HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 1142.005 2006-2008
Aloha Council members,
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4 I read, last week a military man said C1 Ts have already been flying over the Island. He implied
that residents didn't notice and didn't care.
Not so. My friend in Honoka'a said the plane she saw was so low it nearly gave her a heart attack. At
first she thought it was an earthquake, she thought her house was going to shake apart. She was
furious but never called anyone to complain.
I am against military flights over the Big Island. I came to talk about all of the problems with the
proposed MTR, but in reality, this is all part of the much larger problem.
Bear with me... this is all related.
Did you know that "we", (our military) gave radioactive "pills" to the people of the South Pacific just
to see what would happen? It is documented that "we" intentionally poisoned generations of men,
women, and children.... because "we" could.
Over 2000 Pacific Islanders and 400,000 Americans have been experimented on, and exposed to
radiological contamination in the Pacific, with the numbers still going up due to DNA damage.
This does not include the countless numbers we have contaminated in other parts of the world with
depleted uranium radiation, including, our own kids.
For many years the military has had a culture of half truths, out-right deception and misinformation;
of not following their own mandated clean up regulations and shameful betrayal on an epic scale of
our soldiers, veterans, and other innocent civilians that they have harmed.
Many people have been fighting for decades to have their cases heard whether it be from radiation
poisoning; agent orange, perchlorate groundwater contamination, or other carcinogenic, military
toxins.
As one person said, "call me naive, but I guess I'm never going to understand how poisoning one's
own citizens is a sound way of defending our country".
This is one of the main reasons that Hawaii residents continue to call for independent observers of
DU testing.This is one of the reasons they are angry about B2 dummy bombs, mad about open air
burning of munitions; mad about DU covered Strykers; Navy sonar; mad about thousands of leaking
barrels of toxic sludge in our near-shore waters.
Mad about the being home to the largest concentration of unexploded chemical weapons ever found
in the U.S., mad that nearly all of our state and local elected officials just roll over and play dead when
it come to military contamination, and now... another slap in the face with C-1 Ts.
Gomm. No. 2.
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Ref. Date APB l i-20B~-
Gmail - Council Testimony http://mail.google.com/maiV?ui=2&ik=878dca86fc&view=pt&searc...
The military has 856 contaminated sites in Hawaii, including seven superfund sites... this is not
counting "active" bases with radiation and other toxic hazards such as Pohakuloa and Schofield and
every active military base in Hawaii that is contaminated.
There is a low estimate of over 28,000 contaminated sites in the U S.. In California alone, it is
estimated to take 300 years for toxic clean up, with the clean up budget being cut repeatedly and
corners being cut on clean up. 28 states are now reported to be contaminated with deadly perchlorate
from rocket fuel that is showing up in mother's milk.
With the military being one of the biggest polluters in our state, they have a very poor record of
cleaning up their dangerous messes. Instead of protecting us. they are putting us at risk.
Our military has morphed into one of the biggest "businesses" the world has ever seen, with
congressional approval and collusion, running up our national credit card into the trillions, looting and
ruining our economy. This is insane and is exactly what President Eisenhower warned us about.
The military in Hawaii has repeatedly proven to be very poor record keepers, very poor stewards of
the land, very poor at telling the whole truth, and very poor at protecting us from their toxic excesses.
I no longer trust our military to do the right thing or tell residents the whole truth about anything ..and
I don't trust our state health dept. to babysit them, either.
I sympathize, I know that individually, you don't feel you have any say over the military continuing to
contaminate the Islands of Hawaii. This is why I propose a summit of ALL Hawaii State elected
officials to get together on this most serious issue. Asleep at the wheel is not going to cut it anymore,
we are in crisis.
I know that a few of you have tried to make a difference but statewide, most elected officials are
sticking their heads in the sand and residents are suffering gravely from their inattention. We are
scared, angry, and tired of being used as the military's secret, toxic trash can in the middle of the
Pacific.
We need to see ALL of you start raising your voices together against the continued poisoning of our
islands by the military ...and get in line for some of that clean-up money, because we are going to
need A LOT of it'
You, as our elected officials, who are supposed to be protecting us, are our ONLY line of defense to
reign in these crazed manics. If you continue to do nothing, you are responsible for the poisoning of
Hawaii.
Please be a part of the solution. Please hurry. We are losing our paradise.
Mahalo,
Shannon Rudolph
P.O. 243 Holualoa, Hi. 96725
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