 Women's March that took place this past Saturday. And what we'll be doing and looking forward to beyond the March. Hi, welcome, Michael. Well, I thank you for having me. Oh, it's wonderful to have you here. And so timely, right after the March took place a few days ago, here in Honolulu, as well as in numerous cities across 50 states and I think all five continents. We hit all seven continents. Seven continents. Seven continents, yes. The great thing about this whole Women's March is that it actually started here in Hawaii with Teresa Shook. She went to bed on November 8th, like many of us, to spate at the results of the national election, just learning how to do a Facebook event on Pansuit Nation, set it up, went to bed with 40 people saying, oh, I want to go. She woke up the next morning with 10,000 people saying, I'll meet you there. And Facebook shut it down because they have a 10,000 person cap on an individual. And they wanted to make sure this was a real thing. And it was. And you saw the seeds of this wonderful woman, Teresa, from Hana Maui, who had an idea that blossomed into this circle of aloha that encapsulated the entire globe because we had marches from New Zealand, Australia, all around the world, and back here to Hawaii. And we got to start the idea here in Hawaii. And we encapsulated the globe in aloha. And then we also got to close out the marches because we were the last marches that took place. That's great. Yeah, that's a great way to think about it. I didn't think about it that way, that it was conceived here. And then we were the last march in the world, given our time zone. Exactly. And it just worked out that way. And everybody's like, oh, so you ended it there. I go, no, we ended the marches. And we're working forward to other things. But if we look at what we did here in Hawaii, it's amazing. The amazing turnout, the people that opened their hearts, their wallets to all the different sister marches, as we call them, across the state. We had something on Kauai. Almost 2,000 people showed up there. We had over 10,000 people show up here in Honolulu. And in Molakai, almost 200 people there. Maui, we had 5,000 at the UH Maui campus there. And then in Hana, they had something there as well. Almost 300 people there. And then in the big island, you had Kona with almost 5,000 people there. And Hilo, over 2,000 people showing up there. These are numbers you just don't hear. It was from a grassroots level up. We had no money to buy buses or get buses. People had to show up under their own power. And we didn't have the greatest weather on Saturday. But the determination you saw, that people showed up, they brought their families. You looked out into the crowds and the pictures. If you go to our Facebook page, you'll see all the different pictures. Those pictures show, look like Hawaii. It is the diversity of Hawaii shows up at our marches, showed up at all of them across the state. So this was a local-born idea that was embraced with aloha by everybody. And we could not be prouder of our state and our wonderful coordinators across the state, across the world. Last time I checked, we were at 672 sister marches around the world, with almost 5 million people participating. Yes, I'm really happy to have you here, because you played an important role in producing the march here in Honolulu and supporting the march, sending some of our members from Hawaii to the DC march. And so tell us a bit about the organizing, the genus. What inspired it? What inspired it was the Theresa Shooks Facebook post. And then it just began organically. It just went organically from there. The national team was led by accidental activists. None of our national team really had any background in activism work. But they all came together and they worked as a close-knit team. And it just shows across the board and everything that there was a lot of thought and caring and consideration, making sure that, yes, this was the women's march led by women, but to include everybody and making sure nobody felt left out across the board. So here in Hawaii, our leader at the time was Sherri Campania, who's our state coordinator. I've known her husband for years. And I called her up when I heard that she was in charge. And I said, how can I help? And next thing I know, I'm producing O'ahu, helping out where I can with the Neighbor Islands and providing graphic support to our O'ahu, to our Hawaii, O'Hana, that went to DC. We had over 200 people from Hawaii that traveled under their own dime now, mind you, to march on Washington to represent Hawaii. Oh, it's pretty incredible. And so everybody was inspired by Theresa's message and wanting to be inclusive, so bringing up not just women's issues, although it was, I mean, there was concern about gender-related issues and how some of the new administration positions might affect women, but also trying to be very inclusive of some other areas that might be affected. Oh, definitely, making sure that, because people think, oh, it's just women's issues, but I'm like, there's no planet, there are no women. So the environment, economic justice, making sure that we look out for each other. And so we made sure here in Hawaii, and you also, if you watched the videos from the speeches at NDC, is that it was a very inclusive, very pro-issue. This wasn't an anti... There were anti-signs out there, absolutely. But this was very much a concerted effort, making sure that people understood that we were talking about the issues and not about the person, that we were on our organizational level, that we made sure that everybody who had something to say, that wanted something to say, had a chance here in whole, almost at every stage, had a chance to get up there and have their voices heard. And some people didn't, you're not gonna agree with everything that everybody's gonna say, and that's okay. But we did our best to make sure everybody was respected, and we gave them the opportunity to have their voices heard. And I think it showed in the fact that there was not one arrest, and all those 600 plus, almost 700 barges across the globe, nobody got arrested, there was no fights, there was no nothing. And I think it all comes back to the fact that the positive message and the reason that Teresa started the whole thing about making sure that it was a message of aloha, a message of love, a message of concern for each other, and making sure that we are looking out for one another. And I believe that is what helped make sure that each and every one of those marches were so safe and inviting. And very inclusive, I guess that's one of the themes that we seem to see out of it. And it's great that a man, you are part of the organizing team, and also have seen so many men out there in the march. It was called a women's march, but true to the theme, it wasn't limited to that particular group. Oh yeah, we kept getting messages on Facebook, oh, can my husband come? Can my brother come? And we're like, yes, of course. We put in all our stuff, this is a women's march, but it's open to anyone that supports women's rights. And that was basically the bar we set. As long as you support women's rights, whatever that means to you, we didn't put a definer on that. We didn't have, it's a free speech. We marched under the free speech, while using the First Amendment while we still can, making sure that people had the right to whatever sign they wanted, whatever message they wanted to get out. And we didn't see some of the nasty signs or that some people were worried about. There was some very clever artwork up there. And we're really happy to announce that Museum, which is the museum there in DC, is now collecting the signs from asking everybody to collect signs from your state to represent your state, they're gonna do a collection. And so we put the call out today, for those that actually had signs that lasted in the weather here in Oahu, and we're gonna work with our coordinators on the neighbor islands to make sure that Hawaii is represented there. And figure out what we do with the other signs, because we wanna make sure that people remember this, and remember the differences of opinions that were out there, how inclusive it was and how everybody's creativity came out. And there was a lot of love and cheekiness in the signs, and that's just great, and so. It was, yeah, there were some fun, interesting and very clever ones. And were you, was Teresa and you and others who were organizing here in our state, were you surprised at the turnout here and beyond around the world? In my conversation with Teresa, yes, she was surprised at the total global totality of the event, how people embraced her idea. Us here in Oahu, me and the co-chairs, we were watching the metrics, especially me being watching the logistics, making sure we were prepared for it, and we just see the numbers going up. We used Eventbrite to make sure, to see how many people, there were free tickets, but helping us gauge our turnout on Facebook. And I was thinking we'd get six to 7,000, maybe eight. I was blown away at the fact that we were able to wrap the entire route, which is a one mile route, almost one and a half times, because you saw the front of the march come in, and I look back and at the end of the march, and there's at least a couple thousand people left to get back on that march route. And I know my cohorts on Maui, Robin, and Cat on Hilo, and Luli, and Kona, they were just blown away by the numbers, and Emily and Paul over there in Kauai, that they were blown away as well, that their turnout was historic. And we also saw people come out and march in Molokai? Molokai, they had, their march came online at Thursday before the march, and they had 200 people. Two days before the march? Two days before the march, and it just shows the openness and acceptance and the people want to have their voices heard and that they want to make a stand. The importance of sending this message on the new administration's first day in office, full first day that we are here, we are part of this country, and our concerns need to be your concerns. And if you are not going to answer to us, we will be there to make sure you hear us. So part of it was concerned that there might be some people who might not be represented effectively, you think? Oh, definitely. This administration, I have yet to hear one inclusive person to be part of the new administration. And so I think that was part of the impetus that got so many people out. They saw his cabinet picks. They saw the things, and then in the first day his executive orders, I think got a bunch of people also riled up to make sure that they showed up and made sure their voices were heard. And so that now the big goal is how do we harness that to move forward? And we have some plans on that, which I will share in our next segment. That's great. And so far, what do you think the effect has been on these marches? The effect so far has been one of hope, is giving people hope, is giving people a reason to think beyond tomorrow, think look to the future, that we can survive this if we stand together. We stand united against his policies of discrimination and bigotry and disregard for our environment. That if we stand together, we can make a difference and we can hold everybody accountable from the new federal administration to our local government that just started with the legislative session, that we hope that they pay attention, that people came out and we wanna see them pass laws that impudiate everything that the Trump administration is doing. Okay, thank you, Michael. All right, so I'm Grace Chang, your host for Global Connections with Michael Goliw and we'll be back in a minute. I'm Kaui Lucas, host of Hawaii Is My Mainland every Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii. I also have a blog of the same name at kauilukas.com where you can see all of my past shows. Join me this Friday and every Friday at 3 p.m., aloha. Aloha, my name is Richard Emory, host of Kondo Insider. More than a third of Hawaii's population live in some form of association. And our show is all about educating board members and owners about their responsibilities and obligations and providing solutions for a great association. You can watch me live on Thursdays, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. each week, aloha. Aloha and happy new year. It's 2017. Please keep up with me on Power Up Hawaii where Hawaii comes together to talk about a clean and just energy future. Please join me on Tuesdays at one o'clock. Mahalo. I'm your host, Grace Chang, here with Michael Goliou, and we're talking about the Women's March that took place this Saturday here in Hawaii and across the globe. And we're also gonna be talking about what to expect next. So welcome back, Michael. Hi, thank you. That's the big question, what's next? And everybody's like thinking, oh, the march was the end. The march wasn't the end or even a beginning. It's a continuation of a struggle that's been going on for eons. I believe it's a reinvigoration of fights for civil rights, fights for ensuring that women are treated equally across the board. But what's next is we encourage everybody to go to our new website. It's womensmarchhawai.com. You'll see we have a list of action items there from National that's 100 days, 10 action items to take. And it's there, so people don't get burnt out. We have some very new activists involved and we want to make sure that they know what they can do to make a difference, to have their voices heard, but also at the same time not to get, oh my God, do everything at once and just get burnt out and not be there. Cause we have, well, less than four years now of the new administration, but to make sure that we're there. And we also have added that to our own things here locally. One of the things we're encouraging people to do is sign up for our email list. And there's a link right there on our front page, womensmarchhawai.com. Click on that, sign up for the, you'll get email alerts from us. We encourage people, we have wonderful shirts still for sale from all the different marches. They're only available for a limited time. You purchase those, that's how we funded a lot of March. Almost half of our, over half of our, actually, almost three, half of our March was funded by the profits from t-shirt sales from Bonfire. And the other one was donations. And we had donations from as little as $5 and we had a couple of thousand dollar donations and more. But those were, it was, it basically cost us like way, way too much to put on the March. But we did it in a way that people were able to see here and go to the bathroom. Those are three things that you can do. Very important. Those are important things. And it's no small task to be able to take, to make sure we were able to plan properly to take care of everybody's needs. And we did our best. But that, I think that carrying in that shows that we were gonna care about the March. We're gonna care about them as we move forward. Also on the website, you'll find our supporting organizations. We had, for Oahu, we had over 55 different supporting organizations when it was all sold. Oh really? And we're putting, we're gonna be listing, we have them, the ones that have given us call to actions right now. We're listing them on our website. The website's in flux. It's, we're in the process of building it out, flushing it out. In the end, we wanna view it as a resource for everybody, not just women, but with an emphasis on women's needs and women organizations where they can turn to for help. Or they can turn to, I wanna help, who needs help? And they find the organization that they wanna help out with. Cause if you're really invested in an organization, you're invested in their mission, you're gonna be a long time volunteer or supporter of that group. So we have a bunch of different ones already listed there with their call to actions. But in the end, we're gonna have pages set up for each island, cause we are now a statewide organization with our people on each of the different islands as our touchstones and our coordinators there to make sure that we're able to organize for the next steps to, cause the next big thing we're looking at is, I guess, International Women's Day on March 8th. And we're gonna, we're working to have an event on every island to recognize that and to make sure that, and to keep people looking towards the next thing. And we realize that we can't do it all. We're not gonna try to do it all. We're gonna support our supporting organizations and try to get the word out and support them and do what we can to help keep the momentum going forward. One of the other things we're in the process of doing is the bill cutoff was yesterday, I believe, and we're putting together, we're looking at all the bills and seeing which bills we can support, which bills we are gonna oppose, and it'll let people know. And those, and get all these wonderful people that are, that supported us during the marches engaged in a legislative process. Let their legislators know where they stand on these issues and make sure our supporters know our Ohana, know who, that they know, their elected officials need to know who they are and what they support and that they vote and that they're going to be there and they're gonna keep an eye on them. We're gonna hold them accountable. We're gonna hold everybody accountable. We're gonna do our best to hold the federal government, but we're also gonna hold them accountable too to make sure that women have full access to reproductive care, that we're looking at universal healthcare. We're looking at equal pay for equal work. We're looking at the issues, the environment. So we, to make sure that we leave this planet better than we found it and we have an organization and a structure that will live beyond the march, live beyond hopefully us in the core group. I've mentioned a few names. There's like, Sherry Campanas was the touchstone with the nationals. She reached out to them. They brought her on board and then Sherry reached out to a bunch of the rest of us that myself included Amelia from Moloka'i, Carrie from Seeds of Peace. There's an amazing group of women that I've been having the honor to work with and someone goes, how does it feel to be the only guy in the room? And I'm like, I've been the only guy in certain, a lot of rooms that I've worked with and strong people, strong men surround themselves with strong women and you should not be afraid. It's a unique experience. And if any man out there has not had the opportunity to work with a bunch of women, they need to get out there and do it because women have been forced to be the only woman in the room before and not take over and not control but be a collaborative partner and help when they can. That's interesting. People are still very gender aware but yeah, in everyday life, yeah, many, many groups are very male dominated and women navigate that every day but I think we all can support these causes. It's not like only women can support women's rights or Americans, only it's for American rights. We wanna support rights for people around the world. Exactly, and that brings up the gag order that they passed saying that no American funds can be used to even talk about abortion around the world with them and that has repercussions. That will have global repercussions for women everywhere and so it's being able to figure out what we can do to counteract that and making sure so. Yeah, this is the policy that President Trump just signed that would limit funds for reproductive and other medical services for women where they even speak about contraception. Abortion or even family planning. That's how bad it is and you notice how they never talk about men's reproductive rights. It's always they're going after the women and they figure, I think that the new administration made the mistake of thinking, oh, I'm gonna pick on women and I think women spoke back in huge ways on Saturday saying we're not gonna let you do that. So doubly important then for the women's march and other associated groups, definitely you all probably are watching this and saying, okay, the march really shouldn't be the end. Oh, and definitely isn't and that's why we encourage everybody to go to our website again, women'smarchehawaii.com to get engaged. Go to our Facebook page. We are putting out action or it's daily right now. There's so much to be done. Our different support organizations have a lot of things coming up, especially with the legislative session coming that we need to make sure that they put forth a progressive, liberal, protective barrier for Hawaii that says the message to the new administration that Hawaii will take care of our own if you won't take care of us. That we need a living wage. We need to make sure that everybody has access to healthcare and we may have led the nation but we need to lead again when it comes to healthcare and taking care of each other. And that is what my hope is, me personally, my hope is from this legislative session that every bill they pass that the legislators think about, who does this help? How does this protect us? How does this protect all of us, especially the least amongst us? So this is one of the lingering effects of the march. I mean, the organizing for it seemed to come together quite quickly and it's also left an organizational structure that you've just been talking about as far as the women's march organization being the clearinghouse for all these different groups that are involved, the actions that they're taking and the information sharing. And if anybody watching out there was part of an organization that maybe you didn't support the march for some wineries or another, you can still come on board now, get us your information. You can email us at women'smarchhawaii at gmail.com and we will put your information up there. Like I said, we're not limited to just women's rights, economic justice, environment, everything. We need to take care of each other and making sure that we're all working together because we are stronger together. Yeah, and it seems, it's pretty impressive how quickly this kind of got together because I think many of us who observe politics regularly feel like a lot of Americans can be quite apathetic but this was surprising as far as the numbers is how many people were willing to come out, bear the weather, the parking, the traffic and come and that, yeah, so many organizations were in place but now are kind of still being very active and very watchful. Oh yeah, we were blown away because the demographics, we had the one sign, baby's first protest. We had a group of, our capuna show up for the handyman, they came from their services, this is home, very rowdy group, I hope I have that much energy when I'm their age. We had people in walkers, wheelchairs, scooters, in strollers, in backpacks. It was truly a people's march led by women. All right. And it was, again, one of the safest things I've ever participated with or ever worked on and it was worth only getting four hours of sleep at night for the last two months to make sure it happened. I like the way you put that. It was a people's march led by women but yeah, so we saw everybody come out in many different issues. They're gonna be embraced and hopefully advanced and get some momentum. We hear the scientists are planning a march in DC and March, LBGTY are also planning events. So this kind of idea of marching and organizing I think is really thanks to one of our Kama'aina sisters in Hanna, so great for Hawaii and the Aloha spread. Thank you so much for coming on the program, Michael. Well, thank you for having me and I appreciate that. All right. All right, hope to see you again. Okay. Okay, thank you for joining us today. I'm Grace Cheng, your host at Global Connection. So I'll see you here every Thursday at 1 p.m. Aloha.