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Summary & Timestamped transcript Below
The video features an in-depth interview between Jason Schwartz, host of Maui Neutral Zone, and Sam Peralta, a candidate running for the State House District 9 seat in Maui. The conversation explores Sam’s personal background, motivations for running, key policy priorities, and broader philosophical views on governance, culture, sustainability, and education reform. Sam, a third-generation Filipino-Hawaiian raised in low-income housing, is driven by a desire to uplift his community through holistic and culturally grounded governance. He emphasizes the importance of education reform that integrates indigenous knowledge with modern technology to prepare the next generation for global challenges, including emerging industries and environmental sustainability. Both Jason and Sam reflect on Maui’s unique challenges, such as high housing costs, overreliance on imports, and environmental degradation, and discuss the role of government in fostering public-private partnerships and innovative legislation to address these issues. The interview highlights the need for a shift from ego-centric, fragmented governance models to eco-centric, holistic approaches rooted in Hawaiian values such as reciprocity and stewardship of the land. The dialogue concludes with a mutual call to action for community engagement, intergenerational collaboration, and visionary leadership to create a sustainable and thriving future for Maui.
Highlights
- [01:31] Sam shares his upbringing from plantation camps and low-income housing, fueling his passion for community leadership rooted in cultural identity.
- [05:30] Sam outlines two urgent reasons for public education reform: equipping youth for the 21st-century economy and fostering cultural identity amid globalization.
- [09:15] Emphasizing environmental politics, Sam advocates an eco-centric worldview, learning from Hawaiian ahupua’a systems to solve modern sustainability challenges.
- [14:49] Sam highlights the layered complexity of social issues including political, philosophical, and spiritual dimensions, stressing education’s role in healing trauma.
- [22:40] Jason and Sam discuss leveraging public-private partnerships and tax incentives to address housing and sustainability problems on Maui.
- [28:52] Sam promotes divergent thinking and innovation, urging Hawai‘i to lead in global trade, technology, and indigenous empowerment rather than preserving outdated models.
- [41:43] ❤️ The importance of intergenerational collaboration and community accountability is underscored as key to sustainable progress in Maui.
Key Insights
- [01:31] Cultural Roots as Political Motivation: Sam’s personal history growing up in low-income housing within a Filipino-Hawaiian community shapes his political mission. This grounding provides authenticity and a deep connection to Maui’s marginalized populations, highlighting the importance of representation in government by those who truly understand community struggles.
- [05:30] Education Reform as a Cornerstone: Sam identifies education reform as essential not only to prepare youth for technological and economic shifts like AI, cryptocurrency, and international trade but also to nurture a strong cultural identity. This dual focus counters the alienation caused by globalization and supports community resilience.
- [09:15] Eco-Centric Governance Model: Drawing from Hawaiian traditional knowledge such as the ahupua’a system, Sam advocates for policies that prioritize the earth’s wellbeing over human ego. This approach contrasts sharply with Western anthropocentrism and offers sustainable frameworks for managing natural resources and local economies.
- [14:49] Holistic View of Social Issues: Sam stresses that political challenges are intertwined with philosophical and spiritual dimensions, including intergenerational trauma and epigenetics. Addressing these requires education systems that heal and empower individuals internally as well as externally.
- [22:40] Public-Private Partnerships as a Solution to Local Problems: Both Sam and Jason emphasize the untapped potential of leveraging local capital, such as landowners and businesses (“Big Joe”), through innovative financial mechanisms like tax credits and equity sharing to fund affordable housing and sustainable infrastructure, reducing reliance on limited government budgets.
- [28:52] Innovation and Divergent Thinking for Maui’s Future: Sam envisions a new wave of leaders and learners who combine indigenous knowledge with cutting-edge technology to position Hawai‘i as a global leader rather than a preserved museum. This future-oriented mindset challenges preservation without progress and encourages creative problem-solving.
- [41:43] ❤️ Intergenerational Transmission and Community Accountability: The Hawaiian concept of pili meka honona, or intergenerational transmission, is critical to sustaining cultural knowledge and social cohesion. Sam emphasizes that youth and elders must mutually support and hold each other accountable, fostering a community that learns, grows, and innovates together.
- [35:47] Breaking Out of Closed Systems for Dynamic Governance: Sam explains, using game theory and AI examples, that rigid, closed systems of governance stifle innovation and adaptability. Instead, policies should empower individuals to experiment, fail, succeed, and collectively harmonize, similar to decentralized robot learning. This flexible approach aligns with ecological and social realities.
- [46:14] Immediate Housing Solutions Rooted in Compassion: Jason’s vision of declaring a state of emergency to provide minimum housing and safe spaces for the homeless reflects the urgency of social welfare. Sam’s focus on education and systemic change complements this by addressing root causes, but immediate compassionate action remains critical.
- [50:51] “Think Global, Act Local” as a Policy Framework: Sam’s closing message encapsulates the need to honor global human heritage while applying sustainable, regionally appropriate practices—particularly through the Hawaiian ahupua’a system—to achieve harmony between people and the environment. This balance is key to Maui’s and Hawai‘i’s resilience.
Overall Analysis
This conversation reveals a nuanced vision for Maui’s future—one that integrates cultural identity, environmental stewardship, education, innovation, and community empowerment. Sam Peralta’s candidacy embodies a new generation of leadership that bridges indigenous wisdom and modern challenges, emphasizing holistic governance. The interview also highlights systemic barriers, such as entrenched monopolies and fragmented governance models, which must be overcome through creative legislation and partnerships. The philosophical depth—connecting ecological realities with social and spiritual dimensions—provides a refreshing framework often missing from conventional political discourse. The emphasis on intergenerational collaboration and dynamic, adaptive approaches to governance offers hope for sustainable transformation. Jason’s role as an experienced community advocate further enriches the dialogue, grounding it in decades of local activism and vision for practical change. Together, they illuminate the challenges and possibilities facing Maui as it navigates economic pressures, cultural revival, and environmental imperatives in an uncertain global context.
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[Music] aloha everyone i’m jason schwartz your host here at the neutral zone mauineutralzone.com that guy over to my side i guess this side on screen that’s sam peralta sam is a candidate for state house district nine which is kyle louis seat which uh first of all thank you for being here with us sam i want to let our audience know as well as you i hope to earn your vote also because i’m running in a council race seven in the primary and uh they say the more the merrier but it’s this is a time when we have to be
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getting ourselves out there and i thought now’s a time to interview as many people including myself in fact at the end i’m going to ask you to ask me some questions because then as a candidate sometimes people might think i’m here with a special interest my special interest is delivering everyone up close and personal so the people of maui can be aware when they vote now always the time got feelings so what’s first of all thank you what got you running sam what’s your reason for what well i come
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from plantation camps and american military from my father’s side from my mother’s side she comes from rural farming areas and immigration in the philippines we grew up in low income housing and as i was growing up we transitioned from house to house but with government’s assistance we’re able to my parents were able to buy which for the first time i felt stable and that’s what got me thinking that if for me as a third generation filipino living in hawaii my culture this is my
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home that raised me i wanted to give people who have the similar story like i do a chance to show that they can lead their places but also they can rise up into partnering and collaborating with what’s happening on maui instead of being passive or having a victim mindset we can actually engage we can collaborate and we also can network which will be more powerful and i’m running because i want to represent maui i went to christ the king school where i learned about the great mystery and entering into this mystery
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of adventure i graduated from maui high school where i learned that my brothers and sisters are on this island and i also am a university of hawaii maui graduate in hawaiian studies and that helped me to engage in my culture and helped me to take abstract knowledge and apply it into the concrete so i worked at hawaiian emerging schools for two and a half three years and that’s what took the abstract ideas of academics and applied it into real life situations and i realized that we need more of that we
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need experts we need academics we need people who are weaving in the different disciplines but relating it into our spaces our geography our biology our biosphere and the emerging things that are happening globally so got it i’m thinking here we are in kahului and you’re going to be in the state house right so there you got to make laws any specific areas that on the way in you have passion about or any ideas you might i know you come in we’ve all got to get used to what the game is but sometimes i
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wonder if someone has a passion like education i want to see immersion like you said wouldn’t that be great if we could bring it to a wider audience and uh be able to get hawaiian back in popularity and as a language to be understood and used exactly the culture and things to embrace them in the structure of the government policies and plans you know i think that’s what you’re basically letting me know right and uh yeah a lot of my policies geared towards emerging industries a lot of times we’re
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investing into declining industries but what’s happening this generation with divergent thinking is we’re looking ahead of what’s coming so investing into policies of emerging industries as well as investing into policies of holistic uh governance holistic governance holistic education holistic health so things that they call it the spheres of society we need to be thinking that from not an ego centric point of view but an eco-centric point of view so this is where sustainability comes into play this is
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where agriculture and what’s happening today on maui is we’re finally putting um we’re streamlining the pieces together and we’re knowing that we need to be sustainable here on this island and we need to gear our people up to be sustainable and not just about food but also as far as living conditions mental health emotional health and physical health we need to think holistically and i’m glad you mentioned education so um education reform has been one of my focuses for this campaign and there’s
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two reasons why we need public education reform the first one is that we need to educate our children to take their place in this upcoming 21st century economics you know international trade cryptocurrency artificial artificial intelligence cannabis laws coming up 5g technology the hawaiian self-determination that’s going on that’s one thing the second thing is we need to reform public education like you mentioned before is about culture how do we educate our children our youth so that they have a sense of cultural
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identity while this process of globalization is happening so that’s kind of that in a nutshell for me well you you i looked at your your website dot samfordhawaii.com and there i saw you did spotify so it was nice you took different things i’m letting our audience know you know we’re gonna go over lots of stuff but you’re a candidate who’s being active and putting his positions up i appreciate it i have the same kind of thing i i want people to look the more they look the better they can
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feel about voting for me same thing for all the podcasts spotify itunes amazon you can hear a little bit about where i’m coming from on these short clip bite-sized podcast pieces and i’m you see i’m the long version i’m the version that says hey you know we can do those short bits it’s like hi i’m from maui i’ve gone to these schools vote for me versus okay now that i’m giving you some time where is you that’s the difference like for example now i have been watching candidates and
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talking to them for so long and the greatest problem that i see is that today agreeing with me is easy but making what i say enough of our priority to do something about it doesn’t happen easily it’s almost like you have to craft it into a bill i i have a friend genesis young watching him go through the process of working with legislators with his idea crafting it into a bill proposing it putting it through committees all that fun stuff is in your future you’re in that seat and to me i want to know who someone is like
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you’ve expressed where you are and who you are and where you come from in general because a specific vote it’s hard to say well how would you vote if the river goes that way every situation is new but it’s nice to know who is there so give what’s your passion pick up one of your passions and kind of let’s let’s explore it some um yeah with what you just said the politics world is a process as well as relational base but also not everyone’s going to agree with you and i think feeling confident in
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your calling and what your quality is very important um so i’m a university student at uh west oahu as well and my study has been in political science specifically environmental politics and i think that i’m most passionate about is i just this quote comes to mind by thomas barry he says the earth is primary human is derived derivative and it talks about that in a hawaiian worldview thinking the proverb is so a lot of times like i said before we have this perspective that’s very egocentric very anthropocentric very
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human focused it’s like us humans are the center of the universe and a lot of the times our policies our laws our perspectives especially in this western perspective has been based on the great i am the self iphone itv i microwave whatever eye you can have that’s for you you are the boss you’re the king but what i’m learning by through this environmental politics course and my studies is that the earth is primary human is derivative meaning that the earth has laid down laws universal laws it has shown us how
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to um be sustainable we talk about hawaii our ahupua system and these things if we just look at it and learn from nature itself we’ll be able to solve many of our problems today one of the problems that we are having today is we’re so disconnected from reality meaning what’s in front of us and we create these abstract worlds of numbers statistics and graphs and charts all through our human lens and i’m not saying here that we have to um use rocket science if we learn from the native hawaiians ahupua system it was a
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land management system the best engineered from top of the mountain to the sea they’re sustainable they’re growing food so here we are you know that i know that i’ve come to learn that i’ve been here a long time since 88 you probably you know we’re born somewhere near them that’s when the wall started i have been talking about the things that you’re talking about three decades ago and so the general if you look at who i am and what i’ve been doing did you know that i ran for
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council and mayor in 92 94 96 i was the green party candidate why i was talking about solar and sustainability with the head of maui electric on the t in 95 i’m by example and talking with pundy about raising money from off island and the world who can support our arts none of that is happening i am facing if i don’t sit in a seat to be able to bring these up so the public goes yeah that’s a good idea let’s help you make that happen i’ve watched so when i talk to you i’m
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thinking it’s great there are people that have face it if i live 30 years that’s i’ll already be a hundred more but i’m i want to know that someone’s taking an idea that i’ve had and held in my art and is now brave enough to run has the knowledge about things in a global way and realizes like you said when you’re operating as a state house you’re acting to deal with locally so here when we’re local the big world they are destroying themselves as we speak but here on this island you know we have
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to think kind of differently i think you know we’re an island and our our notions about self-sustainability are more than just we have to it’s like we have to you here we are in covent times right so now everything’s gonna yet be this swirl of uncertainty we are certain that if they need something on the mainland they won’t send it to us so we have to be so over 90 of our goods was imported and everyone knows that and yet it’s going to take a strong leader like you to propose
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things like we are want to create a system that favors local produce favors so that we can support our local economy both here on maui but statewide so all the people i’ve seen that were in the local government here at maui it’s amazing they’re all moving it’s like okay we’ve done what we can locally it’s time to move to the state you see kelly king doing it right and everyone’s positioning so you’re going to be so in that kind of environment i think you probably what
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i’m hearing you’re going to have a lot of people allying and aligning with your values are you very much different than i don’t know justin woodson i guess he’s been a teacher and then he’s been involved in this i never know when people get in what they were doing before or why but obviously you are ready to run and passionate um when you want to get into this i know i’m sounding funny but uh people are constantly coming up to me and i imagine to you asking you to solve problems like
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hey on my street there are three people i have a long streak that are sleeping in their cars and uh the police tell me that they can only do so much there’s no way to put these people and move in what these housing programs they don’t again you’re hearing my commentary they seem a little what you’re saying so far really resonates with me and that’s why i’m running in this campaign there’s the political aspect what you’re talking about but there’s different layers and
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dimensions to reality as far as what we know it’s what we can know there’s the political there’s the philosophical underlying that and beneath that is the spiritual and that’s why i’m into just education reform meaning that there’s deep traumatic stresses within hawaii talk about epigenetics talking about birth story trauma mother father wounds you know mother father wounds going from generations past unless we are educating our people to become global citizens they first have to deal
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with what’s inside and you can change the outside but unless change always starts and begins within so i just said this the last time we’re trying to lead the future by what we did in the past so education reform talk about what you were talking about it’s the culture it’s the arts and as a matter of fact the the the artists the musicians were are the modern day prophets if we’re listening to what they have to say we’re seeing the direction the new wave the new vision the new hope that’s just along
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the horizon ready to hit hawaii the the story that work hard get a job go to college start a family that narrative is done i asked a lot of my friends a lot of the upcoming youth and high schoolers they don’t believe that anymore so we need to educate our people and one of the things about education is that it transforms and increases the brain synopsis in your body it brings healing from the inside out a lot of the trauma and the pain that we have right now as far as um three things that hurt hawaii is
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cardiovascular disease cancer and diabetes cardiovascular disease our veins are clogged you know what’s clogged as well are water streams also cancers cancer is just the will the cells multiply it so quickly that they’re trying to survive but it’s isolated from the whole you know what’s isolated from the whole here on maui our community we’ve got to have these connections that are happening stronger and deeper but in emerging ways rather than in declining industry ways and education is so key
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how can we do it physically i’m i’m suddenly finding in the last 30 years in 1993 i started dream maui.com website i’m still using it now right 30 years the internet and this artificial intelligence create a better world somewhere else other input buy from somewhere else talk to people somewhere else be in this global community and i’m now in the lump in my room here that’s and that’s where’s my community so how do we get the community out music art things that you know we have to create more
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community events uh you know i not like i say now with the time suddenly suddenly we’re hearing the resurgence of covet and so our campaigning may be right like this more than out at events very soon and um that’s why i think it’s really important that we have these kind of discussions community is important and what you’re talking about is we come out of the dust of the earth you know in this in genesis that god made humans from the dust and it’s right now that’s known a teaspoon of soil has
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10 to the 13 trillion living organisms in it those types of living organisms in the soil is directly related to the kinds of organisms you have in your biodome and your in your gut health so if you want to come back into reality really it’s talking about what native hawaiians have always talked about the law is in the land if you want to have a panel a righteous a right-standing relationship you gotta turn back into what they would call mother mother earth earth is known for for this feminine dimension of reality
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because it births it’s the environment it’s the creative energy the greeks called it gaia god is the environment confucius called it reciprocity he summed up all of the earth and the living organisms together in one unifying relationship as reciprocity that means no one’s giving or taking there’s no lose win situation but everything is together that’s the mother that i’m talking about and not in this spiritual new age way but in the sense that it’s this dimension to reality that we forgot
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because of the industrial age the industrial age is really a fragmented from the masculine feminine dimensions of life with the masculine energy it’s really talked about consuming absorbing inserting taking so it’s just a broken piece that as people we need to look into indigenous cultures and come back to reciprocity um i’m listening to you and i’ll get me started no i know but it’s good you know what i’m thinking it again it echoes i’m mama mali arts and music association
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that feminine the receiving and papa people aligned in positive act so see what i see is i’ve got this things for 30 years and now it’s going to wake up and there’s going to be sam peralta and people that that are led by and recognize those truths and they’re going to recognize what i’ve been talking about all this time now i have an army to stand with me and me with them because we’re people aligned in positive action we know how to help each other and receive like a mother and birth things
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and grow them you know and masked i talk in similar maybe different words a master apprentice program well that’s what you’re talking about talk about education to take the wise old traditional knowledge from the hawaiians and marry it up with new technology to come out with a new integrated global presence being can you imagine the elevation of the hawaiian culture and all the things that we dream of so what’s good for hawaiians is good for the rest of the world but now just before so here now i’m
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looking at this and i say you and i we’re good dreamers and i’m trying to get the community to move and it’s like okay what’s in it for me what’s in it for me i want it now i want it now i don’t want to pay i want it now i want it now give it to me i deserve it where do we find it so now comes the fun part laws are like okay there’s this big joe and big joe owns 90 of the island or i’m making it just a name but and it wouldn’t even be a crumb for them but if they partnered
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with others in a certain way we could solve solve the housing problem we can deal with the fact of water if you’ve watched my shows or will you’ll see there are i have solutions and i’ve seen solutions i’m not the wizard of oz but i find and know people i’m i attract people that wanna take this beautiful maui and make it better show us how to do it in a way you know so that’s what’s needed to integrate into this government in seats like yours or in me and council because
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otherwise i watch the economic development people you you’ll talk about statements but here locally people come to him and want grants in certain categories everything is inside a box where the gov the county the government the state needs to reach out and have a division that establishes public-private partnerships more aggressively so that the money and the support comes from the public not the government the government’s supposed to be servants of the people we with the great ideas we’re not going to them for the money
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we have the money we have to encourage so go to mr 90 big joe and say hey big joe you own 90 of the island anyway what if the people in your community would benefit you don’t even have to move the money out of your account you can use it as credit in a loan that’ll allow you to partner with the construction people and partner with the with the homeowners and have equity sharing homes and we can do it in ecologically beneficial way i mean i’m just touching the surface so that’s where
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things like tax credits oh i’ve been talking about tax credits for three decades here and i’m still watching them spread spreadsheet and they start to be proud we’re putting solar in we’re good we’re talking about wind these are 30 year old ideas no one’s mentioned if you have columns of a certain height and width you can put crystals under it and generate power from gravity technology is not being explored because we have a limited and then i’ll let you go listen you’ve
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heard the expression i don’t like to swear too much but this is okay i hope sometimes it’s difficult to remember that your original intention is to drain the swamp when you’re up to your ass and alligators there are so many problems going on they’re talk we’re talking about these things but where is the money where do you get money and that’s what i’m going to give you a floor here to say where do you get the money and how do you get the public to say yes we feel that anger but that really is an
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anger that’s we want to get in action to make our lives better we have ideas and you all listen in uh like you’re the kings and queens in the government but we’re powered by the people you know so that mr big joe is now contributing to he’s getting richer while doing this and is able to help solve major problems here i i don’t know if it’s b you hear my you hear about these things now like mike atherton and the waikapu development first of all what does affordable mean is a whole other mystery of life right
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handful three things comes to mind the first thing that why i’m running for office is because change begins within before we look outside at someone else we’ve got to take a look at ourselves and what we’ve been telling our people and what the narrative has been for so long it’s been um there’s always there’s gonna be someone to save you like the statement now no one’s gonna save you no one’s gonna save us that’s why education reform is the high stressor of importance right now the next generation
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of youth are raised on indigenous knowledge they’re raised in modern technology they’re raised with the current issues we have unless we start generating the kind of smarts that we need to elevate maui to a higher vibrancy we’re going to end up with the same type of people making the same type of decisions and i myself have a capacity but these upcoming generations i worked in hawaiian immersion schools i worked in our public schools for the past 10 years i see what these kids can do in robotics in
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programming and engineering they’re way past most of the people who are running our departments right now as far as technical skills and know-how so what i’m saying we gotta look at our education first and out of that generating the brain power the smarts power and making our people feel like this is their home so they can take responsibility to come into it you talked about mother the the feminine dimension in hawaii it’s papa hanel moku she comes from the kumulipo the source out of
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unconsciousness lipo is the dark abyss but also symbolically unconsciousness hawaii has been on has been unconscious for so long but since this cultural revitalization movement we’re understanding that we’re coming into a new era the stating is that hawaii has been enlightened it has the answers because we’re the convergence of cultural ethnic national and we interact with the world’s superpowers why can’t we be world leaders why can’t we create our students to um bring international trade why can’t
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we have our students think and problem solve and how to program cryptocurrency for hawaiian um hawaiian determination movements why can’t we ask bigger questions instead we’re just trying to revive the old thing we’re looking at the same problem in the same way what needs to happen this new whole wave of divergent thinkers in our public schools or wherever they are right now is looking seeing all the same different solutions and asking different questions that’s what’s going
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to get out of this rut sometimes when i look at maui it looks like a museum we’re trying to preserve things and we’re just trying to make things go just enough but we have resources on the island and the best resource is you it’s me it’s our ohana here on this island we have the best of the best maui that means maui excel so what are we excelling in are we declining in old plantation politics movements where we give our power where monopolies and cohorts and monopolies and environmental
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capitalists take and make decisions for us or are we going to start raising up in leadership i know the department of agriculture has been trying to hire people all month i think they had four applications or something like that so it really starts before we look at the infra destruct the setting up infrastructure is our people ready for it and education reform we gotta maybe um think of ways we can put back woodworking hula lay making sports emphasize things that increase the capacity for our students to work
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together to collaborate because it said that students best learn from each other so why do we have somebody from somewhere else trying to teach our students who knows what when our students here they’re ready they’re willing we just have to fire them away we have to put them with mentors they’ll be able to shape and guide them into their calling and their gifting because if we can do that we’re going to be more powerful than we think actually it might scare the world because hawaii is going to be
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leading um i forgot where i was going with that well that was a good place hawaii’s gonna be leaving i can tell you though the one that always gets me is now we want to be able to create opportunity a global basis and yet where are the outlets what are the outlets i guess this internet and i mean that’s why i created a portal i mean i laugh when i see pundy sitting in stone there at the at the mac because we talk that’s how we talk mauiarts.org is the cultural center mauiartsonmusic.org
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that’s me well that’s not accidental that’s because we had a plan just because these people didn’t really listen all these years i interviewed them all but they just don’t really hear we were going to try to showcase maui’s art music and culture to the world of the world buy and that would raise money to supplement development important technologies to create our self-sustainability and fund the cultural center and have all the big venues along the island all aligned and
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none of that happened 30 years here you are didn’t happen well it’s happening but it happens in selfish pockets it’s not integrated coordinates not saying we’re an island community it’s saying i want this piece if i don’t want i’m gone i’m gonna take my piece and i’m gonna take this piece and i’m gonna come from the mainland and i’m gonna buy this piece and rent it back to you guys at a higher rate and justify it because i just bought it that way and drive the prices up and have no way for
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you to be able to do anything about it because it’s america land of the free and the home of the mighty well that’s what we’re talking about getting people here an alternative way to do it yeah so in the gov when i’m having you in the seat there in the state house here comes a bill that says um we want to do that’s what i’m looking for i’m looking for what kind of legislative things can really help these because i agree with everything you said i really honestly i i feel like i feel
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very supported as an old man that the youth of today and tomorrow have grown up and they are taking responsibility for the world that we dumped on them and excuse me how we we didn’t do it there are a few guys like me but you see the dollar replaces everything as the new god to so many people but now we have a chance to save it tax credits uh you know i wonder sometimes are you able to create if you’re out of state you know they do it in real estate if you buy and you’re from uh outside the country you pay this much
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and if you’re from outside the state you pay this much extra those kind of things now how can we do it to amplify a local solution maybe it’s a trade credit or some kind of legislation that you put in that when everyone has a paycheck of x they get a housing voucher and a food voucher that gives them the boost but then we have to look at well are we going to create something artificial that’s the thing that i’m looking at it’s like okay government is here how can the government help
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not just be there and then claim responsibility for making 1200 houses come in three years what about now we need houses now what about all these homeless people now there are all kinds of categories how about someone just sold their house and they now have nowhere to live because they don’t have four thousand dollars to rent a house or a two-bedroom in maui meadows there was a cottage thirty two hundred dollars wait a minute things are nutty so that’s the legislation i’m talking about for you and and i’m thinking
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that’s the power of a state role to me where you can legislation is the power of the purse that means that’s where the money comes from part of voting locally and voting for someone like me coming from this island we have the networks and connections and we’re on the ground running that means we know where the money can go to that will help the people who actually from here also that can what that is able to do we’re able to ask questions to international or foreign developers or private organizations that
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will hold them accountable as far as policy goes we know who’s doing the work and if we can direct resources distribute resources that’s the job wealth distribution then we can be able to raise the consciousness and awareness for the rest of the island that will might shift the paradigm from just getting by to i can create and innovate and right now you can i feel like the current government system sees things in a box they see it in a closed system and we know from the law of thermodynamics in closed systems things
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come into equilibrium that means they get static and flat what we need to do and we learned this from um game theory artificial intelligence theory is that we need to release our people to create and innovate and as they do that as we create um movements to learn to grow to fail to succeed collectively we sharpen ourselves and we come to a place that through harmonizing through relationships and through innovation we start flowing together when you put something in a closed system you have to work it out like clockwork every gear
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every nut and bolt has to be perfect one jam up that whole system falls down i think we spend a lot of resources in administration heavy type places and departments on working out a closed system but what we learned currently through these kind of theories and it’s been proven is we need to release our people to create and innovate and make mistakes and create all these types of different ways of innovation and it ends up flowing together for example they had this one test they want they wanted to
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teach vacuums how to vacuum a room so they had one group program the robot to map out the room but every time it hit a bump or hit a curb it made a mistake and it just glitched out the other group what they did is took a bunch of robots and just programmed them randomly and they programmed these robots randomly and as they were going and hitting each other they kind of figured it out on themselves and after a while they all started moving in sync with one another and if robots can do that i hope that us
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as humans can do that to beat the ai well i love that thought i wonder you know i say i wonder i’m glad you have that faith because i know that if we all link together we float if we keep doing this separate thing we sink and i sure do hope i really mean that i hope that the next generations are up to the task that you said because artificial intelligence can simulate perfect so easily it i don’t want to say discourages but it’s almost like people you don’t need to know how to multiply we got a calculator
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we don’t need to know the details we got to this i worry so i work you don’t need to plant your own food you don’t need to grow on your own food you don’t know you don’t need to know how to cook because these fast food companies from somewhere else are going to come over and provide it for you they’ll give you the gmo the mono crop for you they’ll give you the food that’s not filled with nutrients so that’s why i charge you a premium right but you know i am looking forward to
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seeing what you said is true i am great look when i 30 years ago said hey let’s do promote the art and culture and listen to this and this goes here and this goes here and we all can do it together and we will all thrive rising tide raises all ships i start to sound like a robot myself but you know what people have there’s lots of well i got mine i have mine well we have ours we are different than you we are protecting us because these people are going to do this to us so i hope i really i pray
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that the young people realize the that going wide together and being deep together and really doing what you said because if we do the self-sustainability thing and we all come together we are unstoppable we can do we can do it all i really do believe that i just am hoping that young people take the time to look for someone like yourself and see well there’s this young guy here you know you excuse this as an old 71 year old guy everyone’s young but you’re a you know a man with passion
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who has lived his life and realizes he wants to do public service and comes forward with tremendous enthusiasm and knowledge and i can tell you you have to do research to be able to stand up and bear the scrutiny because and you’re willing to do that i’m very happy that you came to see me what kind of stuff is like if if you were here we know your website and i’m gonna all the websites are gonna be sitting up there so we’ll be able to find you what’s the mo you know as you’re talking
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i hope i’ve kind of made it unusual in that i don’t have a set of questions and i’m not asking about a specific bill that’s on the table i’m sure that you like i when you have something that you have to deal with you then jump in and see the detail right but you have the capacity to look doubles into details but you have the capacity that’s what you’re showing us now one of those three minute clips wouldn’t have given people the passion you know i’m just as me talking which is why i
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went for this long interview form because i really think that that’s how they’re gonna see if they listen you know like you said when someone goes told me oh no no no no more 12 seconds now you only have eight seconds they’re going to be on your page eight seconds if they don’t get excited in eight seconds they’re gone but i’m the long form the one that says look it’s good that you’ve stayed all this time because you can see where i get angry you can see where i have a hole in
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my head and i you can imagine you’ve spoken to people that after a while they’re so comfortable they show you who they are you know and that’s that’s it may sound like a funny thing but it’s to me it’s a chance that i hope that candidates their passion i can see you are passionate and you are there to do a job am i wrong or you sound like you you want to do this for everyone you’re there’s what you said in hawaiian uh the word is pili mekahanona that means inter-generational transmission we need
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everybody to do this and another proverb in hawaiian is nana ike look to the source so it’s not like i’m making this stuff up if you are at all up to date with hawaiian history and what the hawaiian kingdom was previous to what happened hawaii was leading an innovation and technology it had light before the white house it had progressive as far as women of color leading the country that no there was no slaves allowed on this island they were doing international trade they had world currencies hawaii
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was at its leading cutting edge until a group of cohort monopolies environmental capitalists came in and thought they had the they they were the great i am so what i’m trying to get away is this anthropocentric view the view of ego saying that i have or as humans we have the answers but that’s our state model the law is in the land we have to look at what the aina provides aina means what sustains you so you gotta ask yourself the question what’s sustaining you and what’s your kuleana the kuleana
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if you want to know what a website to go to to find or check things out is www.register to vote hawaii that’s not the website but you get what i’m saying we need everyone as our level of consciousness rises up we’re going to have to do concrete actions we’re going to have to register to vote i’m going to have to talk about concrete things like we shouldn’t spray glyphosate on our state roads next to public schools because it’s going to affect our youth and our kids we should
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we should put red um we should highlight curbs next to old folks homes because they’re tripping and falling and 74 of those falls end up in depth so being macro and micro we’re gonna have to shift gears we’re gonna have to start coming up with common terminology because if we don’t the the flood of globalization is gonna hit hawaii and our people is not will not know what to do we’re already seeing what they’re doing they’re going to vegas they’re going off the islands
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and they’re learning more about hawaiian culture in these places like arizona state prison than actually here at home one of the last things i want to say is we need our people to stop pulling each other down it’s that crab mentality as the crab climbs up the bucket when crab pulls each other down we need to just feel free to make mistakes and but still have that accountability so that’s the pili mecca hanona the inter-transmissional generation transmission where youth and older people are holding each other
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accountable but also helping each other to grow you’re in district what five district nine kahului mauilani sandhills okay i’m hoping that our viewers will uh realize you are in a district so you’re out there trying to meet everybody i hope that you’ll use this if you can to put out to people because i know that people will be very happy to have gotten up close and personal with you sam you’re a passionate young man i very much appreciate you joining me here i know this is a little unusual that i’m a
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candidate what question would you ask me if you’re gonna vote for me right i’m what’s important that i can answer for you if you had all the resources that you needed what would you do if i had all the resources i would declare the state of emergency and provide minimum housing and safe area that would be my first move to help people off the street and find them into programs that they can be gainful and feel a little self-respect and put them into the housing program as we develop it it is extremely under
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resourced doesn’t have enough people but i believe that’s the thing that i would do first empower the people that are hurting to help each other and themselves by giving them a clean and fair place to start that process until all these programs are happening that’s the first thing i do second thing i do i mean i my big list is i would you know there’s a word called eminent domain that’s a very funny word it means we’re the government we like that piece it’s essential
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we take it i like the power of admin domain to be a good influence on those that do have that we don’t want to take their land we’d like them to partner with us so i would be much more aggressive in creating solutions by getting the i want to say the deep pocket by having those that have to encouraging them to share willingly like jesus was talking when in rome give the romans what they want we got something else going on and that’s we want an effect give the power if they want power what a
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beautiful thing we can praise them you want to build a parking lot or a playground let’s have a music concert and tell them hey you guys are brilliant you just raised the money to build this playground whatever it takes we are coming upon a time when the people in our offices i think i sure talk a lot they need to feel like you have this uh i love do you feel like i feel this urgency in you the passion the wisdom and even just the images behind you you can tell you’re full of art and music
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and creativity it’s like you’re trying to bridge 30 years it’s time you know it’s like this is the time how long do i have to wait until i say i’m gonna run again and now maui having seen all these things i keep showing you and you see there are people like sam and we have a culture of people ready to really embrace the hawaiian culture and have them come back and integrate here and even before one talks about ownership what do we own we’re all users of this land let’s nourish and use the land as
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our base and survive and thrive that’s how i i know that’s sort of a big wide thing and that way i can serve you so when you’re in the state you know that locally you’re going to be supported when you passing important issues the people here are listening to what you’re saying and trying to create the runway so your programs are more effective that’s what i would say my little question i have i am over the top and i know i’m over the top but it’s only because i’ve
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watched the people i talked to people on these shows about ideas and then they don’t do them they don’t even explore them they’re back to that old way and i want to you know blow up remember when jack in the box blew up the clown they had that campaign about their little clown outside we need to forget that there’s a box there is no box in all the quantum theories everything’s more connected than you think well i’m going to give you the floor if you’ll want to say a closing
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statement i know that i’m all over the map but i i know that a candidate yourself may want to deliver a message in your way and i want to give you the room for that no you’re not all over the map i feel that you’re making connections where the connections need to be and you’re bringing new life into it and vibrancy and if we don’t do that we’re going to lose generations we’re going to lose time we’re going to live in lose lots of information that is so important to maui
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for right now as far as closing statement i have this tagline think global act local so thinking globally means honoring the human heritage of all nations ethnic groups cultures and tongues and understanding that we get to by default inherit these things as a human race and act locally meaning we put those things practiced regionally what the native hawaiians do is the ahupua system it’s a way of sustainability and management that’s dependent on region so living in this time and space we need to be able
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to collect all of what we know as the human species invent and create and innovate modern technology so that we can have a mutually exchanged relationship with earth with mountain to see they call it the biosphere which is the whole thing that makes up where we’re living in and my hope my prayer my policies will emphasize that we need to take off just one lens of looking at things and we need to have a holistic view of looking at governance we have to have holistic societies rather than anthropocentric societies
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well all you old people you don’t know what anthropocentric means but you will learn because people like sam are going to be bringing up your knowledge base sam thank you for really joining me here it’s really been a pleasure my pleasure i i know it’s early in the election season but i know that we are on august 13th primary i don’t know if that’ll affect you based on numbers of people in the race but you’re a pleasure to speak to and i hope that our audience takes serious
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consideration of sam peralta good candidate thank you thank you for joining me i hope if ever you want to come back again you’re always welcome we’re always in this together because we’re doing it together to make that difference thank you and thank you guys out there for watching the neutral zone mauineutralzone.com it’s anything but neutral but we’re not carrying a sword we’re looking to have a basket to see what we can put together and uh this is the kind of interview that
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inspires me and i hope inspires you thank you for joining us everyone see you again aloha [Music] you
