Letters for Sunday, March 8, 2020

A fond ‘aloha’ to Charles ‘Chuck’ Trembath

In order to say “aloha” to my old friend, this poem is dedicated to Chuck Trembath, Uncle Kale, who bridged the gap between western science and Hawaiian core values of pono and aloha ‘aina. You are missed but never forgotten:

The Bridge Builder

An old man, going a lone highway,

Came at the evening, cold and grey,

To a chasm, vast and deep and wide,

Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim-

That sullen stream had no fears for him;

But he turned, when he reached the other side,

And built a bridge to span the tide

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting strength in building here.

Your journey will end with the ending day;

You never again must pass this way.

You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide,

Why build you the bridge at the eventide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head.

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followeth after me today

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

The chasm that has been naught to me,

To that dear youth may a pitfall be.

He too must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.” (Will Allen Dromgoole)

Aloha no,

Donald “Lalakea” Heacock, Hule‘ia

A letter to Senator Hirono regarding nukes and UN treaty

In a March 5 Star-Advertiser post, “Defense secretary notes site delays in stalled $1.9B radar,” Secretary Esper acknowledged the emergence of hypersonic-delivery-vehicle technology, basically admitting the radar would be obsolete before it is complete. The Missile Defense Agency has moved on to a “space sensor layer protecting against a wider range of missile threats.”

Senator, this radar is pork barrel that puts a target on our backs. Here on Kaua‘i we will resist its placement here with just as much resolve as our friends have shown on O‘ahu.

It angers me to read that, with access to $188M in the 2020 budget, “as far as she (you, Senator Hirono) knows, Lockheed Martin is already building the radar.”

Nuclear proliferation is emerging in the consciousness in Hawai‘i as a threat equal to climate change. The Golden Rule sailboat was welcomed here with generous media attention and aloha. Later this month she sails for a nuclear-free future to the Marshall Islands and on to Japan for the 75th observance of the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The 2017 UN Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty has been ratified by 35 countries, albeit none of them as yet the seven nuclear countries. Considering that the cost of Secretary Esper’s “space sensor layer” would dwarf that of the $2 billion radar, and that there’s no end to it, because missile defense technology never has and never will keep up with weapon delivery by missile technology, a negotiated, verifiable treaty abolishing nuclear weapons seems like a good idea that would be popular with your constituents.

The Esper hearing could have been an opportunity for you and our Hawai‘i delegation to boost awareness and give credibility to the UN treaty. And keep doing so when the opportunity presents. Say it often enough, from a credible source, and people believe it. It’s a tried and proven propaganda tool. It’s how Trump convinced millions that Obama was born in Kenya. In this case, to rescue the world from nuclear annihilation. Is unabashedly waging peace so far-fetched?

Prayin’ for peace,

Kip Goodwin, Kapa‘a