Here’s one of my favorite photos taken February 28, 1976. Fifty years ago. This for the younger generations who think the opposition to the military control of Makua is a recent phenomenon.
Following a day-long rally across the highway on Saturday, Feb. 28, a group entered property, proceeded past a large Army warning sign, and planted a protest flag. Some of the kids in that photo are grandparents today and might recall their participation.
Here’s a bit of forgotten Honolulu political history from an unusual source–a series of photographs take by an Army photographer in 1970. These few small snapshots were given to me decades later by friend who turned out to have been a member of the Hawaii Armed Services Police at the time.
The story: In November 1970, a 26-year old soldier on R&R in Honolulu went went AWOL and publicly announced he would not return to active duty in Vietnam because of his religious convictions.
Gerald LePage, originally from Connecticut, contacted a local peace group, catholic Action of Hawaii, immediately after arriving in the islands. He then went “underground” with the assistance of catholic Action members, but announced his intention to turn himself in to authorities within 30 days to avoid his absence being considered desertion, which would be punished by much harsher penalties.
This was not Hawaii’s first experience with sanctuary and dissent by active duty military personnel. Dozens of soldiers had taken sanctuary at the Church of the Crossroads in August 1969 to protest the war, and held out until the church was raided by about 40 military police on September 12.
After a month “underground,” LePage publicly announced he would attend a Christmas Eve service at the Wesley Foundation on University Avenue near the University of Hawaii campus, and then turn himself in to HASP at the U.S. Army Military Reservation at Fort DeRussy, located at the edge of Waikiki.
Following the church service, LePage was being driven to DeRussy followed by a caravan of supporters when military police stopped the group along McCully Street within sight of their destination.
Although the photographs I received were not in very good condition, they provide a candid look at this moment in Hawaii’s movement in support of peace and nonviolence. I’m the bearded guy in this photo, with prominent activist and author Emmett Cahill standing just behind me.
A number of other prominent activists during that period can be seen in this and other photos in the series.
Las Vegas, February 1987.
Given the date, I believe we were in Las Vegas for the annual meetings of the Western Society of Criminology. Vegas was a favorite spot of conference organizers at that time because hotel rooms and meals were inexpensive, as the prime rib meal advertised on the billboard for $3.99 shows.
That was about the time Meda started collaborating with Professor Randy Shelden at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. A few years later, they co-authored a book that has become known as a “foundational text” in the scholarly literature around juvenile justice (Girls, delinquency, and juvenile justice). It won the American Society of Criminology’s Michael J. Hindelang Award in 1992, only the second year the award was given, for its contribution to the field of criminology. It was just one of the publications that emerged from their collaboration over a period of years.Randy retired just last year. He passed away on June 19th after suffering a stroke. Randy had a long teaching career at UNLV and was a prolific author of many books and scholarly articles.
I didn’t get this done on Thursday, so those of you on the east coast are going to get this a little late. Cat lovers in Hawaii or the western states will be greeted by our Kahala Four relatively early on Friday morning.
I have spent much of the week getting ready for my chemotherapy and immunotherapy to begin next week.
The cats have noticed the tinge of anxiety in the air as I’ve been trying to figure out what to pack in my travel kit necessary to see me through my first five hour infusion session.
Meanwhile, The Box continues to be a cat magnet. Our first two cats had a Sony box with a lid they could hide behind, and the two would have mock battles, one stationed outside and the other inside, with that box taking almost all of the blows from both sides.
This Amazon box is different. It’s a place of serenity, and cats settle in for a while, then rotate through it over the course of the day. Ripping up the brown packing paper is still one of Kali’s favorite things. And occasionally the box becomes part of a display of Zoomies. One day this week it was pushed over by the front door, pieces of brown paper strewn across the floor, and the door mat upside down covering much of the box. I suspect Kiko, but have no proof.
In any case, here are the cats!
