they drilled 2 wells on base more than 10 years ago and hit water at a shallow depth — 750 feet and 1200 feet below the surface, but they are still not using the water from those wells. How come? What’s in the water below PTA?
News Media and Elected Officials: Raise questions about the ELEPHANT in the center of Hawaii Island — The Pohakuloa TOXIC Area (PTA)!
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Jim Albertini Malu ‘Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown) Hawai’i 96760
Published by jalbertini on October 16th, 2024 in Climate Change, Hawaii Independence, Military, Pohakuloa, Public Events, Radiation, Social Justice, Take Action! | No Comments
Red Flag Fire Warning Oct. 16, 2024, includes Pohakuloa in the center of Hawaii Island
The 133,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) in the center of Hawaii Island is under Red Flag warning, yet troops from 10 nations have been doing war training there for several weeks. The latest draft EIS released by PTA said 892 wildfires have been started at PTA since 1975. One in 2022, a year before the deadly Lahaina fire, burned over 17,000 acres, including over 12,000 acres off the base in Endangered Species Habitat.
PTA is Hawaii’s Lahaina fire in the making. Millions of live rounds are fired annually at Pohakuloa, an area contaminated with many military toxins, including Depleted Uranium Radiation from 80 years of bombing and shelling. These toxins blow in the strong winds that frequent the area and can be re-suspended by high explosives and in the smoke from fires at Pohakuloa. PTA at 6500 feet elevation is located above the island’s main aquifer. Is PTA also Hawaii Island’s Red Hill water contamination in the process? PTA spends millions of dollars a year hauling water to the base. Yet they drilled 2 wells on base more than 10 years ago and hit water at a shallow depth — 750 feet and 1200 feet below the surface, but they are still not using the water from those wells. How come? What’s in the water below PTA?
News Media and Elected Officials: Raise questions about the ELEPHANT in the center of Hawaii Island — The Pohakuloa TOXIC Area (PTA)!
Jim Albertini
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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
Published by jalbertini on October 15th, 2024 in Climate Change, Hawaii Independence, Military, Pohakuloa, Public Events, Radiation, Social Justice, Take Action!, Vigil leaflets | No Comments
Recycle the War Machine! _______________________________________________________________
Food Not Bombs! Houses Not Bombs! Education Not Bombs! Health Care not Bombs! Stop the Genocide!
The US spends $1 Trillion a year on its war machine, more than the next 9 nations combined, and plans to spend more than $1.7 Trillion on upgrading its nuclear weapons arsenal that already can destroy the world many times over. After WWII the Pentagon was to revert to a medical facility. The above figures on military spending appear to confirm that the Pentagon has kept its word. It has become – a War Machine Insane Asylum, with Bi-partisan Congressional, Executive Branch, and Wall Street support!
Save the Planet! Peace is a Victory for ALL!
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, anti- Russian, anti-LGBTQ, 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 see https://www.malu-aina.org
Oct. 18, 2024, Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1203– Fridays 3:30-5 PM downtown Post Office
Published by jalbertini on October 15th, 2024 in Hawaii Independence, Military, Pohakuloa, Public Events, Radiation, Social Justice, Take Action! | No Comments
The Oct. 16, 2024, Hawaii County Council 9 AM meeting on Bill 206 to restore the County’s Nuclear-Free Law (Repeal the Military Exemption) will be held in Kailua-Kona at the
West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A
People can also testify at the following locations around the island:
• Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaii County Building,25 Aupuni Street, Room 1401
Public attendance via Courtesy is available at the following locations:
• Old Kohala Courthouse, 54-3900 Akoni Pule Highway, Kapa`au;
• Pahoa Council Office, 15-2879 Pahoa Village Road;
• Lily Yoshimatsu Senior Center, 67-1199 Mamalahoa Highway, Waimea; and
• Ocean View Community Association, 92-8924 Leilani Circle.
Please pass the word. Mahalo.
Jim
