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The bottom line is as we do these processes forward, we have to engage in a genuine way. It's a
<br />high-risk moment right at this moment. I don't think we can afford to erode public trust as we're
<br />addressing some national standards that are a bit underwhelming. We don't need to add fuel to
<br />that fire. You can see from the color of the shirts in the room that this is just beginning. I mean,
<br />this is just beginning. It's going to be at the capitol. It's going to be engaging the solar
<br />observatory. There's a lot of things happening. It's bigger than any one individual.
<br />So, gentlemen, ladies, I'm asking you, solid leadership means we care for the people of this
<br />community. My grandfather said when times are good, the children should learn to feed the
<br />elders first. They should learn the place of respect and the reason why we respect wisdom and
<br />the intergenerational connectivity. But when things are difficult, when danger is present, the
<br />children should be fed first. They are the future, and the right elders will refuse to eat because of
<br />the return of investment.
<br />I'm suggesting this moment may be a critical moment where we should feed the children first.
<br />CRAWFORD: Yeah, I'd also like to say thank you. My name is Dylan Crawford, and I do
<br />appreciate you, lady and gentlemen, for hearing testimony today. I just, I would like to state that
<br />I'm in opposition of this water bottling facility based on just, just my experiences of a surfer and
<br />a haole, but a Hawaiian who grew up on Molokai, and I was raised by a, by a very wise
<br />Hawaiian man on the east end, and, you know, we'd walls the coastline. Molokai is really known
<br />for its self -subsistence, yeah? There's a lot of hunting and fishing and farming that goes on over
<br />there due to the cost of living and other factors.
<br />So, you know, with my experiences, walking that coastline from a young boy from the age of
<br />five years old and seeing like the nice glass bottles on the beach to, you know, slowly turn into
<br />like, you know water bottles, and all the fishing fodder that gets washed along the shorelines that
<br />needs to be taken out that at this point has become micro -trash where you pick up a handful of
<br />sand and it's colorful. It's got nice pink and green plastics all intermingled within it, and the fish
<br />are eating it, and the turtles, the whales, everything. You know, it's become a part of the
<br />ecosystem, and it used to be that old [inaudible] saying, it's the economy, stupid. Well, you
<br />know what? It's the ecology, stupid. It's not about that anymore. The time for change is now.
<br />That's what this shirt represents. This is an hourglass that is showing that the Earth is running
<br />out of resources. It's running out of patience. Just the Earth itself is running out of patience with
<br />us. The ecosystems are collapsing, and, you know, I went back to Molokai this last October, and
<br />it's painful to see what those coasts look like today. It's completely—it's a dump. It's just a
<br />complete dump, and I see you guys with your Aquafina water bottles up there and, you know, I
<br />don't know what you're going to do with them at the end of the day, but you're going to forget
<br />about it, but those water bottles have a memory, and they're going to be long, long after we're
<br />gone, they'll still going to be around, potentially in the ocean. And, you know, the ocean is my
<br />church. That's where I find my solace, and I just see my, my church getting polluted, and it's
<br />painful.
<br />And, furthermore, I just think the Big Island has a lot of potential, yeah? We have a lot of
<br />intelligent people. We have awe have an amazing island, you know, and I think that we could
<br />do a lot better to be leaders, yeah, instead of followers, and when you open a water bottling
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