March for Our Lives – Maui

March 24, 2018 – March and Concert – on Maui – wonderful, hopeful:

The people, the signs, the unity –

The T-shirt says: “go Vegan & No one gets HURT”

 

The volunteers –

A great way to live: “Respect, Empower, Include, Organize”

 

Volunteer Lucy to the left; Maui Council Woman (and sunflower queen), Kelly King, to the right

Linette with other voter registration volunteers

After the March for our Lives, we had the Concert for our Lives, Maui style:

Rachel Zisk, King Kekaulike High School freshman, was one of several articulate, passionate voices that called for us not to forget all the victims of gun violence.  “It is time to come together and demand change.”

Where’s Barry?  Can you find him?

U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono

Maui sent students to Parkland, Florida to bring aloha – and a three-mile ti leaf lei of love and solidarity.

Following the documentary, “Lei of Aloha,” Kihei Charter School students held up photos of the 17 killed at the Florida school;  Anthony Pfluke sang, “We will rise” and then the Hawaiian chant “E Ala E”

Maui students including Gita Tucker, Tori Teoh, Skylar Masuda, and ‘Oiwi Gormley spoke powerful messages calling for action.

With the clipboard, Diana, my student about 15 years ago, was one of those getting people to registered to vote – near the food booths under “mackerel” clouds (Diana taught me that description) at Maui’s Concert for our Lives.

Representative Tulsi Gabbard – has earned an “F” rating from the National Rifle Association; we are proud of her!

Uncle Willie K – despite fighting cancer was there to sing and play for us.

Jack Johnson!  After earlier mass shootings, Jack said he was embarrassed to watch T.V. and see leaders with just “words on their lips.”  This time there is real energy and resolve with the students leading the way.

Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Lily Meola, Pat Simmons Jr. were other entertainers in this alcohol/drug-free event

This being Maui, we also saw famous surfers and water people and Hawaiian cultural practitioners.  Ram Dass was there!  Students came to the concert for free.  Adults paid $10 for the fabulous concert.  All the proceeds from the sold-out event will help promote sensible gun- control laws.

Not everyone attending the concert wanted stricter gun laws.  In going around offering forms for voter registration,  I met a man from Alaska who has his assault rifle in his locked gun safe.  He explained that he needed the high-power weapon because of bears and moose.  Wouldn’t a regular rifle offer protection in the unlikely event of an animal attack?  (And then you would be able to eat the meat).   He also tried to explain why he didn’t vote – so he wouldn’t be responsible for voting someone into office that he later found didn’t make good choices.

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith closed the show with all the performers singing the Beatles” Come Together.   The 5,500 of us in the audience joined in on the chorus: joyful, hope filled.

Why do we desperately need gun change in the U.S.?

Mom’s Demand Action (for gun sense in America) notes a few of those excellent reasons we need change:

• Every day, 9 3 Americans die from gun violence.
•  Since Newtown, [the Sandy Hook Elementary School 2012 shooting that killed 20 children between six and seven years old, as well as six adult staff members] there have been over 200 school shootings – one almost every week.
• American women are 16 times more likely to be shot and killed than women in other developed countries.

The goals:

• Close the deadly loopholes in our background check system that allow dangerous people like felons and domestic abusers easy access to guns
• Support reasonable limits on where, when and how loaded guns are carried and used in public
• Promote gun safety so that America’s children will no longer be exposed to unacceptable level of risk
• Mobilize popular support for policies that respect Second Amendment rights and protect people

Go to: www.momsdemandaction.org

If you live in the U.S., please Register, Educate Yourself, and then Vote.  If you live in Hawaii, you can check your registration status and/or update your information, by going to: https://olvr.hawaii.gov/.

The only arms we need – are for hugging.

We can at least get rid of the assault weapons and keep mentally ill and domestic abusers from getting guns legally.  It’s time for positive action.

Our children are asking for help.  Guns cause senseless killings every day in the U.S. – including “too easy” suicides, too easy  disagreements and domestic abuse incidents  that turn deadly . . .  Even the hate-filled, mentally-ill men who see killing others as an option – need help.

We must take action to stop gun violence in the U.S.

In Peace and Aloha, Renée