{"id":170723,"date":"2020-10-19T12:02:40","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T11:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=170723"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:37:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:37:00","slug":"memories-of-dreams-past-hawaii-as-the-geneva-of-the-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/10\/memories-of-dreams-past-hawaii-as-the-geneva-of-the-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories of Dreams Past: Hawaii as the \u201cGeneva of the Pacific\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

24 Oct 2020 – <\/em><\/strong>Happy Birthday, Johan Galtung! \u00a0Years will pass, but your legacy as a voice for peace and justice will not! The footprints of your days in Hawaii remain.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gatherings of Peace Leaders, Peace People, and Native Hawaiians<\/em><\/p>\n

I recall those heady days in Hawaii, when a few stood against a formidable foe of government, military, and commercial forces seeking to control Hawaii\u2019s sacred lands, to sully and stain them with a war appellation, to abuse them using bombing practice and assault training. The foes were oblivious to the will of Native Hawaii people, and to those who envisioned a different Hawaii, a hallowed land of peace. Let me remind you, Johan, Glenn, and scores of others of those days.<\/p>\n

Hawaii is a gift from the gods, sacred in so many ways; its beauty and grandeur, undeniable. Mark Twain, in early visits to Hawaii, described his experience in the following words:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its surf is in my ear; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud-rack; I can feel the spirit of its woody solitudes, I hear the splashing of the brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers perished twenty years ago.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

—\u00a0Mark Twain, a Biography. Source: Day, Grove A. (Editor)\u00a0Mark Twain\u2019s Letters from Hawaii.<\/u>\u00a0Appleton-Century; New York: 1966<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Native Hawaiian activists and advocates spoke of their enduring commitment to restore peace and justice to the land Hawaii.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, the Hawaiian people, who are born from the union of \u00a0Papahanaumoku and Wakea, earth mother and sky father, and who have lived in these islands for over 100 generations, will always have the moral right to the lands of Hawai’i now and forever, no matter what any court says.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

— Lilikal\u0101 K. Kame’eleihiwa<\/a>, Prof. Hawaiian Studies<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The foe won! At least for now, Hawaii remains a military bastion, the third largest military base in the United States. A fortress of technological power capable of decimating any foe. Buildings, facilities, and programs in Hawaii are named in honor of powerful government and civic figures who sealed Hawaii\u2019s fate as \u201cWar State,\u201d on behalf of their own interests, and the favors of a powerful military, concerned with protecting \u201cnational security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Hawaii looms as a target for nuclear attack as evidenced by the recent government release of public statement to all citizens offering advice on surviving a nuclear attack. Students hiding under desks is so 1950! Security comes from peace, not war!<\/p>\n

Is not a chosen identity as a \u201cPeace State,\u201d a \u201cCenter for Global Nonkilling,\u201d a \u201cGeneva of the Pacific,\u201d a preferred and protective mantle for the State of Hawaii? This is the paradox of our time; as quests for unlimited military power rise in pursuit of empire, global destruction looms as a tragic consequence.<\/p>\n

Remembering Times Past . . . <\/strong><\/p>\n

It is comforting now to recall those heady days in period between 1986 and 1992, when scores of ideas blossomed, framing new visions and futures for Hawaii, only to be cast aside and denied. There were those who envisioned Hawaii as the \u201cGeneva of the Pacific,\u201d an international resource, model, and refuge for nurturing peace as a global ethic and ethos. \u00a0It was a special time, when people, ideas, and hopes converged, resulting in a new Hawaii.<\/p>\n

I remember, the following ideas and events occurring, building off one another, creating for a brief shining moment a cascade of hopes for peace.<\/p>\n

Some called it days of Camelot.<\/p>\n

I remember conversations with Johan Galtung, Glenn Page, David Chapel (Buddhist Studies), Haunani Kay Trask, \u00a0Lilikal\u0101 K. Kame’eleihiwa, \u00a0Kekuni Blaisdell, Majid Tehranian, Antonio C. S. Rosa, idealistic energetic faculty, and a score of visitors eager to share and to gather ideas for return to their lands.<\/p>\n

We were driven by visions of what was possible before our visions were shattered, oppressed and denied by those seeking personal power, position and control. They sought militaristic visions for Hawaii and the world.<\/p>\n

The embers of our visions remain as Native Hawaiians (Kanaka Maoli) and their friends continue to struggle for an identity consistent and continuous with the beauty and traditions of land, place and possibility, free from exploitation and abuse for selfish individual and national reasons.<\/p>\n

Some of our ideas and visions were:<\/p>\n