You're tuned to a new show called Mostly Maui.
We are going through the Akaku vaults to find gems from Maui's past.
But we also want to see the videos that you send in.
So if you'd like to contribute to Mostly Maui, please call 8-7-1-5-5-4 because it's your
show, Mostly Maui.
You're watching live, can we cover it?
Wait, hold on, I can do it?
Wait, I wasn't ready for that, okay, um, okay.
My name is Sativa and I'm 10 years old.
Please help me and my friends have a better future.
Can you tell me what your plan is?
My heels aren't killing me, only feet are throbbing.
Shout that trick, shout that trick, shout that trick!
None of the networks today and none of the major magazines or newspapers either are any
longer owned by companies whose major business is news.
Lean on me, when you're not home, and I'll be your friend, I'll help you care at all.
Sad day today.
Aloha Airlines closed down forever.
We all need somebody to lean on, I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to
lean on.
We all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
I just want you to understand, we all need somebody to lean on.
Which is essentially that everybody has freedom of speech, everybody's opinion matters.
Protecting free speech, allowing everyone's voice to be heard, and engaging every area of our community
has been the hallmark of Olelo since we first opened our doors in 1989.
With mass media focusing more and more on global issues in our fast-paced society,
the importance of sharing local stories on Olelo has become increasingly important.
The things you will see here on community television is straight from your gut.
You know, you're going to have real issues, not people telling you what to say, how to say it.
You know, television can be an intimidating place.
Watching it is no big deal, but producing it can be very intimidating.
You don't get the feeling of intimidation when you walk in the doors at Olelo.
There's great encouragement that goes on here.
You can shoot a show in a studio.
You can go to neighborhood boards or conferences and shoot.
And you can go out in the field and shoot.
And there's an entire community at Olelo.
You meet both staff and all kinds of volunteers doing all kinds of things.
So it's a very mind-opening experience.
The emotions come out so clearly when people lay aside the idea of playing to an audience
and actually have a conversation about truth.
If you have something to say, this is your place to say it.
And then come to Olelo.
So many other places in the world, divisions take place when diversity is assumed
to create distance between people.
I guess it's the way that some people look at the fact that we're an island state.
They say, oh, we're islands separated by water.
I don't see it that way.
I see us connected by the water, just as I see Olelo and community television connecting us.
What began over two decades ago as a seed to provide Oahu residents a voice through media
has blossomed into a catalyst for a rich, vibrant, and more engaged island way of life.
As stewards of this valuable resource, Olelo will continue in its mission
to strengthen our island voices and advance community engagement through innovative media.
Music
See a lot of smiles today.
I'm pleased everybody's here.
Done.
Applause
I am Jay and I run Aakaku and you can be an instant correspondent.
All you have to do is take that phone that you have, turn it sideways like Venet Chan is doing right now.
For 30 seconds, record the video and then send that video to liveatakaku.org
and we'll put it on television the same day or the next day.
It's called Instant Correspondent.
So you can be an instant correspondent on Aakaku Live at Aakaku every day.
Aakaku just here right now.
Music
There have been a collection of people that have lived independently for many, many, many years
on their own.
Children have grown up on the property, they've been schooled, they've kind of gone on with their lives.
It's been a little bit of a haven for people who are not able to make it on their own.
Music
And so they've developed this community where they rely on each other.
They've lived kind of in a bubble for a very long time.
I guess it's been 28 years.
One of my other partners is 82 and our male partners, John Ramsey, is 75 and my partner is 74.
And we've lived here for 35 years, but we came here in our 40s.
And it would be awesome to have to find another person because we've all lived on this land the entire time.
Life has gotten more sophisticated.
They've lived in their own little space.
Very nicely, no complaints, but the world and the county has changed around them.
So recently when it became clear to I guess the planning department that this group was living in the manner they were living,
the county had an obligation to say you have to bring all of your lifestyles up to code.
Lack of water coming in and then you have to apply for water.
So they wouldn't give us 300.
We apply for permits, they wouldn't give us the permits.
So now they say no grandfather because you don't have that scratch.
Now that you apply, oh you're number 1300, September 18th is coming up.
Good grief.
I'm sure they have a lot of attention to this.
They have been asked to meet the code, the minimum codes in order to be able to be up to date with the county regulations.
Okay, that's the law.
That's generally a fair thing.
However, one of the reasons I became involved and became interested in this is because their lifestyle has been self-sustaining.
It has been hugely supportive of individuals who are not going to have the quality of life individually on their own
or with any of the resources that are on the island.
They have this superior quality of life even though it doesn't need codes.
So I felt very conflicted about, you know, I support the law.
I think you have lines on the road so we know which side to stay on.
I get it, I understand laws, but I also know that sometimes things work really well without the laws.
And so I think my curiosity with this process is, is there a middle ground?
Just an awareness in our community that this is actually not something that we want to destroy.
I think it's something that we want to actually embrace and say, wow, look what they've been doing with so little.
They're kindest to the land, they're kindest to each other.
I think it's a philosophically sound way for that group, not for everybody, but it works so well for them that I can't morally be part of the destruction of it.
Seeing what I've seen and seeing the people that I've worked with and seeing how people's quality of lives are so interdependent on a safe, you know, living community
and that feeling of support with one another.
They've got a life and a lifestyle that is really, that helps them stay sober, that helps them stay clean, that makes them feel productive and needed and wanted.
How many people depend on you? So if you weren't here, how many people do you check in on?
What is the, is there anything significant there or no?
Well, how can I answer that when you say depend on me?
We are a kind of spider web group and we all know it's when we need someone sick, we know about it, someone needs groceries, we know about it.
I think there's responsibility on both sides, but from what I've seen around and seeing how much people have suffered by not being able to survive economically and get resources,
we really need to take a good look at this and how to actually support a lot of it in a lot of ways, but also by maintaining the needs of our laws and our departments and respecting that.
Well, you see, we have no barbed wire here, no fences, but no cops.
We know each other, we come and feed each other, we visit, we invite for meals, we care for each other's children, we bury each other.
We've had deaths here, we've had several people died and buried, and we sprinkle the ashes around on the community, the hilly here.
This is more than just a place to live, this is a family, an extended family.
I know that the hooey is trying to get up to code, but they're kind of caught in this catch-22 is if they're still going to get bulldozed,
why are they going to pour their money into putting, they're still not going to be able to make it or achieve everything that the county says they need to achieve, then why are they going to dump money into this?
So the county's kind of looking at them going, well, you're not making all the changes, and they're going, well, why are we going to make the changes if you're going to bulldoze them?
I talked to several people who did not want their face on camera, who definitely have some mental health challenges and substance abuse,
who openly say, I am sober when I'm on this property, when I leave this property, I struggle.
And this is where I've been able to come and stay and get my life back.
And I mean, I think we have to listen to that as a community.
It's not costing anything, and there's never been a complaint, and the people there are happy, and the community in a whole has been a very peaceful way of living.
The sun just came out. I can't say anything to compete with that.
So we're very lucky to be where we are at this moment in the sun.
Hawaii is one of the most isolated places in the world.
Over 85% of our food is brought on barges from over 3,000 miles away.
Even though we can grow food here all year, we are completely dependent on these food shipments to survive.
Among this vast supply is a small population of food that is actually from here.
Hi! Are you okay? You look really tired.
I am. I went on quite a journey to get here.
Really? Why don't you tell me about it?
Well, it all started off in Florida.
One day, I was just chilling in the tree, you know, like us unripe oranges do.
And some guy came to pick me.
I tried to tell him I wasn't right, but he just wouldn't listen.
Then he wrapped me in lots of packaging.
And then he loaded me onto a dolly.
And dumped me in a container full of lots of other unripe oranges.
And then they sent me off on my journey across the country.
When I finally arrived on Maui, I was still unripe.
So they had to use ethylene gas to ripen me.
So I looked nice and orange when I finally arrived at the store.
Wow! That sounds like such a long trip.
Hey, what's that on your shoulder?
Oh, it's just invasive species that I brought in.
Wow! Flammeur.
What about you? Where are you from?
I'm from just up the road. I was picked up the tree this afternoon.
What?
Ay, ay, ay! I can't believe it!
So much time traveling and waiting in La Duana.
And on top of that, all squeezed and mixed with the lemons.
Guessing you're from Mexico.
Yes!
Oh, oranges!
Yeah!
Aloha!
Please share a minute or three with us as we explore our power of jury nullification.
Maui County citizens for democracy and action would like to remind everyone
that we have a civic power beyond the vote.
The power of jury nullification is one that we all can use to protest against unjust laws.
Jury nullification allows jurors to find defendants not guilty
if they do not deserve punishment despite the weight of the evidence against the defendant.
If the jury feels that the law under which the defendant is accused is unjust,
the jury has the power to acquit and the courts must abide by that decision.
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, 1969.
Jury nullification is a power rooted in our Constitution.
The two reasons why juries in America have the power to nullify are,
one, juries cannot be punished for their verdict,
and two, defendants found not guilty cannot be retried for the same crime.
The jury has unreviewable and irreversible power to acquit
in disregard of the instructions on the law given by the trial judge.
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, 1972.
Jury nullification has protected innocent lives for hundreds of years.
After 19 defendants are executed in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials,
52 consecutive trials resulted in acquittals or hung juries.
In direct opposition to the judge's instructions,
fully informed jurors learn to embrace reason over hysteria.
Frustrated prosecutors stop bringing cases to trial.
The purpose of a jury is to guard against the exercise of arbitrary power.
Byron White, 1975.
Aloha. Thank you for joining us here in Hawaii,
where we are proud and fortunate to have a vibrant community media network
of public access channels.
Aakaku on Maui, Olelo on Oahu, Hoike on Kaua'i, and Naleo on the Big Island.
These channels showcase the diversity of each island community
and play a key role in civic engagement.
Naleo on Oahu, Olelo on Oahu, Hoike on Kaua'i, Naleo on Oahu, Hoike on Kaua'i,
and Naleo on Oahu, Hoike on Kaua'i, Naleo on Oahu, Hoike,
You come so, you come so, be alive tonight, yeah.
And light me up yourself.
A lot of, a lot of, a lot of people dancing.
Light me up yourself.
You keep head down, y'all.
Knock your body.
Na na na na na.
