 This is Think Tech Hawaii. Community matters here. Aloha. I'm Tim Apachele, your host for our new show, What's on Your Mind Hawaii? Today's show, we hit the streets and we hit the beach park to discuss the topic of Honolulu's World War I Memorial Nanatorium and the end of 2017 and the start of 2018. For this new show, we invite you to contact Think Tech Hawaii and let us know there's something that's important on your mind. I'd love to hear from you. So let's enjoy the new year and let's enjoy Hawaii, this tropical paradise. Aloha. Here with Mark and Mark, you're from Vancouver, Canada. From Vancouver and just visiting in the Honolulu Waikiki area for about a month, my wife and I. Great. Well, welcome. And Aloha. And we're talking about what to do with the World War I Memorial. And you shared some thoughts before we came here on this interview spot. And so I'd like you to share a couple of those thoughts with me. Mahalo, Tim. Well, I guess it's kind of interesting that my wife and I were just talking about the memorial as we were walking up here. And we're wondering just, you know, kind of how long it's been since it was in operation because it looked like it was some sort of a public pool, maybe. You can obviously see the seats, you know, from a far. But when, you know, you told me that it's been a sort of a bit of a bone of contention for four decades now. I'd like to see something like this that obviously is a memorial to, in this case, I think it's the Great War you were saying World War I. I think the meshing of just current day people and activities and bringing people into a space, especially a space that has memorial is what I personally would like to see. Because I think there's no better recognition of sort of the ultimate sacrifice and all the sacrifices that everyone made in every war than just having people living their lives enjoying what, you know, what basically they've been given, which is a great location. And yeah, and I hope, you know, I hope Honolulu and the county are able to do something with it. Yeah, it has been very frustrating because you just you just hit it right perfectly is that this has been a war memorial. And for 40 years, it's remained closed and it's just over time slowly and slowly deteriorated. And I think that that upsets not only the veterans of this state, but also veterans everywhere that come to visit. And certainly those that have lived in Hawaii for many, many years, it's it's got to be kind of a point of shame that this thing is just deteriorated over time. Now, there's there's thoughts that not only would this be converted to a pool but or restored back to a pool, but also the idea of this being a volleyball court. I believe Tom Selleck suggested that about 40 years ago when he was playing volleyball before he became an actor, or so just restored back to a beach. So you think a pool is what you thought. Well, I think anything that involves human activity and will draw people to the area. There's no shortage of people in this area just because of the beautiful beaches and the stuff that nature's already given. But I think the fact that all ages could could make use of the pool and or volleyball court just something that's active that celebrating life at the same time paying respects to, you know, the sacrifices that were given in in in this case the first World War. Well, I think a lot of people here would agree with you and I want to thank you very much for sharing your thoughts. And Aloha and have a good stay and Merry Christmas. Happy New Year, Tim. And it was a pleasure. Thank you. This is Tim Apachella. What's on your mind? Hawaii. Jim and we're here in front of the Nanatorium World War One Memorial. Jim, you've been here for a long time here. She said in 1975. You're from New York. What do you think they should do with the Nanatorium here? Well, it just took too long. They just let it fall apart. I think the last thing would make it a pool. I wanted a beach volleyball like Tom Selleck said 40 years ago, but everybody laughed at him because they didn't think the beach volleyball will be Olympic sport. Here it is 40 years later. It's an Olympic sport. I don't know. I don't know if they should rip it down or do something, but just get the beach back to the people. Now the mayor just before Christmas came out and said that you have, you know, definite plans. They want to get this thing moving and it's been 40 years and this thing hasn't gone anywhere. One of the proposals is to restore it back to its natural state, which was a swimming pool. There was serious discussion about turning it into a volleyball court. What would you prefer? Well, I think the EPA stopped it from a swimming pool because any water coming from a pool back to the ocean has to be clarinated. And that's not the way this thing is. The water surges in, the surges out. So I don't know, making a pool would be very expensive. Now when they closed this in 1978, I believe they cited the reason for it was that there was a bacteria issue, that the water wasn't circulating enough and the bacteria counts were growing. And that was the primary reason for shutting it down. Do you remember why they shut it down back in 78? I think they're saying that, that was a reason, but I think the Environmental Protection Agency said that any water coming from a pool going back into the ocean has to be purified. It has to be clarinated. You can't dump water. I don't think the fish would appreciate any chlorine going through their gills. That's what stopped it because an actual pool has to, can't dump pool water back into the ocean unless you purify it. So you think Tom Salk might have the idea? Yeah, but I don't know. I don't, I don't want, I swim every day, seven days a week and I just want my swimming. So if you had any, any recommendations for the mayor's office or the city council members, how would you counsel them? Just stop disagreeing, man, you know, they disagree on everything. Anybody, anybody wants anything? Well, Fosse had the rail from Waianae to Hawaii. They turned it down. They got the viaduct. They turned it down. For what reason? Who knows? And then they say vote Fosse. I'm the only guy in my union who votes the way I vote. So we've had a whole line of politicians attempt to get this thing going and nothing's come of it. You think there's something in the water that happens that no one can make a decision? Or you think just people just like to discuss things to the fact that it can't get done? It's just everybody thinks their view and it's all negative and you can't do it. Then when they finally get it, then the city council gets in and then they go and vote against it. And then it's not my constituents. It's not this. It's just, it's an island's way. It's just the way it is here in Hawaii. If you don't like it, you leave. If you don't like it, you stay. You've obviously stayed. What do you think if they just say we're going to keep the arch and we're just going to take the rest of it down and we're going to just be a natural beach? That would be nice. Yeah. I think there's these little jetties out. The Corps of Engineers is the problem. They don't like jetties. So like a Hawaii kite, they wouldn't let them put a stone jetty in. So they put a cloth fabric jetty. They said jetty is the beach is still there because the jetty is there. So why don't they put a stone jetty? It was just an article in the news today about the fact that these seawalls actually cause a severe erosion on both sides of where the seawall has been put in. Now jetty is a little different, but it's still, in a sense, a seawall. What did they do to Al Riga? Al Riga had a jetty, a little jetty out there. They said it wasn't there, the Corps, so they made him take it out and the Elks lost their sandy beach and they lost their sandy beach. So they pacified the law and everybody lost their beach. Right. Okay. Well, hey, Jim, I want to thank you very much for sharing your opinion and I hope someone's listening to you and I certainly hope the mayor's office and the city council's, you know, they'll tune into the show and actually hear your voice and do something about it. Aloha. Don't send me any threatening letters though. No threatening letters. No threatening letters. Thank you much. Happy New Year to you. Aloha. What's on your mind, Hawaii? I'm here with Alfred. We're at Alamoana Park and Alfred. Hi. Hi. How are you doing? Fine. Good. Okay, Alfred, what's your hope for 2018? 2019, I think hope to be a great year for all economics issues that we've been trying to make better since 2017. For the family, we hope to get together more and have a great time and meeting each other, you know. And for Hawaii, again, you know, the bright sunshine and good people continue to forest in this place so that we can come back to this place and visit more. Are you visiting? Yes, I'm visiting from Malaysia. And you're having a good time? Yeah, we're having a great time. You know, this place is amazing. What do you like about Hawaii? Well, firstly, the sunshine and the cool, nice, cool windy weather is amazing. And the people, the friendliness and the water is everything scenic and, you know, it's a fusion of everything, you know. This place has it all, you know. Not too hot? Not too cold? Well, you have some places, I mean, like on the North Shore, you know, it's a little bit windy. You know, the wind can be a bit chilly, you know. And then up on the hill, you know, you get really nice, cool breeze there and back here in Waikiki or near the Magic Island area. You get a little bit warmer and all that. It's very nice. It's nice. How did 2017 work out for you? Was it a good year for you and your family? Well, 2017 was fine. It could have been better, yeah. How way? In what way? Well, we could have done a little bit more in terms of trying to get some things to work for the house and all that kind of things, you know. Well, it didn't work out so well. Maybe the plan just didn't plan, you know, go accordingly. It doesn't matter where you live. The house owns you. You don't own the house, right? Exactly, exactly. We still go back to the same place, you know. We'll try to make that better next year, you know. That's the hope for it, yeah. So if you had a hope for the world for 2018, what might it be? Peace, definitely. Peace? You'd like to have more peace, you see. I think everyone would like to have the same. I think that's a great wish for 2018. And Alfred, I want to thank you very much for sharing your time with us. Thank you. And what's on your mind in Hawaii? Appreciate your time too. Thank you. Thank you very much, team. Aloha. We'll see you soon. Yeah. You can be the greatest. You can be the best. You can be the king. Come play and now your chest. You can be the world. You can be the war. You could talk to God. Don't bang it on his door. Tim Bapachelo, what's on your mind? Hawaii. I'm here with Ryan. Ryan, we're going to talk about the past year and the new year coming up. So you have any resolutions for 2018? Yeah, to make a lot of money and have good dreams and always believe in God. That's a good one. That's not bad. How was 2017 for you? What went well for you and what didn't go so well? Everything went good. Many changes for the new years. Just always thinking positive and making good changes for the new year coming up. How long have you lived in Hawaii? Where are you from? I'm from here. I know, but to what neighborhood? Kaimakee. Oh, okay. So yeah, you are local. Have you seen things change in the last 10 years? Quite a bit? Yeah, Waikiki. Yeah. It looks ever since social media and just the whole evolution, just after 2000, it just came into a big city now. Everybody came, want to live in Hawaii. Yeah, seems that way. Oh, in the homeless, sorry. Yeah, that's one of the bigger problems that we have, right? Right. Yeah. Now, 2017 was a very difficult year for politics and actually families and friends because some of our friends and family had one position in the politics and other family and friends had the other position. Did politics play any role in your life in 2017? Well, now that Trump came aboard, it's kind of like he's supposed to come on board. So you like, it kind of like bring everything down, get everybody in this down thing. And then when you think positive and all the good things for the new year, like so, then the new year, everything would just change. Right. Or when he's finished, actually, yeah. Did the Trump administration or President Trump come into name conversations with your family or friends? And if it did, how did you handle it? It always comes up to everybody, actually, yeah. So everybody stalks, everybody's business, everybody's thinking has impacted. Do you think most people think alike or was there a difference of opinions either with friends or family? I think everybody thought alike for this one. Yeah. Yeah. So what do you think is going to happen in 2018 with our administration? Well, there's the, first of all, you get the, not for the administration, but you get a raise for the minimum wage. So everyone's happy at that point. Administration wise, what do you mean like? Well, I just, you know, we're going to have a new tax policy now starting as of tomorrow. Well, not tomorrow, but the next day we'll have a new tax policy. And I think a lot of Americans are hopeful that that's going to be an increase to their budgets and their wallets. Hard to say. That's true. But the good thing is that unemployment rates are down. So there's a lot of jobs for everybody. And that's making everybody feel better because they're more secure. Do you think employers should pay higher wages here? There's always a complaint that many of the employers don't necessarily pay, you know, what people would like to see. That's why so many people have one or two, maybe sometimes three jobs. And a lot of homeless. Yeah. Yeah, they should. It should be like 15. Maybe the mainland is like 15 an hour because over here is like the most expensive place to live. And if you cannot be making 10, 10 an hour, there's no way you can manage if you're from the outside. You got to be built in from Hawaii to be actually living here. Did you read in the paper that some of the local banks actually announced that number one, they're going to give their employees like $1,000 bonus, but also they were going to raise their wage to $15 an hour? I heard of that. Yeah. Yeah. Is that a good thing? Always a good thing raises, right? Yeah. All right. Well, one last question, I guess, and that is for you and your family and your friends. What's the hope for 2018? What do you expect to see and what do you hope for? Hope for everybody to be happier and less violence because social media and everything is making everybody just go berserk, actually. They got to calm down, put down the phones and live life and live aloha. Yeah. Well, there it is right there, live aloha. Yeah. And sometimes people forget that when they're on social media. Boy, that's the best thing I've heard all day. Ryan, thank you very much. Thank you. You heard it from Ryan. Live aloha. This is what's on your mind, Hawaii. Aloha. Aloha. I'm here with BJ. We're in front of the War Memorial Nanatorium down here on Waikiki. And BJ, thank you so much for joining us today. And I guess I just want to ask you what you think about repair plans for the museum? You know, I feel that the symbolism of this is worth the money to bring it back the way it was. And I would assume that's because the veterans of World War One and all veterans for that matter. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, it was built in their honor. I think we should honor that. I realize the cost of it is probably 10 times what it was originally. But I definitely think the investment would be worth it. Does it surprise you or kind of amaze you, whichever, that this has gone through 30 to 40 years of ideas and yet nothing's really been done with it? Yeah. It's kind of sad that they've let it deteriorate, you know, but I think it's like I said, it's a very unique concept, you know, of when it was built and why it was built and how it was built that, I don't know, I think that it would be wonderful to have it back. So would you prefer to see it exactly as it was intended and that's a swimming pool or other ideas that have been pitched were a volleyball court or just resort to a beach, a public beach? I would just see it as a pool. I think that the uniqueness of it should be restored. Now, before this interview is taking place, you mentioned that your mom was born and grew up here and that she recalls it quite well. As a young child and a teenager, she came down and swam in the pool a lot, you know, and facilitated the park and, yeah. There's been talk about the possibility of having a public-private partnership, somehow try to develop this to save cost to the city and county. What do you think about that? Do you think that could somehow get in the way of the original intent and plans of a war memorial? You know, I don't recall how, you know, if there was a charge to get in at the time it originated, but I think if it kind of went up to a private entity, that might interfere. So if I think if we kept it public and it had, you know, access to everybody could enjoy it. Well, I think that's a very good suggestion. I think a lot of people would probably agree with you on that point. So earlier, just before the holiday, the mayor Caldwell did come out and said that, you know, there's renewed spirit and energy to try to get this thing put together and have a plan take forth, to be put forth and take effect. If you had, if any words with the mayor's office or anyone in city council, what might you say to him? I would say to definitely go ahead with your plans. I think it's many well invested. Okay, BJ, thank you so much for your time and your interview here today. I'm Tim Apachele with Think Tech Hawaii Aloha. We're at Alamoana Park and I'm here with Robert. Robert, thanks for joining us on our, what's your mind, Hawaii? So do you have make resolutions for 2018? Get more fit. More fit? Do you make that resolution every year? No, I've been steadily doing it. Okay. Do you usually succeed in your resolutions? I'd say so, yeah. So how did 2017 work out for you? Was it a good year or was it a difficult year and how to work out for you? I'd say it was a good year. Yeah? Yeah. Got third place in nationals for badminton. For what sport, badminton? You're playing that for our audience. I'm not sure what that is. Badminton? Yeah. Like the racket? Oh, badminton. Badminton. Oh, it's called differently in the States. I forgot. Canada is called badminton. Oh, you're from Canada. Where about in Canada are you from? Vancouver Island. Oh, Vancouver. Okay. Yeah. You placed what? Third. Third place in the nationals. That's excellent, isn't it? Yeah. That's pretty good. Are you here visiting or if so, for how long? I'm here until the eighth. We have a badminton tournament here for badminton. Yeah. You could call it as you're used to calling it. That's okay. Now that we know that it is, we're on board. We're ready to go with it. Did U.S. politics come up at all in your social circles in 2017? Not really. We mostly tried to avoid it, so. Are you successful staying out of U.S. politics? Yeah, I just kind of walk away. So other than playing badminton, what else did you do? I teach piano, go to Vancouver Island University. All right. Well, good. Thanks for coming to Hawaii. We appreciate you coming here. Tourists are a very good thing for our economy and come again. Appreciate it. Aloha. Aloha. Welcome back. 2017 was a year where little was normal. Looking at some of the top news stories of the year, it's hard to imagine that many of these events actually occurred. In no particular order, let's look at some of the top 2017 news events that directly or indirectly impacted our lives. Number one, without a doubt, was the first year of the Trump administration. Tradition and political protocol from the Oval Office was turned upside down and played out in dramatic tweets and impromptu interviews that kept news agencies on their toes. Number two was the powerful and devastating forces of nature. Hurricane Maria, Harvey and Irma turned Puerto Rico, Louisiana, Texas and the Virgin Islands into wastelands of debris, mud and water damage. Over $1 billion is needed to restore the FEMA operations account. The multiple infrastructure failures of Puerto Rico seem like even the basic restoration of electricity to parts of the island will not happen until well into 2018. Number three is the special counsel of Robert Mueller investigation to determine to what extent did Russia influence the 2016 presidential election. An investigation only taking place as a result of firing of the director of the FBI, James Comey. Coming in at number four was a legislative attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Two separate times, the Republican House and the Republican Senate attempted to dismantle federal health care plans for millions of Americans. Congress and the Trump administration was successful in the largest federal income tax cuts in decades. It will be interesting to see how the $10,000 cap for property tax and state income tax will affect taxpayers in the state of Hawaii. Number five, the Las Vegas and First Baptist Church in Texas shootings dominated our headlines and the call for yet again changes for gun control. At the same time, when this happened, both Republicans and Democrats in Congress seemed to want to come together in a willingness to put together and agree upon the elimination of gun stocks. Gun stocks is a device that modifies and allows a gun to shoot in rapid and continuous fire versus a weapon which was originally designed to shoot as a semi-automatic. The hashtag MeToo movement is topping at number six. Top newscasters, actors, directors, politicians, corporate leaders have either resigned or have been terminated due claims of sexual harassment. This movement has really impacted how we look at what's going on in the world of employment and every aspect of life in our society. Number seven is Colin Kaepernick, taking a knee to symbolically protest police brutality during the national anthem during the NFL games which split the country into a heated quarrel. On one side, the gesture of football players taking a knee conveys a blatant disregard to the American flag and the love for the country. On the other side, the act is viewed as a right to express an opinion about social injustice to those of a different race. Today, many teams with many players are taking a knee or sitting on the benches during the national anthem. Several NFL owners are paralyzed to act on either direction. The number eight headline is the federal indictment and confession and cooperation of former U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. The least controversial news story occurred on Monday, August 21st. It was the day North America experienced a total solar eclipse So this is just a list of small sample of major news events that played out. There are a lot more news stories that were in the news that were listed here but the two political news stories that will not leave my memory or my outlook on today's political landscape for many, many years to come are the following. I witnessed in politics that surprised me and I think many Americans and that is rarely do you hear words of support for repugnant groups like the KKK and the neo-Nazis, especially from our own president. I think many Americans found it hard to comprehend how political calculations over human decency could be communicated in an effort to shore up and stir up a political base of support and future votes. Yet we saw it, we heard it, and frankly it felt like a swift punch in the gut. What was it? It was the president making an equivalency between the KKK and neo-Nazis to those opposed to them in Charlottesville, Virginia an attempt to defend those protesting the removal of the Confederate statues, the violence, and the death of a young woman. The president said, and I quote, but you also had people that were very fine, people on both sides. Well, one side carried lit tiki torches shouting in unison, anti-Semitic, and racist chants. So no, no, there are not very fine people on both sides, not even close. By definition, hate groups are not nice people. A verbal wink and a nod to the most loyal and obedient voters who follow Trump is not something most Americans expect to hear, especially in 2017. Hard to top that, but it was topped was a full-throated declaration and endorsement of senatorial candidate Roy Moore. The president stated his preference that the Senate keep the seat for Alabama in Republican control, and he asked Alabama voters to go to the polls and vote for Moore. The fact that there were numerous sexual assault allegations against Moore involving a 14-year-old girl and other underage teens was not even part of the consideration, nor the fact that he is legally removed twice as a federal judge. Further, the fact that the Republican National Committee also threw its support and money behind a flawed, very sick candidate is something that will stick to the Republican Party for a long time to come. Political power versus human decency was a calculation played out in 2017. The two examples cloud my vision of what it takes to make America great again. America is great. America is greater yet if we reject the unbridled quest for power and reject the political spew of any politician or body of politicians who attempt to normalize outrageous words or behavior of moral and decency. That's what's on my mind. I'm Tim Apachello.