JONAH LION, Maui Mayoral Candidate 2022

[Music] hello hi everyone i’m your host jason schwartz we’re here at the neutral zone maui neutralzone.com we have a very exciting guest today um you have seen me interview people about values over the last four years and now we’re into an election season and uh i met this gentleman at a gathering of men two years ago and then the covert thing happened and i haven’t seen him and suddenly someone said to me jonah Lion jonah Lion i said dad why do i know that name i know the guy named jonah

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and sure enough uh i want to introduce the world here to jonah Lion jonah is uh here on maui and running for mayor in 2022. welcome to our show yeah aloha so good to be here it’s such an honor to be here with you and reconnecting in this way and uh a lot of fun you know uh the time here on maui and the time that we met in our king’s kihei kings group with mankind project and uh really the connections of so many men doing a lot of beautiful impactful work here on maui and abroad you know and seeing that

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in both the mkp and uh also part of this organization known as the sacred sons as well um and uh and now this is stepping into a place of politics which is relatively new realm for me at the same time responding to the call of the community and the community was asking if it was something i would be available for if i was up to that if it’s something i ever thought of and uh and when i pondered that i was like well what i’m here for is to be of service in the best way that i can to the community and if

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the community is asking the submission let’s see if i can respond to this call a community so you obviously are now i remember when i first we were together you were i don’t know if we were putting together or establishing the base here in maui for the jedi academy which what is that because i think that’s where i imagine the community has come out yes yes indeed uh yeah the jedi academy you know is really the foundations uh i would say it’s like the roots of the tree you know that has grown into um

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it’s grown now into this this campaign aloha in this mayoral race and the jedi academy has really been focused on uh humanitarian efforts you know in a space of environmental protection and in service to humanity and multi-dimensional ways of how we come together with protocol and principles and values and and morals that we can all align to that are are universal and uh really to bring forth our you know as i like to call the forces with us and i use acronyms to kind of um give more context

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to what i mean by the force in this way the force is the frequency of relativity co-creating enlightenment and uh so the the force is is an educational um program by an education and learning program and that’s where my foundations are really in is is working with the youth and culture i see so the idea to run for mayor i mean um what’s your approach to this i mean mayor is an interesting role you know if i was thinking to be new to politics i don’t know why i would start at mayor i did the same thing a few years after i

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got here into maui the green party was starting and uh i started actually running for council but i ran for mayor and then switched horses so um those were a long time ago what made you decide to run because your community of people thought that you would run this place better with any specifics and stuff i i think that it more came from a place of uh how i shown up in this community uh and really being in the physical the actualization you know boots on the ground and really active in the community um

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and just being of service you know i was a i was a firefighter for years i took an oath to protect and serve my community and my community is maui and so i just continued to do that and i i was invited to a wisdom council with reverend kadar uh was one of one of the men in that circle there was actually 13 of us and we took a little hike into twin falls and uh when we came out of that that hike and that ceremony you know we circled up prior to and then circled up again after our our hike and enjoying each other’s time and and we

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shared our vision for maui you know collectively in circle and uh and reverend kate our simple piece he said you know he’s like you remind me of of uh aang from the last avatar uh and he’s like you know have you ever thought about running for mayor or office or anything like that and and so he planted a seed and i kind of just you know like i never thought of that you know i appreciated it and and took it in and then it started to be watered if you will by other members in the community started bringing it up

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continuously after that and so that scene kept growing to the point of now sprouting into uh running for mayor which uh is kind of interesting that it’s the only county position in politics i actually am qualified for from the standpoint of jurisdiction and district uh i’ve moved since being here on maui from living in uh on the west side the pili area into kihei um wailuku area now up in country and makawao and so i haven’t actually been stabilized in one particular district of maui to be able to even run for a

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county seat in that in that district and so um let me give you a bit of a a notion because you just talked about like you would think logically that if you were running for a district seat you’d be voted for by the people in that district right and you’re qualified because i think but we and now we’re like 30 years behind the times when i ran 30 years ago we were talking about the same issue district voting you could run for any council county council seat and be just as qualified as

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where you live you only have to live 30 days in the district to run so i like your thought but just show you we got some work to do here on uh some areas and that one may not be environmental that’s more like we’ve been here i think i guess that’s probably why you’re running when kadar said that to you he’s been here like i have for a long time and things here it’s like you’re in a different kind of a world where outside of this island things have been tried and true and tested

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on this island it seems like we’ve had a few you talked about kings earlier the kihei kings well the people that are in our governments are there and stay there and uh i don’t see real progress in their thinking but things the problems get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger like housing i’m sure i’m sure your community has probably uh reached out in that area do you have any thoughts about housing when you became mayor what you might approach yeah that is that has definitely been at

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the number one spot so far you know when i’m asking the community what the highest priority is and where the most issues lie problems um and desire for solutions has been in the housing and you know obviously this is a multi-dimensional issue uh when looking at it from cost of of housing uh real estate uh land land use um uh zoning and you know i actually just got off the last call uh we went into that space and i’ll read you the kind of the what came up was a a hemp to home program um and

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i reached out to one of the other county council members kelly king to align the date because she’s also been seen for a good time of what if we were to bring about now that this state has legalized industrial hemp if we were to look at a hemp initiative to support both amending the soils and our central valley and a lot of the land that has been tarnished over the years of improper agricultural techniques to actually shifting into something that can amend the soil and using the uh the hemp

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uh from the fabric side of it or or the what is the word i’m trying to think of um you’re trying to take the uh the the fiber the cellulose in the hem and turn it into a building structure you got it exactly i was looking for the word fiber right there so thank you for giving me the words that were leaving my mouth at the time but utilizing the yeah the the fiber from the hymn uh to go into you know hemp creek and we have the access to both him crete as well as air crete as like new technology i like to look at these

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things as kind of like an ancient future technology you know we’re working with ancient practices and and remembering our relationship our natural to our natural environment and our relationship to each other and then bringing that in and using him crete and how hemp to home could work in this program was we’re also dealing with not only housing issue with our residents but also a houseless issue with our homeless relatives as well and how to you know this program can support the uh reintegration and rehabilitation

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process and provide beautiful homes and an infrastructure that is environmentally friendly and conscious and economical and creates economical housing so well that’s a lot of words i i hear that you know um clearly when we you get out into the campaign trail your opponents are going to say things like we know about hemp creek we know about you know all this stuff but we have to have the money we have to have the support of you’ll hear them always say support of the people and we’ve got to find a way

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to do this um i have ideas but i’m i’m leaving room here for you about where some of these solutions are going to come from because build better building materials local materials all those things we’ve got to do but the big cry is we don’t have the money and and the other cry is the government is supposed to do it see i look at it and say it’s the private sector that has to recognize what makes economic sense and pose it and then get the government to support what they’re doing and help make it

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easier fast track solution i don’t expect these geniuses to come up with solutions it’s going to be the public sector not the government we’ve i’ve seen over 30 years here where the same people it’s almost like they they’re pushing the pushing the problem down the road pushing it down the road and then because they don’t have an answer and now they hear new techniques and now i’m looking for money and where’s the priority but meanwhile like you said our homeless community is getting so large

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you know that there are more homeless people that aren’t getting sheltered by the programs they spend millions on there are way more people that are not going into those structures that need an alternative no one’s been brave enough maybe you as mayor somebody else to call this an emergency and do something to create an interim solution until there’s housing we can die by the time now you know they have oh the seniors have a housing place you join a list and it says oh you’re going to be five to

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eight years when you’re a senior someone says five to eight years to you it’s like that’s not a housing program that’s a death sentence so i i’m kind of riling it up here a little with you because i know that when you have a group of people talking housing’s got to be big what about water issue the people that bought the central valley my pono who had the lease right you have any thoughts about water i know we’re early in the season so whatever we say cannot be hold held

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against us because as we go you’re going to hear all kinds of things from people out there and you’re going to say well that’s a good idea that’s a good idea and so but the thing that is so fun about this election thing is you and i um are running the principled agenda that bring up things that we know are environmentally responsible we know we want to be economically responsible we want to listen to the people and we’re running against assist of as a system here if you had all your whole counsel

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up there and supporting you once you get to be mayor but it’s just an interesting experience i don’t know how you’re thinking about this election whether you’re thinking of uh really thinking you can get enough votes to be one of the top two vocabulary we’re talking about it’s like david and goliath one of the top two vote getters with uh richard bisson with hundreds of thousands of dollars mike victorino hundreds of thousands and mike molina he’s more modest but you

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know here you are in a group alana kaye alec all these names so you’re gonna get a chance to be in the dial-up and offering an outspoken eloquent you know what i want to say uh it’s almost like you’re a champion for the community like you say you know and uh i just jumped in this way because a lot of the ideas like in one hearing they’re great ideas but then then have to have okay if hemp crete is a good thing how many dollars per square foot what’s it gonna do do we have to change the laws

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somewhere so we can have houses in a different proximity to each other but do we want to have different things about having units and a central kitchen a different kind of alternative to things that you and i might entertain but take that’s where the heavy lifting comes in for me is come up with something that the government can say oh that’s a great idea let us make the laws to support what you see and are doing that can be economically sustainable and make sense rather than asking the government to come up with

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the answers because they don’t have the answers and they’re not going to have enough money to do it themselves anyway it’s it’s really it’s a bass backwards kind of deal here have you spoke to some of the people that are in office to see the frustration level on their face the the thing about going in you know excuse me sometimes it’s difficult to remember that the original intention was to drain the swamp when you’re up to your eyes and alligators this is a place full of existing

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problems you know so like when you’re and i’m again i’m just creating a different kind of an environment these ideas that we have have to be tied to money and supporting them i’ve seen so many things here we we have brilliant brilliant people here i i know in your community there i don’t know who is in your group at 12 but i know you know that whole crowd from that side so i can only imagine you’re filled with real clever progressive people who can assist you and a council or assist all of us

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in raising the bar on solutions and really get mad but where the traction has to come i think is money have you spoken to um any people that are putting money into your campaign with a i guess you are your grassroots but somewhere along this way you know as you’re putting out ideas i guess you’re using the media you can see i’m going all over the map here john i’m just trying to make it a real clear picture that sometimes i’ve seen fantastic ideas not get covered or we have a great idea

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and we move it forward but then it’s kind of sidetracked because it takes a study to look at the financial um uh implications of it and how to move it and hemp creek they’ve done a lot of work in that area i know um i don’t know if you had keith rowney in your group but there’s uh some people here that have really done extensive work and study on things like water from the air that i wanted to do we’re taking our waste and turning it into power and turning it into things to also put back

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in the soil and the hemp growers on the mainland that have this stuff love it it’s like having um what we call like uh jurassic park like growth from our waste that we’re throwing away we have so many things that we could do but they take that little that money that that’s what i’m really trying to find out where you’re going because i don’t know how else to put it but i’ve seen things here get stopped because the people that have the money and control are staying with their old

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model and your campaign real similar to my campaign i think really wants to show that the people have way more power and can do a lot more things to make things better but i’m still you know looking for that answer to the financing piece and well i better shut up or i’m just going to be doing a monologue here what do you think about all that i’m saying i’ll shut up i mean it’s brilliant we’re we’re we’re putting down the same frequency whether you’re saying it i’m saying it

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and uh yeah you know coming back to like you brought up the water for instance uh one of uh the project representatives um planning department in oahu she was like the head of the planning department of oahu and focused on the water and she was sitting next to joe akana who’s also you know another candidate running over in oahu and they had a conversation around the water and and she was sharing that it’s not an issue of a lack of water the issue is where is a lack of ideas and and the implementation of these

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ideas it’s it’s an old mindset it’s an old paradigm you know and so and we have the same thing going on here you know on maui is that it’s it’s not a lack of money or a lack of water that we’re dealing with it’s it’s still working with the same old mindsets you know and we’re setting these ways and i think that’s where uh i you we come in and to bring and be a fresh perspective because we’re out here amongst we are with the people as a people and we’re bringing voice to this through

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this platform of running for candidacy and amplifying the voice of the people so these ideas can start to realize and even realizing those on a small scale so if we build it it will come let’s get this let’s show the example let’s show the data do the r d on something simple do start off with one one uh hemp home hem creek home or maybe we do an air creek home and start off and what does that look like what does that look like if we scale that and to get that going to start off from the private sac sector

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as you said so that then on a public sector we actually have the data that is backing up these ideas and they can move us past this um this mentality or these the the uh restrictive ways of being like no that’s not going to work we don’t have enough money i don’t believe that because maui we’re looking at possibly by the beginning of next year whenever whoever comes into this mayoral position in office is going to be running a billion dollar a year business you know that’s the economy that we have

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where are we allocating our resources right now you know where are we distributing the funds that come in here well right now it’s being put back into uh the economy the highest economy that is tourism here it’s being put back into that but i think that it’s uh being put back into that in ways that is not honoring the culture and not honoring the land when you say it’s been putting back into tourism you mean the budget itself the doctor you think you’re you’re right you’re matching

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well i mean for instance water will give water rights to uh a new resort that wants to be built or a new multi-million million dollar uh condominium you know build out and development happening and they’ll get water rights but our our local residents that have been grown here lived here generationally still don’t have water rights so our distribution of the water my god well that that’ll be uh you’ll have conversation about that out in the field because a lot of the people right now

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you saw the uh the council say hey moratorium on building in the hotel area right the whole thing about that so it is part of the consciousness about what you’re talking about and appropriating more to local people but i like to think i don’t know how many people really know this but what you said is it’s how it’s allocated there is a larger lens of fresh water in haiku than they have in all of oahu but they can they haven’t done anything with it as i understand it because once they open it up everyone

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will think they can build here and there’s unlimited water so it isn’t even in the picture when we’re talking now it’s like we’re not being given all the truth and because anyway there are a lot of things that could be done that aren’t being explored and even if they’re not good i’d like to myself see public discussion so that we can come to agree whether there are solutions or not and not feel like everything is closed door we’re special and we’re gonna decide

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what’s right rather than reaching out into the community i found things just like you’re finding things from people in our community coming forward to me you know someone came to me when i was running years ago and came to me with a solar thermal acoustic cooler dryer what big words it means using the sun to create sound in a closed tube and when that sound goes through a passive aluminum foil engine it creates cooling take the sun create cooling that came to me from someone i try to present it to

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the government it’s too far ahead of their vision for now here we are 30 years later and someone comes out with this new idea of a thermo solar reactor it’s the same thing as 30 years ago but people here just weren’t listening i don’t really know how to say that i’m hoping that your team gets the voice and gets the penetration to really express the incredible numbers of solutions that exist that could help right now with effective aggressive leadership aggressive meaning you can invite solutions here to

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try their demonstration here and give them a favored status i just don’t see that kind of thinking going on i don’t really know what to say i mean i can appreciate you yourself are expressing those kind of ideas of needing something new and needing do you have a team of people that you think um if you got into office can be supportive in the ways that you need to move on any issues like these because these are big issues and they ain’t get away yeah absolutely i mean i we can’t do this

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in any other way it’s it’s it must be a team effort right and it needs to be you know uh really founded in to me like our zero points coming back into what we all can come to agreement on because we’re gonna have so many different perspectives and experiences coming in but i feel the one thing we can come to agree on is aloha you know that’s why like you have team aloha campaign aloha it’s something that’s it bring it’s like the nuclear point to the the core they can

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bring all of us together and form a team and be able to come back to that as our as our grounding rod you know and from there you know let’s let’s let us do exactly what you were just sharing you know the ideas that i’m sharing that you’re sharing their ideas that are coming from the community these aren’t ideas i’m just like coming up with myself being like like i have all the answers i don’t have all the answers i have some ideas just like anybody else does the key is for us

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to all come together because from all of us doing that we can find which one is going to be the the highest and best to potentially put in and implement and sometimes even that takes the experimental aspect of it and doing it to see if it works and that’s where i think sometimes government gets in the way of like actually trying something on doing it and seeing if it’s if it’s something that works or it doesn’t work and we’ll we’ll shine off and say no to something that has great potential based

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off of no other reasoning than some type of uh outside space that a lot of times will control people such as money right or we’re not going to do this because we don’t have the money to do that i don’t necessarily believe that that’s true i think that’s a a can be a scapegoat or a way of distracting from the fact that we don’t we can’t comprehend or conceive of that idea actually coming through because i can’t wrap my head around it and i’m in control here and it’s not

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about me being in control as mayor but rather us being in council as a community bringing these ideas forth uh one of the other drops to kind of share on that is like this notion of harmony and disharmony right there’s harmony and there’s disharmony that doesn’t mean that the disharmony is bad and the harmony is good i’m not speaking to it that way it’s like i’m playing this music and you’re playing this music over here and they’re not necessarily matching but from both of those pieces of music

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we actually can find music that we both like to listen to there’s another there’s another song that can come from the harmony and disharmony right because that’s all we’re talking about here is like is is seeing what can stem from opposing forces if you will the op the the positive and negative creates new energy my big thing that i i think that made me decide to run this time is i keep hearing about five years and the if the temperature doesn’t stay and keep it below a temperature the quality of

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life forever more will be changed and i see people doing the same old thing the same old thing and so i really think disruptive politics is necessary now and uh aggressive aggressive leadership that is um i guess reaching out into the private sector in different ways i don’t think our government has enough room in the future department they’re dealing with the alligators like i say they got a problem with this there’s a problem in the suing they don’t have a transportation and they’re you know it’s like really

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it’s like the keystone cops remember everyone running around trying to figure out what to do they talk like they got it under control but you don’t get ten thousand and twenty thousand housing units short without you should have seen that on the horizon somewhere and now with five years and we’re gonna problem we have to be able to do this like a symphony that’s why you have a team this and that and this and that and this and our present mayor bless him yeah who would want to deal

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with a covet situation and be the mayor what a job i honor our present mayor but i still i’ve been feeling and that some of these ideas someone’s got to be aggressive at them and i i don’t see that i don’t know if you like me or watch like they gave grants out from the office of economic development and they’re so proud of it but it’s still not handling the level of problems here if you’re a mayor and i say what are you gonna do about the housing you’re gonna are you

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you have any immediate things i’m just really asking i want to think of this as a brush up jonah because when you get out there real questions will come at you by people that have teeth two rows and they’re not only looking to bite they’re like a really bite and uh clear out what’s going on i’m saying that from watching experience here you know our goodwill campaign and thinking of things positively i’m totally totally into it yeah then it gets down to things like i’m homeless i just had my house sold

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for 1.6 million and now i had to find a place but i couldn’t find a place because for a two bedroom it was 2 800 and i’m working as hard as i can and my wife and kids and we’re now living in a car and or two cars in fact but we have nowhere to be safe and if we go away from stuff the tires are gone the next day and maybe parts of the engine because there’s a rampant crime scene i’m just giving you my experience right what are we going to do are we going to have a mayor that’s

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going to be anti-crime sort of um maui’s version of rudy giuliani when he was cleaning up new york and taking to people that were homeless or are we going to have a safety zone somewhere we can put people in programs that feel more comfortable than the rigid prison-like conditions that are the homeless shelters it’s a i’m asking this in an unusual way really just giving you the thinking that i have because when i get out there on the campaign trip people are asking very specific questions like what are you

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going to do about the water main down from my house it’s the we have to widen the street there well may we only have a budget of so much we’ll put it up in the priority list i get a lot of very specific questions like that but then i also get things that say what are you going to do and on council you only can do so much you know and as mayor that is really the most flexible role the other one that gets to assign all these departments their tasks right you’re the maker of the whole plan as me

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so those are the kind of i’m i’ll give you one of the things that comes to my mind uh as as you speak about the housing situation for instance and how long you know we may look at it taking in order for the housing to actually meet the needs uh you know before i i moved to maui and what is anchoring in a lot of the whole jedi academy piece is really coming from the community of burning man and you know i’m part of the the camp a camp at burning man is been fully focused on seven generations of

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innovative ideas and we build the like state-of-the-art infrastructure and design that and bring it out to test it out in black rock city because one it’s one of the harshest environments on the planet and if we can build it and we can actualize it there most likely we’ll be able to build it naturalize it anywhere on the planet and we’re doing this you know creating a city for 72 to 85 000 people in three to four weeks time frame you know of construction yeah there’s a lot of design and preparation that goes in

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before that but in terms of the actual uh on boots on the ground and bringing that to those designs together in the city i watched the city i’ve watched it for five years erect from there being nothing to being in an entire village an entire community that blossoms out of the desert and is one of the most co-creative uh peaceful fun joyful blissful celebrations that one can ever go to and you know it it can get sometimes i i hesitate to bring up burning man because people think oh that’s that big party in the

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desert you know and it’s not it’s not just a big party in the desert yes we are out there celebrating you know there is that part of it but there’s some of the greatest most um ingenious minds that come out there to uh to train to learn to co-create to come together and to share ideas and this is something that i think maui actually uh holds is one of the most fertile grounds to kind of plant those kind of seeds and to bring these designs these uh innovators you know to showcase what we have in terms of the

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technologies that we have these again ancient future technologies like you just bought we we have all the stuff here in terms of how we can work with our our uh ecosystems in a good way how we can be in good relations with nature and still build uh the the necessary insurance we can work we can get water out of our atmosphere so that we can out of the air and create more water you know we can distribute or we can do vertical gardens and come back into speaking of which like why are we not terracing and do

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terrorist farming on a high level here to utilize our water in a better way you know we’re we’re archaic in our in our ways and designing here on maui and we need this forward kind of thinking this futuristic kind of thinking to showcase what it is and i think by showing it people can move past get out of the old way of of of being and seeing it and actually being able to experience it can move us in into that new paradigm well that’s where i’m thinking again that that’s private sector stuff because

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you may think the government has money but every time i try to track it it’s all tracked to the value of real estate and so it’s to the government’s advantage to have the value of real estate go up because that gets the money they need to run the place but see how crazy that is because the money from those kind of properties are that tourism properties that we really don’t want more of right so wait a minute so we’re going to take money from that tourism industry to support the local

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people yeah that’s right we should have been doing it all along and balance this so we wouldn’t make it feel so lopsided now but those are the kind of moves that we need to make because things are well lopsided you know um absolutely and even the tourists themselves though like i’ve been doing tour guiding for the last since we opened back up you know since the the pandemic and the closures based up from kovid and the tourists they’re they’re also coming here for this you know they’re they’re seeking

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new ideas they’re seeking to have a different experience a cultural experience and living that they like the the resorts are like almost at the point where those are becoming outdated you know the tourists they’re like they don’t they’re being put in boxes they don’t come here to be put in boxes you can make it as fancy and as schwinky as they want to be but they’re what they actually are here for is to go road to hana you know they want to get out and experience the the outdoors and get in

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into the jungle and and and see waterfalls and like see how things are grown and learn and you know have conversations and talk story with the the indigenous peoples of the land you know and talk story with locals and learn about that that’s what i find that they’re more uh more interested in um participating in you know it’s like the the entertainment part of it like we’re an entertainment uh capital at this point you know here on maui and so what kind of entertainment are we doing and can we

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bring this level of education to our entertainment you know can we can we can educate and bring entertain do uh make education more entertaining at the same time you know i think that we there that’s also the crux of it too is that new thoughts come from um the foundation of of being educated and have been able to learn you know when i speak about education it’s more about the openness to receiving the an ability to learn right than it is necessarily to come in and like i want to teach something now

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my both my parents were teachers and they taught me how to learn more something they taught me how to teach you know it was that’s that’s what i learned from is how to learn and as coming into the space of mayor this is an opportunity for us as a community to come together to learn from each other to share ideas to try them on see how they’re working so that we can learn some more so if you become mayor you hit the ground running do you have any i guess like i said as the season’s

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going on your answers are going to be much more robust so i know we’re young in this season this is as much a practice for me as for you when you hit the ground running in that seat what what are your priorities you see we got problems what kind of things are and you already said housing is one water is another one any other issues that are important that are driving your campaign uh what’s drive my campaign is are those two issues uh malama aina you know is another big part you know is

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our stewardship of of the land here you know we we have so much land that we’re not able to actually work with right now because of the the trauma that the land has experienced over time you know so caring for that and the other part is cleaning it up you know to to keep it simple as well you know it was like when i drive around maui right now it is it’s a mess you know there’s there’s trash all over the place except for in the touristy areas but the rest of the islands like not even you can’t even drive up

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haleakala highway right now both sides of the highway are just drenched with trash you know all of our main highways and byways so it’s like our so caring for caring for our land is is takes it brings about a pride that we have in our community and as a culture of maui uh so that’s another another arm um you know in so the housing the water the land uh and the education you know peace coming back to that because what right now our youth have very little opportunity with the actual the education they’re able to receive

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the education that is uh preparing for um you know graduation into university level uh education the public sector of education is is not preparing our youth for uh life you know after that and not only that but then because it’s not doing that there’s a sense of hopelessness in our youth around where what they’re going to be able to do to provide for themselves to provide for their up-and-coming families they don’t want to be stuck working these these service industry jobs it is the

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only thing really available economically and in our workforce because our economy is solely based off of tourism uh and so this hopelessness is like leading to you know uh suicide um drug addiction you know alcoholism and and and other forms of of abuse whether abuse to ourselves or abuse to each other and so i think that’s a really uh integral place to put some attention um and intention into when it comes to initiative and all of this you know uh really comes back to circle around and speaks to

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you know what i was focusing in on and creating the jedi academy you know it’s like this is what the academy is for it’s about the training that’s necessary so that we can deploy all these things and and to evolve as as a people and move into the future with grace well it was only the universe that set this up because your jedi academy and when you talk about that and i think of may the schwartz be with you i know from the jedi academy in star wars you know there is something greater

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than has been going on and uh the fact that i’m sitting here with someone that has a core of principles uh you know to be the best that they can be you know you exemplify you know someone who is like you say the community that you’ve got of thoughtful caring people here on maui that recognized in you the qualities that they would like to see in a mayor um i wish you the absolute very best in this whole campaign i’m sure i’m going to see you out there whatever out there means in the

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in the world of physical and also virtual if i can ever be of help to you i’m running this thing with a very different idea and i can you imagine i’m 30 years on maui and all these people that are many of the people are sitting in the office i’ve interviewed over decades and they still talk and they’re still at kindergarten right they still are not handling issues it’s really amazing i hope that you motivate people to come out and vote and me too but you know when you’re running

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for mayor i know if you’ve got a big team of people you’re gonna have a big impact i may you know do a concert or sing a song or you’ll know the you watch for my t-shirts because everyone will maybe that’s a good idea we’ll have we’re going to have fun this year i can’t imagine how the world can treat this political season like they do all the others things are getting too important and so the more that you get out there and poke people with this thing about you can register to vote to the very last day

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or whatever a week before that means that all this momentum can change the world and i am rooting for you you know as far as whose choice for mayor it’s going to be an interesting experience this campaign season to see all the jockeying but the ideas of being progressive and involving and so responsible to our environment and our youth and realizing the importance for balance and pulling away from only tourism good core could you know what can i say the good core values that i hope people will seriously consider

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jonah Lion as a candidate for mayor of maui i’m very happy to have you here with me and i hope our audience will take a look what can they go to or where can they go to find more from you they can go to the website you can go to campaignaloha.com campaign c-a-m-p-a-i-g-n aloha.com and uh yeah keeping it simple you know with that and and i had the honor and privilege when uh first moving here to be invited into a cohort to learn deeper of the the values in deep meaning you know of aloha and uh that

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along with coming here with what i call the rocks the rites of conduction which were the the principles of burning man because those principles were the cohesive glue that brought us into alignment is what we all like agree upon and coming to that and co-creating a community together you know so and from there there’s freedom there’s there’s free will there’s sovereignty and choice in and how we move about you know from that it’s very dynamic in that way and that’s what i i also

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would love to uh to instill is to um coming back into self-governance you know and our sovereignty and being able to be free of of uh free to make our choices that are right for ourselves for our families for our neighborhoods for our communities and let it kind of ripple out and expand from from that you know and instead of what we currently have is the dynamics of government you know which is essentially mind control the very word means mind control you know and that’s what’s happening and

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we’re having our choices made for us and we’re not given the freedoms that uh are our uh god-given inalienable inalienable rights and alienable rights i would want to pronounce that uh and this is a unique place for that you know maui hawaii is a very unique place because it wasn’t that long ago before uh that hawaii was a sovereign nation you know and i think that we can um not go back but go forward to that you know to move forward back to that move forward to that existence of looking at ourselves as sovereign beings

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and uh having a free and sovereign nation uh and let the governments do our jobs as serve being servants to the community as part of the community and to look at what is the needs are take in all that the the ideas the collective intelligences there and then to implement those with the community’s uh support yeah this is this is the way you know this is the way that i think we’re moving into in this evolution right now and it’s going to be it is going to be wild like you said this is a wild ride we’re in

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for a lot of fun uh let’s have a good time doing it because these issues are heavy you know they’re big they’re long-term we’re dealing with systemic oppression we’re dealing with massive corruption uh we’re dealing with all of all of that uh and at the same time there’s so much light and there’s so many solutions uh available to us so let’s go ahead and continue to bring this these uh the sacred waters and water is life and the solutions are here for us donaline you’re a welcome guest here

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again anytime at the neutral zone we’ll see if they let me keep doing this because i’m also running as you know and uh i’m easy to find go to dreammaui.com or may the schwartz be with you dot us how’s that i love you fine i love it your slogans are right on top of jason so thank you so much for having me on the the you’re a pleasure show and arranging this and good luck to you as well and any way that i can support you uh as well when you’re in your running you know reach out i know we’re already

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on the same team so let’s let’s keep working together and and let’s let’s get into positions to make uh make a significant impact and change right and all you out in radio and tv land you are welcome to reach out and uh you’ll see all the things on the screen that i’m putting up all through the show you don’t see it jonah but you’re gonna have people contacting you because i’m putting all that information up through this whole thing you’re a great guy i am

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very very happy to be out there with you may we say it truthfully may the force of good be with us and may we be the best that we can do and be to help this community you know thank you for joining me here blessings and aloha aloha bye out there see you next time [Music] you