"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence."
-- John Adams
Simon Russell speaks at May monthly meeting
Simon Russell, a local farmer and dedicated activist, spoke to TPM at our May 9th monthly meeting. Simon ran a hard-fought campaign for District 13 of the Hawaii State House of Representatives in 2012, and he expressed his gratitude to TPM for our support. He spoke on a variety of interesting topics; number one on his list was the Maui Farmer’s Union United, a chapter of the Hawaii Farmer’s Union United, for which he currently serves as Vice-President here on Maui.
Simon stated that 90% of the food on Maui is imported and 92% of the farm products we export is not really food that would sustain us. The majority of farm products we ship out are coffee, macadamia nuts, sugar, pineapple, biotech seeds, and tropical flowers. Statistics show that we live in an area with the least amount of food security in the entire country, which does not make sense in view of all the fertile land and mild weather Maui is blessed with. Simon stated that in 1960 Maui was farming 2 million acres of land, today it is down to 1 million. He spoke about the times when farmers were families working the land for generations, but that is no longer the case since so much of the labor has been replaced by machinery (of course, this is also true for mainland farms). Although land use on Maui was predominantly agricultural for decades, land is now utilized in the following order: (1) Real Estate, (2) Tourism, (3) Government Services, and (4) Agriculture. Simon went on to say that the bigger issue is the global marketplace, as evidenced by Maui’s pineapple industry disappearing due to cheaper farm labor cost in the Philippines and other countries. Simon comes from three generations of farmers on Kauai. Their family farms were wiped out by Hurricane Iniki and they were never able to completely recover from it. For the full text of Simon’s talk click here.
Matt Kibbe speaks to TEA Party Maui
Matt Kibbe inspires TEA Party Maui at April 13th Special Meeting
Matt Kibbe is the President and CEO ofFreedomWorks. ( http://www.freedomworks.org/) He has been with the organization for over 15 years. An economist by training, Kibbe is a well-respected national public policy expert, bestselling author and political commentator. He also serves as Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Austrian Economic Center in Vienna, Austria.
It’s been a long time since Matt has been on Maui but he recently returned here to attend the Association of Private Enterprise Education Annual Conference April 14 to April 16, 2013. We were fortunate he had time to appear at a special TEA Party Maui gathering on April 13th at Grace Church in Pukalani. About three dozen fans of FreedomWorks were in attendance on very short notice but were rewarded with some insights into what is taking place in Washington D.C. today. We also learned why Matt is optimistic about the future of our country. It can feel pretty lonely out here in the middle of the Pacific with only one Republican senator in the State so it was a welcome message.
Matt took us through the years starting in 2008 with the 700 billion dollar bailout under George Bush. The message then was that we had to abandon the free market in order to save it. The House leader was Nancy Pelosi and the Senate’s leader was Harry Reid. That quickly led to major frustration and the birth of the TEA Party. So with a real grassroots birth, the TEA party turned the political stage upside down with huge wins in the 2010 election. And 2012 was not the disaster we thought it was, in Mr. Kibbe’s opinion. He said that while we lost seats in the House (8), our wins more than offset the losses. That is because we gained some strong conservative/constitutionalists. He believes we are in the process of repopulating the Republican Party with people who believe in something! (What we in the TEA Party believe in, namely fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets.) The names Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Mike Lee came up more than once.
Matt explained how that our TEA Party movement has morphed from a grassroots uprising to a real paradigm shift. “I believe this is a paradigm shift, not a grassroots uprising and the world has permanently changed because of the internet and the decentralization of information.” He stressed how the New York Times, the two major political parties and a few corporations no longer tell us what to do. He believes this bodes well for the future of conservative and constitutional candidates. He used the Ted Cruz victory in the Senate as a good example since Cruz ran against a very entrenched public politician and was given basically no chance of winning. Through the connections of many tea partiers and conservatives using the new media, Ted Cruz won against all odds.
Matt expressed the view that the insiders in Washington may act as if they have no concerns regarding the TEA Parties, but believes they are “scared to death” of us because they know we mean it when we say “balance the budget!”.
“When it comes time to get out the vote, can you actually share that burden – when it comes time to read a piece of legislation, can you share that burden. That’s different today and in that world I think Freedom Works”, said Matt regarding how things have really changed. “This is not about politics. This is about changing the very notion of what people think their responsibilities are to their community and their government”
Matt closed by giving those in the audience hope for the future, even here in Hawaii. He said Hawaii, as a blue state, and other blue and purple states, do present opportunities for us if we get our act together and keep the focus on a set of values and building a community.
Joe Kent speaks at April Monthly Meeting
Joe Kent, Secretary of the Libertarian Party of Maui was the guest speaker at TEA Party Maui’s monthly meeting on Thursday, April 11th, 2013. Joe is an elementary school music teacher at King Kamehameha III and he was one of the Maui delegates for Ron Paul at the RNC. He is energetic, active, and committed to making a difference, and he is also a self-proclaimed recovered liberal.
Joe’s talk was titled “What is a Libertarian?” He spoke for over 30 minutes about what it meant to him to be a Libertarian.
The main thrust of his talk was that Libertarians want the maximum amount of freedom for individuals: freedom from government, freedom from taxes, freedom from restrictions, and freedom to live one’s life in a peaceful and prosperous way. However, Joe went on to say that freedom cannot exist on it's own. A strong theory of property rights is needed to ensure maximum freedom. What if you lived in a “free” country, but the government could take your property away whenever it wanted? What if they could take your life? What if they could take the fruits of your labor? Would you really be free? Without a strong theory of property rights, no one can truly be free.
The talk was followed by a lively Q & A session that lasted nearly an hour. To see the full text of Joe Kent’s talk click here.
Interim President, Mr. James Wagoner.
TEA Party Maui is pleased to announce that Mr. James Wagoner has been appointed as President, TEA Party Maui for an interim period not to exceed three months while the Board of Directors prepares for an election to fill the vacancy. The announcement was made at the March 14th monthly meeting to a hearty and sincere cheer and applause by the audience. Jim has been with the TEA Party since its inception on Maui in 2009 and is one of its most loyal supporters, embracing TPM's core values and principles. He will definitely be a welcome addition to the Board.
Mark Redeker speaks at March Monthly Meeting
Mark Redeker, Vice President of Maui Ammo & Gun Supply (MAGS) spoke about the Bill of Rights and particularly the 2nd Amendment. Mark also talked about various draconian aspects of several gun control bills that were introduced into the Hawaii State Legislature during this 2013 Legislative session that is still ongoing. Fortunately, only one bill, Senate Bill 69 survived Senate Committee hearings to actually crossover to the House for further hearings. Hopefully, this bill will also be defeated or stranded in committee. There was a great deal of interest in Mark's presentation given all the buzz nationally as well as at the State level with gun control measures introduced into various legislative bodies and the pervasive anti-2nd amendment sentiment found in the mainstream press. Mark, a former Southern California police officer, has been in business on Maui for 16 years and is currently in the process of opening an indoor pistol shooting range at his Maui Ammo & Gun Supply store in Wailuku.
Bob Williams speaks at February Monthly Meeting
At its February 21, 2013 general meeting, TEA Party Maui was pleased to host Mr. Bob Williams as speaker for the evening. Mr. Williams is President of State Budget Solutions, a non-partisan organization advocating for fundamental reform and real solutions to the state budget crises. He is also the Founder and Senior Fellow of the Freedom Foundation, a public policy organization in Olympia, Washington, dedicated to the advancement of individual liberty. He worked as a GAO auditor of the Pentagon and Post Office before moving to Washington State where he served five terms in the Washington state legislature. Bob said that now is the time to return to local solutions for local problems so that we can make the choice of individual freedom, as opposed to nationalization by a bloated central government.
He expressed the important role the TEA Party has played and continues to play with their unique love of country and emphasis on reducing Government spending. His emphasized how critical it is to elect more TEA Party candidates in every level of government who understand our core principles, and it is imperative that we do what we can to keep the new TEA Party members in Congress. He said we must never give up and that the solution to all these challenges is WE THE PEOPLE. We were reminded that the people are the fourth branch of government. It was an excellent presentation and TPM is very grateful for Mr. William’s visit and his words of wisdom and encouragement.
Read more at: http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/authors/detail/bob-williams#ixzz2JGH0TTwX.
TEA Party Maui: Keeping it Light (Not really!).
