Thursday, August 28, 2008

FREE Japanese Anime Film "Barefoot Gen" Screening Sept. 11th at MCC!

Free film nights move to Thursdays this fall, still at MCC Ka Lama 103, and we’re starting off the season with the full-length Japanese anime film, “Barefoot Gen.” Based on the manga novel by Keiji Nakazawa, it tells the story of a family affected by the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the end of WW II. The showing is FREE to the public on Thursday, Sept. 11, in MCC Ka Lama 103 at 7:00 pm.


This film was lent to us by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It is an education about the ordinary people of Hiroshima, caught between the harsh military regime of wartime Japan and the American bombing of Japanese cities.



Warning: This film is appropriate and very interesting for teens and adults, but for very young children there are some graphic scenes of the effect of the atomic blast that might be disturbing, even though it is in cartoon form.



The co-sponsors are the MCC Peace Club and Maui Peace Action. For more information, leave a message at 573-3255.

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Maui Peace Action is on the web at www.mauipeace.org, and our voice mail is
808 573-3255.

Mission Statement: Maui Peace Action is a diverse group of citizens
committed to ho'omaluhia (making peace). We encourage disarmament through
peaceful international cooperation, protest pre-emptive aggression, promote
nonviolent solutions to world conflict, and educate for social justice.
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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Twenty-one Maui National Guardsmen Redeployed to Kuwait and Iraq Today


The realities of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" have hit home on Maui today.

Twenty-one National Guardsmen on Maui left their families today - half of them for the second time.

Its a shame that families have to go through so much pain and hardship for an illegal war.

Click on the Maui News article below to learn more:

http://mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/507408.html?nav=10

Friday, August 8, 2008

Important information regarding Military Recruitment and Middle/High School Students

STUDENT OPT OUT AND ASVAB RIGHTS

Approved by Hawaii State Department of Education for dissemination by Maui Peace Action


ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT MILITARY RECRUITERS IN OUR HIGH SCHOOLS AND THEIR EXCESSIVE CONTACTING OF TEENAGE STUDENTS TO RECRUIT THEM TO BE SENT TO THE WAR? DO YOU, OR MEMBERS OF YOUR FAMILY, HAVE STUDENTS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY GRADES 7 - 12?

The No Child Left Behind Act requires the Hawaii State Department of Education to release your private information for purpose of recruitment.

Act now if you want to keep your private information private! Here’s how -

1. Get the military recruiting opt out form at the Hawaii DOE website

http://doe.k12.hi.us/forms/OptOutMilRecruit.pdf

or

write your own request. A parent or legal guardian can do it too. Turn it into your school office by September 15.

2. Many high schools offer a voluntary Career Assessment Test called the ASVAB or Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery", designed by the military for military-type jobs. If you decide to take it, select option 8 on the test. Otherwise your name, birth date, gender, race/ethnicity, Social Security number, and test answers will be handed over directly to the military.


Remember: If you want to protect your privacy by withholding your personal information from military recruiters, get the military recruiting opt out form and select option 8 on the ASVAB.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Hiroshima Event Article in the Haleakala Times!

"Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki" got a great write-up in the Haleakala Times...follow the link here, or see the text of the article below.

http://www.haleakalatimes.com/newsbriefs/story3161.aspx

“Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” a community inter-faith peace program, will be held on Wednesday, August 6, at 7 p.m., in the Kahului Hongwanji Buddhist Mission at 291 S. Pu‘unene Ave in Kahului. This 21st annual community program commemorates the 1945 atomic bombing of the two Japanese cities and the suffering it brought to the victims. The churches and community groups sponsoring it intend the program to educate about the importance of nuclear disarmament and the public’s awareness of the on-going threat of nuclear proliferation.

Dr. Seiji Yamada, a physician born in Hiroshima who teaches at the UH John A. Burns School of Medicine and who has treated victims of nuclear testing in the Pacific will speak on “The Nuclear Legacy of the Marshall Islanders.” Dr. Yamada also practices at the Kalihi-Palama Health Center. A spokesperson for Maui Peace Action stated, “Dr. Yamada is a dynamic speaker, and he is dedicated to working toward a just and peaceful society without militarism, imperialism, and racism.”

The public is invited to come early at 6:30 p.m. to learn to make, and later take home, origami peace cranes. There will also be on display for the public to browse, large poster photos showing historical aspects of the atomic bombing which are on display at the internationally-famous Peace Museum located in the Hiroshima Peace Park. The museum and the poster display depict not only the terrible aftermath of the bombing but also the rebirth of Hiroshima and its world leadership in the peace and nuclear disarmament movements up to the present day.

Music, hula, a Japanese tea ceremony by tea ceremony teacher Chieko Nagata, and refreshments will accompany Dr. Yamada’s slide-talk. For more information, call 808-573-3255.

(Complete list of co-sponsors: Kahului Hongwanji Buddhist Mission, Maui Peace Action, Unity Church of Maui, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Iao Congregational Church, Maui Peace Education Foundation and the MCC Peace Club.)