Peace Poem Awards 2020 & Beyond — MLK 2021 DAY, 1-18-2021

[Music] aloha everyone out there this is jason schwartz your host at the neutral zone mauineutralzone.com found here on maui on radio k-a-k-u k-a-q 88.5 fm the voice of maui also found on the net on youtube but we have a page miami neutralzone.com where one of our guests who was here before in fact a year ago is here again and uh what a time to be here today january 13th i just looked it up first time a president in our history was impeached the second time what a day to talk about martin luther

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king and peace and a beautiful wonderful lady named melinda Gohn melinda how many years you’ve been doing these peace poems uh we’re embarking on our twenty-second year twenties we started the year yes of doing the peace palm and for dr king actually we began the international peace palm project in 1996. so that’s when i met you that is correct and that was so nice that was 96 so that makes us 25 years old doesn’t it yes and counting yes well but that’s that’s very significant because

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right now you know i am i’m a firm believer that god has his own idea on timing but we talked about times like now and how how holding that vision of what peace is through our youngsters and through the youngsters through young and old but and encouraging them to to search inside and to express has been your passion i i take you as you and you know you had a small and mighty band of warriors that started this you know and uh we can honor them together the maui peace poem project that was 1996 huh

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that’s right when we were uh actually a small group of poets in maui and we began reading poetry together um at this marvelous little bookstore which is now gone and was it what was it at the wharf which one it was at the at the uh wharf across from the uh banyan tree the cinema the cinema wharf center in upstairs in the back it was a great that’s white that’s right and um two lovely ladies ran the reading and there was a gifted young poet that very few people knew his name was christian and he was a vietnam veteran

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and uh he also was very very interested in in our work and a lot of people don’t know about him he came back and he had developed a heart illness which some soldiers got and uh he died young but he he loved our project and uh was very empowered by the idea that we were creating the world’s longest poem on peace and trying to change world history because right now the world’s longest poem is not a peace pawn it’s a mahabhagarada and it was written in india and the basic premise of the poem is mankind is

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created to amuse the gods if you will and war is another way that they amuse the gods and we thought it would be wonderful to change that paradigm and to consider that the world’s longest poem would be an offering to god if you will or to the to us as as human beings and to create the world’s longest poem on peace so we created a mission and goal statement and uh and part of our mission and goal was to present the peace poem to the united nations in the year 2000 which we did it was a small miracle

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actually but we were invited to attend um the jubilenium which was a celebration of entering a new millennium for peace and we gathered ourselves up and off we went to the united nations to present the peace poem and there we were it was just remarkable with harry koberry and he at that time was president of the united nations and that was before uh mr anon was so that was 19 oh excuse me that was 2000. and then were you here for martin luther king day or you were actually in washington that time in 2000.

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oh we were we were here we were watching remember you got you did a thing in front of the mayor’s on tour of the county building right every year and we still do this is the first year we’ve missed well do you have those do you have those on video to share with the world i’m not that organizer well no i’m letting you know because i think our audience loves the year 2000 uh i’m just putting it up there today on youtube and on our site maui neutral zone but also maui arts and music

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because an archive of video and that’s one of the events that i captured and when i saw it i thought oh i’m going to be letting melinda and the world see 20 years ago the passion of what you just spoke about my goodness it’s not something yes it is it really is those kids now are big people and those big people are older people and the young that are coming along you’re nurturing and giving them a chance to compete to show off and win an award to celebrate peace and to have their

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voices heard you know i think that the marvelous thing particularly about the students here in the islands is that they create a certain type of poetry that is based on the world that we live in here so their poetry is not only about civil rights and dr king but it’s about nature and dolphins and whales and fishing and the lifestyle that is a peaceful um awareness here in maui and and the island complex so the poetry reflects that and i think i think that these students these children have a special poetry

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in fact i have with me the winner the winning poem from each island uh in the last year and i wanted to share with you that we had over 2 000 students enter the yearly dr martin luther king peace poetry contest in 2021 we had 2033 students statewide entered and uh is that that still the contest is still open now is open this year we are again inviting every student to send us a poem on peace we’ll be sending putting all that stuff up for them good yes yes yes and every school every class i’ve

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been sending out email invitations due to the color virus you know we can’t have a in-person mail out as i usually do yearly so everything has changed and we’re unable to hold live events this year because of the covet virus but what we did instead was we created a a video program from each island of their top winners and and so we just continued to evolve and to change but to celebrate these student winners and to celebrate what dr king stood for peace and non-violence and his message for all people

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of all minorities um and to to bring that greater justice to the world and for us to to know that we can do it peacefully um you know his his great great bio autobiography that he wrote there’s one that i have that was put together of his work and it is remarkable the letters he wrote from birmingham jail and he was you know he was ready to lay down his life for justice and he did in the end but he decided early not to carry guns they had that talk they had that big discussion in the early days when they started the

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civil rights movement and they really had to come to it as an agreement they were fearful after the bombings and the churches that were being bombed and all that terrible terrible things that were happening at that time as you remember jason we’re talking to an audience now that’s younger that may not remember but those were fearful times in the south and also in the north yeah but doctor is a violent protest i i remember that whole era because my father worked for wt grant company a retailer

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like k-mart and woolworths sears one of those pennies right yeah and he had another friend that was marty king well he was marty king marty king marty king and then suddenly there’s martin luther king so suddenly understood what oh that then i suddenly was watching this guy and you know 1960s 68 when all that i was 17 just getting ready graduating high school right in the throes of it just the perfect age to uh what’s the word to be right in the middle of it my father managed the store at in harlem at 125th street in broadway

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near the apollo theater and harley black black black so i didn’t know the difference between white and black when i grew up because everyone around me so i so what an interesting and different perspective i had on the whole thing it is interesting because the thing is too that we um as we grew up i was younger a little younger because i was i graduated in 1969 and quite frankly i lived out in the desert in a small desert town i was really i was really buried we didn’t have a lot of understanding what was going on

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so those things seemed far far away it wasn’t until i grew older and realized what dr king stood for that he began to shine in my heart well you know it’s interesting because 1969 i graduated that was while i was in high school and growing up in an all mostly all-white school with one black girl named janarda pricehock the dart the daughter of a famous singer and in my yearbook when i look back and my quote said don’t discriminate goodness comes in many colors there’s only one or two people in my school it’s

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interesting because i grew up around blacks and yet i was in a high school and i was aware of it then then i went to college and drugs and that whole experience and and that whole thing dr king obviously became uh part of the whole you know martin luther king who wrote it this dion right has anybody seen my old friend martin john yes yes but here we are look at the the hope that you bring to the we’re going to show a couple of these people and and you’re going to be we’re going to direct them toward the website

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so they can see all these kids i’m going to put a link if you’ll allow me on my site so they can go to the winners right from there with links as well i would be delighted because i really want to get people to see these kids and see them in action um it’s one thing to read their words but to see their faces and to see what they have to say so that’s the byproduct of this the covet thing this is like where i asked did you record the other thing before it was kind of optional now it’s

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kind of i get it everything’s recorded i think all the things that happened that we never recorded that were our lifetime amazing people we’ve always thought of that and then two you think of of the days past when our parents grew up and theirs and they didn’t have these opportunities this is amazing we are the bridge people we are we’ve seen when they started a computer and we laughed when connor comic like dick tracy had a face on his wrist oh yes i remember and i remember the

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very first hookup to the computer my daughter was 15 and we got our little in-home computer and with the telephone and finally heard it when it make that funny high-frequency noise when it connected and we did a little indian tribal dance because we’re part cherokee around around around it and it was remarkable to to at that moment enter a new world of technology at that moment and just i know you’re such a people person i imagine i want to say these are covered times but that’s not what’s marking our times

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nor is president trump this is the time when 2020 was a finalization of one thing and now in 21 in 21 we come of age and it’s time for us to to take the wisdom of all we’ve grown and move it a step further re-align or people aligned in positive action to come together it’s not even a unique way it’s just be aligned with everyone with everyone well that’s a great metaphor coming of age because this country has got to come of age and we have you know helping these kids write their

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peace poems and having them sense that they have a say in the world is a coming of age and it’s a shift because this is a new opportunity you know for them to be able to add their lines to the world’s longest poem because all of the peace poems go into the world’s longest poem and where are we how are you doing are you in first place or second well well i’m pretty sure we’re at about two hundred thousand now we’ve got we just did the count from this year well you’re not in place two hundred

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thousand are you no well i’m just i’m sorry i’m not being clear 200 000 lines right 200 000 lines of original poetry and i believe that with this with this year and last year we are there because um we got 19 328 lines last year we have counted well that sounds exciting so here we are again that’s come of age you’re number one right well we will see you you know what’s nice is that now is still alive and so that we are this is the year where we come of age imagine the burst

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that’s happening through all the good work you’re doing and the promotion quote if you will or being part of what we’re doing because the future is all the thing i’m 70 years old i can talk great big things but i talk about things that the people that are a third my age a half my age whatever they’re the ones that are going to be implementing and all we are is the mentors aren’t we the mankind project what women helping women all the things that say we are responsible and we

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as a people poor politics that’s important but that’s a separate issue because we as people are one and we recognize it dr king is such a symbol of that you know and uh but we are the living and breathing examples it’s what we do not just honoring him but honoring him through learning and applying it in our lives you know and the idea that actually again everyone has the opportunity and the ability to rise to their highest level whatever that may be and therein is in a world of variety and that’s what

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makes us what we are as americans we’re also special because without all our incredible variety we wouldn’t have this marvelous marvelous ability to grow and change i mean we’ve never had a challenge in america that we couldn’t overcome people have said that but it is true and if you study our history um really it’s remarkable what we have achieved we had the greatest peacetime growth of of national goodness and wealth in history you know uh from what the 1950s on it was a remarkable time for you and for

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me and for our children should we have had them in our families and all of our friends and neighbors to to grow um the problem is there’s always disadvantaged groups i was one i was a a minor’s daughter we grew up in mining camps i know what it’s like to go to a one-room schoolhouse and i know what it is to run down the hill to go to the bathroom at night because we didn’t have one in the trailer i know what that is i grew up with alcoholism i know what drug addiction is and i know that not everyone can escape

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i know that too i know that the cards are not stacked equally and i understand that too because if you’re born in if you happen to be born into a rich and wealthy family or not you know does it matter no matter what your abilities are only if there’s opportunities for you only if there’s opportunity but the wonderful thing is here i am i became a teacher i went to the united nations me a little girl who grew up in a mining camp and now see i look at a daughter of alcoholics and and you know right and here you are now

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and i’m looking at thinking and now you have opportunity after 20 plus 25 years of that to bring it to you at another level because we’re going at the world from the idea that maui arts and music expresses its visual art healing art culture of the islands and educate people and be an example to the world so here are the youth who who are the jobs going to be when they learn how to do techno and do video and be part of these productions we’re doing here who is the music who is the art how are

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we going to share the culture it’s not me it’s what is and what will be and so that’s what we are we’re the framework we’re the i like to say we really are the foundation for which the future stands on our shoulders and while we’re here more than just be the foundation we get to be part of it good the technology changes i feel so blessed this covert thing has turned everyone to say wait i can talk to melinda and i don’t even have to be in her place yes i would love to give her a hug and

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i’d like to be closer and say hi to gary and do the whole thing and see the kids but now the kids know how to put themselves up on a screen and be shared with the world which is the new whole thing is so changing you want to go look for a job it’s on the net you want to submit your resume something reads your resume before a live person touches it to see if you said the right key words what’s that about this is like the world has shifted you guys have numbers you have so much information

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the key is discernment so maybe through introspection times like what you do through through people i i really praise what you do because you created an environment melinda well i think too it’s just to have opportunity and to give these children an opportunity to write an opportunity to express themselves because there’s so few ways that they can make what they have to say concrete in the world and that is where we really have to help them believe in themselves what they do what they say does make a

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difference and these little folders you know that i have i’ve got 300 of them for this last year we have all these children that wrote poetry every single every single paper is a person i’ve got you know like 2033 persons standing in this room have you seen your have you seen for example maybe that’s the thing we’ll do together sending something to the people that were there 20 years ago to see what they’re doing now with their writing and what they want to do with their kids

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and how far and wide what you know the word pandemic has a negative connotation but what would happen if something good has that infectious incredible experience of sharing love and what this can represent even in spite of what’s happening around what if we ourselves create that world through this opportunity that’s why this is such a powerful thing may i put a couple of things on screen while we’re talking i know i won’t forget but thank you very much yeah what did you see here let me try to share your screen

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let’s see if this does this should do it can you see that melinda oh there we are yes i can see that okay so can you see this dr king website thing yes i can thank you so much it’s perfect we’ve got the dr king website and where is it is it large enough for people to see let’s make sure i think they can see it peacep.org is the website right that’s correct and poem maui.net is where they submit their is there any kind of deadline yes what we want them to do is send it to us uh by the end of february because

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the contest is to celebrate black history month okay so every year we ask every student to send us their piece poem now they can do it as a class with their teacher or if they want to send us a poem independently we’re happy to accept independent entries we uh we just think that everyone needs a chance and here just you see me standing by the grand prize winner for maui county this was isla harris she was in fifth grade last year 10 years old and she wrote a remarkable little poem and with you yeah i do

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and i’m standing beside her and i’m presenting to her her grand prize which is the painting of john lennon and it was painted by a very well-known artist called davo he’s a wonderful guy isn’t he i i uh anyway i have long and good memories when we went and met at bob dylan constitution skill you know here on maui was such a small community yes beautiful guy this looks like um john lennon and imagine i’m sure she was thrilled with such a beautiful thing and just do you have her her uh poem here or i

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guess people can listen i can um share it with you and she’s holding in her her hands the certificate from governor ige or for her grand prize so she received her certificate of honor from the governor as well as the grand prize for being our grand prize winner for maui county and her poem is entitled better together and she writes a rainbow is not just one color but many colors in the sky every color has a story just like you and i we all are different people but no one is the same because no two

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colors are alike we are all a special color not just black or white no one needs to be mean and not anything in between but all together we are one and powerful like the sun we are beautiful on our own but stronger and better together so stand up and fight for what is right do not i’m sorry so stand up for what is right do not fight live in peace and keep the love in your heart bright now that’s an extended metaphor she uses imagery she also has a wonderful rhyming sequences she has a beautiful sound to the poem

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i didn’t read it really well but there’s a rocking variety to it and she does a wonderful comparison not only with us as individuals uh different colors but also with us as being part of a planet under the sun everyone all in unity and her her poem strikes a huge chord among many many great themes so the reason that we chose this poem was because of uh the originality the content and her overall theme of oneness her ability to bring in unity and also what dr king stood for was non-violence and peace

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so she wrapped it all up for us and gave it together got it together with her with a bow she did it all and 10 years old it is it’s a remarkable poem for a girl of that age i know because we read i read 2 000 of them last year we all do i mean i don’t i’m not allowed to judge really i sort of pass out popcorn and keep everyone working the poems the poet judges come and um we separate into group every group has a captain we go through island by island school by school and pick winners from every class

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so it’s it’s quite a quite a wonderful process and then out of that process comes our grand winners which we call the golden circle of the top winners from every island about a dozen of the first place winners they’re so wonderful that they go into the circle and then from that circle come the grand prize finalist and the grand prize winner so this little girl has gone through about six judging rounds actually so you by the time you’re done and how many people i guess not only you

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have to read them you have others join you because it’s so overwhelming otherwise well in one year i really always enjoyed that so much yeah yeah so we have a panel of judges every year it just uh and they’re often retired well we have a retired two retired principals we have a lady that used to teach at the college that comes we have a number of retired and active teachers and artists and volunteers that are really there because of their delight in poetry and and i feed them lunch and they go into

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groups and it takes two days now we do it often for two days before we’re done it’s quite a process well excuse me if i seem distracted you know i think i’m a big zoom guy and then i can’t figure out how to go back from sharing a screen to not sharing a screen sharing oh it’s fun for me because i get to look at at that instead of say let me bring up some other view which is oh good yes i’d like you to see this is our prize now this was really a special prize it was donated to us by the polynesian

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voyaging society that is a photo of the hokulea on its worldwide mission of peace going through the islands in the south pacific and this is a limited edition it only came to us we created only the prizes for this year and so this is a keepsake and of course at the bottom we have this very special quote from dr king no no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream is that in the famous that is a quote from one of the

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wonderful talks he gave this was christmas and if i remember correctly because i looked it up carefully it was 1963 and um a very wonderful talk that he gave uh to a group of you know very well-known people and this particular quote i thought for this year would be very very important and that’s really interesting that’s great i have a dream speech that was another uh quoted speech really good one yes and every year we choose a different quote to go on our uh on our prize posters that are

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donated to us but this we’re particularly in the year of black lives matter uh important that social justice and justice be seen as something that will roll over us like the waters and we deserve it this nation deserves it the earth deserves i’m just trying to make sure i get um things on it’s very funny that i can’t figure out how to if i stop video then i’m not doing video so i don’t want to stop the show stop share that’s probably it right there oh there you are excellent and well done

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anyway i wanna and i wanna make sure that once again it’ll be written on the screen but peacepoem.org is not only your site but that’s where you have links to the shows i’m gonna put them up also at maui neutral zone with your show in the description actually uh no the shows are not linked into the website as yet it’s um oh one more thing that we need to do is update the website but i’m happy to have those links in there that’s wonderful jason thank you thank you so much

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if you send them to me i’ll put them on the website translated like oahu maui big island so people don’t have to look at anything they make it easy for them and uh i want to keep drawing people back to this new forum that i’m hoping everyone will say i’m an artist i’m a musician i want to write i have ideas which is we i’ve been you know i’ve been inspired by you all these years you you probably heard me say in lots of ways get out to you mr jason with all your volunteer work all these many years

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i just uh was sharing with someone who’s going to talk to me a little later and i sent them a text and it said oops there goes another rubber tree plant and then i wanted to reference that it was part of a song a part of a movie about high hopes [Music] thank you well i must share with you that this is one of the marvelous things that happens to us the magic of volunteering i was sharing with davo who presenting to presented to us this marvelous marvelous gift and he and i have become very close in terms of our work and our love

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of peace and he loves the project it gives him an opportunity but he and i were speaking about the earth and how fragile it is and how important it is and we then learned that when the first moon landing happened in 1969 he like i like so many others i mean i was transfixed i was stuck in front of that tv watching the moon landing you couldn’t get me away you couldn’t give me away so what he did was he said to me oh melinda he said i’ll have to give you a painting of the moon landi i said oh that would be wonderful

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someday davo and i thought no more of it so let me walk away i will be right back oh great aren’t those great hawaiian tibetan flags behind you and there is up a little bit of perfect the moon landing wow what day was that do you remember what day that was uh let me see that was i’m thinking like june 26 1969 something like that but anyway whatever and you know i was an m overwhelmed because uh you know it just it shows a great generosity that this project is full of the great generosity

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that moves people’s hearts i have a day glow picture elton john yes a bed from dublin one guy i don’t like him never alone but you know what now i look up and i’m on the sea of tranquility that’s a beautiful way that’s helpful because we all have to saddle up and be really strong this year be really really strong and make it to next year and stay healthy i have to go down and get my vaccination i’m rolling up my arm i’m the first in line as soon as i be ready i think that you’re not old

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enough yet i’m neither am i but i know some people that have gotten them and they speak about they’re very happy they did they got a second check one guy got a second chance and uh you know i mean we’re living in these times that none of us excuse me except the soothsayers could predict but hey um what happens through these times that’s up to us well the it is uh largely but remember it’s a molecule a new molecule has been introduced into our universe it’s a i spent 30 years in medicine what

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was introduced a covert this this new particular it’s it’s not a this is not a a bug this is a this is a molecule way different you have to change your thinking at any rate my point is that that we just we’re adjusting and changing and and i have great hopes that we will do really well in this next year and more people in my mask and all our listeners and viewers out there in the middle of you know the lone ranger wearing a mask and i don’t know i think people are strong and i think they’re resilient

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my biggest thing is i hope they learn the whole piece in their heart and it’s so peaceful and supportive to wear a mask and to stay distant while we’re fighting things that are so small like you say a molecule that we this those that’s where we learn what peace means being peaceful and loving everyone doing the right thing and and just you know that idea that we’re caring for our young we are caring for our young and we are not gay keepers we are gate openers we are gate openers you know we want

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everybody to come in and be safe and be nurtured and to have a chance in a peaceful world and um it is better jason i mean we hear about all this horrible horrible stuff but if you read your history you will know as i know that these are better times we have running water you know we have antibiotics we have all these things keeping us safe we have this amazing communication and now we have a spotlight on people that do wrong before there was no spotlight you know i mean attila the hun made pyramids of skulls

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well you know i know what to say donald trump didn’t make pyramids of skulls but um how many lives get clearly there are pyramids for a lot of people through time that uh haven’t been you know we hear about those pyramids of skulls but right now the potential i don’t know i keep feeling like because of the internet the more we learn the more people um have to embrace themselves and get their own identity and do something with their lives here to be so active because it used to be that you could stand out

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in a crowd you were a runner in a crowd and they spotted you at the corner drugstore because you had a beautiful face now the corner drugstore doesn’t have the agents then there’s everything’s online it’s a different one you’ve got on sunglasses and a mask and no one can see your face anyway anymore so your heart shines through through who you are only that works anymore is is who you are not what you look like but who you are did you have did you have um a fun going and you didn’t go to the other islands did

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you have fun putting this together i imagine that it was a work of work trying to accumulate video upon video upon video right but the difficulty the most difficult thing was to track down the kids because we had planned to have the awards last spring but we cancelled and as we thought we’d have them in the fall but it did and on and on so by the time we were trying to run down the student winners a lot of them were at a different school or they were home with grandma or they were on remote

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learning and and and it was it was really quite a challenge but we did i mean there were just a few that slipped through our fingers we got most of them and i think um remarkable remarkable to hear these hear these students doing their piece poems live and so i ask everyone out there to to go to the links you see and uh jason’s gonna put them up or um contact me at palm maui.net i’ll send you the links to take a look at our student winners from last year please do send us a peace poem if you’ve got a child at

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home doesn’t know what to do have him or her write a poem on peace and send it to us you can call me at any time my information is readily available just go to peacepoem.org and you will find me and i’d be happy to work with you and to share with you teachers we want you to come to our project we welcome you back if you’ve been there before come and have the kids right on piece and we’ll pick winners from every class and your children will have a chance for a greater way of showing the world what peace in the

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island is all about and we thank you we thank you jason for your good work and ask you to keep on the neutral zone which is what it is neutral to give everyone a voice so important in these times and we have interesting guests coming in different people with all kinds of viewpoints um but i think we have that common thread of i’m very much granting someone a chance to to share what they want to share and you know don’t feel like they have to be defensive if someone you know has an opinion

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they’ll hear me say something but you know i guess that’s the reason i get the guests i do i’m creating a better world through sharing great people through this and you know what it is yes thank you jason thank you so much if there’s anything that anybody out needs out there you can also obviously call through us it’s been a pleasure having you on the show anything that you know you’d like to cover or share or or want to say hi to someone or [Music] i would like to say uh hello to

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two people particularly on kauai i’d like to particularly thank uh senator uh senate president ron kouchi for his support and former mayor and councilwoman johann yukimura for her support and inspired council all these many many years we uh thank from the big island sherry carden and roberta goodman who have been our peaceful coordinators on the big island and certainly on maui we must thank jason schwartz who was a supporter from the very beginning and we have our maui poetry judges and all of our supporters there i

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do want to thank governor ige and mrs ige for supporting our project and mrs ige for her coming aboard to our video program this year to send the governor’s message of peace and non-violence and thanking the children i do want to thank the mayors statewide for their support and their encouragement over all these many years and to the teachers of each island for working with us come back do more poetry and we thank you that’s what i wanted to say yeah i knew you had a list there that’s a good list

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too and all the people who weren’t mentioned you know who you are and you do not only that you did it because you did it out of love there’s so many people in the world that after a while you know i i have so many people say to me you know you made an impression on me you were my teacher you were a substitute in 1993 when i had eighth grade and here you i am a big person now now and there is that show and you were running for mayor and we remember again we make a difference and that’s why i we

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live on an island where we can showcase to the world what it means to live on maui and work together with our all our different races and all our different everything we have such a beautiful cultural mix here you know i want to start having more things about hawaiians i’ve invited a couple that see how this time comes into their vision of what a world looks like because maybe we can showcase hawaii in the internet and create the kind of exposure that the hawaiians will really feel the honor of their kingdom

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even before they quote get a government here that reigns their culture can really be shared that aloha you know i mean anyway probably i sound funny as a a kid from brooklyn new york talking about it but well i think the more that people see kids from brooklyn and like me a miner’s daughter from montana we’ve been here a long time we’ve contributed here to the island community you certainly have so in that vein i think that speaking of the native peoples i’ve written poetry about

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the cherokee and the shoshones you know i lived in their valleys as a small child um i think i had that right and i’ve had native americans thank me and i’ve written about the native hawaiians and i’ve had one or two thank me and that was special but my point being that it is a a huge varietal complex here we have a crossroads of people now in this day and age and this is where we are this day and age this crossroads and you see it in the in the schools it’s a beautiful thing to

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see the schools it’s gorgeous to see these kids that’s where we have the chance is with the kids with the kids all you out there in radio land 88.5 fm is only here on maui but all around the world and through the podcast world you know i figure we’re a librarian in a little bit of time as more people join this matrix of what we’re doing all the pieces these this thing we’re doing right now we’re going to be seen all over the world and so your bright light is really very much appreciated you’re a

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beacon of beautiful love and peace melinda thank you for being here with me and with the people of our island and of the world at the maui neutral zone and uh peacepoint.org i guess and what is the thing again poem at maui.net maui.net i want to remember that so kids you guys what ages i guess all kinds of ages from how old 8 through 12 bring them on we accept all poetry we welcome poems from all grades we particularly welcome hawaiian poems with an english translation hawaiian poetry is up for a special

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award from governor’s office we realize that it is a landmark point of showing that the language is back living in the culture when you get the poetry and we are now getting hawaiian poetry particularly the link linked to um the big island this year showcases hawaiian english with the english translation so i encourage everyone to take a look at the hawaii island uh broadcast thank you so much well thanks to you melinda blessings to all you out there and i hope you will join us again it’s been a pleasure thank you jason

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aloha a hui ho you