 My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. Today we're going to talk about the golden rule. What is the golden rule? Is it, do you want to others as you would have them do unto you? Yes. But maybe there are other meanings of the golden rule. My guest today is Helen Jakard. Helen is a member of the veterans for peace and she's also the project manager and a crew member of the golden rule. Maybe the golden rule is a physical manifestation. It's a sailboat. This golden rule sailboat is what Helen calls a peaceboat. The golden rule peaceboat is about to embark on a voyage across the sea for peace. Helen is talking to us from San Diego, California. Welcome aboard Helen. How are you? Good to see you. Thanks Mark. Great to see you as well. Okay Helen, now before we start talking about the golden rule peace boat, I'd like you to tell me a little bit about yourself, the veterans for peace and how you got involved in that. And then we'll go into the golden rule, the many meanings of the golden rule. Veterans for Peace is a large organization of military veterans with over 100 chapters in the United States and around 10 chapters internationally. And they believe that all war is wrong, avoidable and only hurts people that really have nothing to do with starting the wars. So they wish to end war as an instrument of national policy. And so Veterans for Peace is mostly military veterans, but it's also other supporters. So I'm a member of Veterans for Peace even though I'm not a military veteran. Okay, how did you get involved in that? I got involved with Veterans for Peace when I met my partner. I completely changed my world. He was working more independently as a peace activist and supporting people who had fled to Canada instead of redeploying to Iraq or Afghanistan. And when we met it became obvious that we should both join Veterans for Peace and join a larger effort to end war and militarism. So we did that and then I became involved with the golden rule several years after that. When I heard about that this boat had it sank in Humboldt Bay and it was being restored by Veterans for Peace. And we went and took a look at her and she was, you know, small and had a big hole in her side and I didn't think too much about her. But in February 2015 there was a call that came out to all Veterans for Peace members to come and help finish rebuilding the boat and get it ready to sail. I thought, well, let's do that. So I turned to my partner, Jerry Condon, who's the national president of Veterans for Peace right now and said, hey, let's go see what we can do. So we moved into the boatyard temporarily and I ended up becoming crew on the first voyage that started out in July of 2015. What attracted you to the golden rule sailboat in the first place? I mean, was there a meaning behind that? I mean, obviously the golden rule, there is a meaning. But was there a meaning behind the sailboat also? There was initially. So in 1958, a group of Quakers purchased the golden rule right after she was finished and decided, they decided to name her the golden rule. And I believe it had to do with don't do unto others as in poison the atmosphere with radiation from nuclear bomb tests as you wouldn't want them to do unto you. Okay. So this was a Quaker Christian principle that has carried the golden rule through to today where we're trying to say, don't develop nuclear weapons. Don't poison the earth with nuclear power accidents because we don't want you to do that to us. Did the Quakers do anything with the golden rule as far as making it a symbol or this anti-nuclear movement or what did they use it for? So after trying really hard to get nuclear bomb testing in the finish in the Pacific to get our country to cancel it, they decided that the normal tactics of protest, contacting Congress, letters to the editor, things like that, weren't enough. So they bought this little boat and they tried to sail it to the Marshall Islands. They were just going to put their lives in the way of nuclear bomb testing. Because there was testing going on in the Marshall Islands. Is that right? Yeah. Exactly right. Ultimately, we dropped 67 nuclear bombs on the islands in the Marshall Islands. And the golden rule was trying to sail there. It was kind of towards the end of that testing. And so they made it to Honolulu and the Atomic Energy Commission had created a rule saying that you couldn't enter the nuclear bomb test area. And on that basis, the golden rule was stopped in Honolulu from proceeding to the Marshall Islands. Another boat happened to come up into a slip that in that same harbor. They decided that they would take the baton and they did sail into the Marshall Islands. Ultimately, they did see an atomic bomb test. And because of the arrest of the crew of the golden rule and the arrest of Dr. Earl Reynolds, captain of the Phoenix that finished the voyage. People were really upset and they all got together and started putting pressure on Congress. And ultimately, President Kennedy signed the limited test ban treaty with the UK and the USSR that stopped most nuclear bomb tests. So there was some positive results based upon some input by the golden rule peace boat. Exactly. These two boats had a huge impact on getting the nuclear bomb tests to start. And also the golden rule was the inspiration for Greenpeace to start. So you mean to stop the nuclear tests in the Pacific is what the goal was that was accomplished? Yes, it was. Greenpeace's first action was to go to Alaska to stop the underground testing that was still going on there. Let's take a look at the first slide we have and what is this? I think I know, but tell me. It's the golden rule. It's the peace boat. It's the little boat with a huge mission to sail around the Pacific to try to stop the nuclear arms race to get everyone to disarm and to do what we can to bring awareness to the cost of nuclear everything and the cost of war and militarism. And is this the way it looks today? Is this basically accurate photo of the golden rule? Yes, it is. We have new sales and this is a picture of the new sales in action. Yeah. And how many crew members can we get on the golden rule? Four. There's four bunks and the boat really takes four people to sail properly. So that's what we carry on our longer trips. And the next slide put up there are those some crew members that have been on the golden rule? Indeed. We have C.B. and Tom Rogers used to be a nuclear submariner. He's a Navy veteran. He was a captain in the Navy for many, many years. And he was commander of a nuclear armed submarine. And now he protests against nuclear weapons. We have Dan Lapala who was the captain at the time and Jamie Skinner who's a Quaker and a veteran member of Veterans for Peace. So it was a good crew. And that was from a prior voyage? Is that right? Yes, that's correct. That was a voyage that took off May 1st. And now you're planning a new voyage, right? Planning a sort of peace in the Pacific voyage with the golden rule? What's all that about? Right. So the objective of going around the Pacific is to try to bring attention to the cost of nuclear weapons and militarism, the effects of those on the people and the environment in the Pacific. So we're going to start out going to Hawaii and stay there for several months. Then finally we're going to go to the Marshall Islands and stay there for a while. Then we'll go on to Guam and Okinawa and Korea. And then we want to be in Japan for the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So we have kind of a map up right now showing your proposed journey. When do you plan to start? And it looks like, I mean, this is quite a trip. Correct. So we depart California July 1st, 2019 approximately. And then we'll be in Hawaii until November or December. And then we'll head on to the Marshall Islands. Kind of, you know, we have time enough to plan for sure when we'll be at these places. But Guam in February, Okinawa in March and April of 2020. And then Japan for sure we want to be there in August of 2020. And then we should be sailing some around Asia so that we can wait until spring to make the big voyage back to the United States from Japan. And all of these locations that you're going to have some connection with nuclear arms and testing, right? Or they have connections to militarism. So the US military has a huge footprint all over the Pacific. It's, even in Hawaii, there are dozens of military facilities in the Hawaiian islands. And we want to bring attention to that because, you know, these countries don't have military bases in the United States. So why would they want the United States military bases to be in their country? So it's a golden rule kind of thing. Right. I mean, the golden rule as you said it, and the philosophy is, you know, don't do to other people what you wouldn't want done to yourself. Is that basically you're carrying on what the Quakers first proposed as the golden rule? Is that right? Yeah. So, you know, the United States has about 800 military bases in foreign lands. But how many foreign lands have military bases in the United States? Yeah, I don't think, I can't name one. So I guess the answer is none. Is that right? Yeah. So what type of activities do you plan for the various places you're going to go and sail to? So this is primarily an educational mission where at every port we talk to groups of people about nuclear matters and militarism and what's affecting them so that our audience will be able to say, wow, I didn't know what was going on in the Marshall Islands today. I didn't know that people were still born with birth defects as a result of the nuclear bomb testing there. I didn't know that, you know, the United States has basically taken over Guam and many other islands in the Pacific and what effect that has on the local communities. So we'll give educational presentations and have the microphone be used by the people that are there and we'll publish everything on our website and through articles, just letting everybody know, well this is the effect of militarism and nuclear activities in the Pacific. Okay, and you're going to be in Hawaii and when we come back from a short break, I would like to talk about what you're going to be doing here in Hawaii when you get over here. So we'll take a short break and be right back. Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My show is based on my book also titled Beyond the Lines and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, and finding greatness. I interview guests who are successful in business, sports, and life which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness. Join me every Monday as we go Beyond the Lines at 11 a.m. Aloha. My name is Amy Ortega Anderson, inviting you to join us every Tuesday here on Pinoy Power Hawaii. With Think Tech Hawaii, we come to your home at 12 noon every Tuesday. We invite you to listen, watch for our mission of empowerment. We aim to enrich, enlighten, educate, entertain, and we hope to empower. Again, maraming, salamat po, mabuhay, and aloha. Aloha. I'm Mark Shklav and we are back with Law Across the Sea. Today we have Helen Jakard. She's talking to us from San Diego. She's the project manager for the Golden Rule, a peace boat whose goal is to educate and tell people what dangers there can be from militarism and nuclear arms. Helen, you're going to be coming here to Hawaii. When does that happen? What are your plans for Hawaii? What will you be doing while you're here? Well, I'm excited to be coming to Hawaii. I won't be on the boat, but I'll meet the boat so I'm flying over. I'm really looking forward to talking with all kinds of various groups about our mission and what they're experiencing regarding militarism and the nuclear industry in Hawaii. We'll start out by going to Hilo, which is the very first port you would come to when you're traveling from the mainland US. We have a map of that, that trip. Hilo, okay. After two weeks or so, we'll go around to the Kona side and spend two or three weeks there. Then we want to spend around a month in Maui. Then we want to go to Lanai for a week and Molokai for a week before finally going and spending quite a while in Oahu. In addition to educational presentations to, like I say, all kinds of groups, we reach out to groups of faith, we reach out to service organizations, Indigenous peoples, peace groups, any small group that would like to have a presentation, we will give that. Then we also will take people out sailing. It's a great way to get to know the Golden Rule and the crew and to learn about our mission. Then one thing that we'd really like to do when we get to Honolulu is have a conference where Pacific Islanders can get together and talk about how US militarism and the nuclear industry and at the time, of course, the nuclear bomb testing has affected their communities. That will be a great way to help prepare, for example, people of the Marshall Islands and Guam and Okinawa and Japan, help them prepare to receive us when we get there. You mentioned that you're looking to meet up with various groups, but is there any faith element to the Golden Rule or is this more a generalized humanitarian group? Give me a little bit of background and insight into the Golden Rule philosophy, if you will, or is it a religious background? No, not at all. The boat and the project are owned by Veterans for Peace and they are not a religious organization. They are education devoted to exposing the true costs of war, whether that's human, financial or environmental, they want people to know why it is that we shouldn't be making war. It doesn't have anything to do with religion per se. Many of our members are people of faith and we welcome all people of faith to be part of the project or people of no faith whatsoever. We're still very much involved with the Quakers that was their project originally in 1958 and we try to make sure that wherever we go, we have a nice gathering with the Quakers, the friends, meetings wherever we are and wherever they are. There's that connection, but there's also many, many other groups that we'd like to get together with. I guess what you said earlier about don't do unto others as you wouldn't want done unto you is kind of the general philosophy. It's not a religious philosophy at all, but more of a humanitarian or a humanistic philosophy that it crosses all borders, if you will. That's correct. It's part of most major religions in some form or another, but it's also a really good moral ethical code that if we were to keep that in mind, we'd have a much better world, just like whenever you're speaking to someone, whether you, no matter your own emotions or your relationship, if you always come from a point of view of love, it's hard to go wrong. So it's the same thing with the Golden Rule. If you always think about what it is, how it is somebody else would like to be treated or how you would like to be treated, then you're going to act in a much better way. And nobody really wants to have nuclear testing in their backyard or threats of military use, but now you're going to be traveling in this area where they have this type of thing. Is there any concern about reaction from governments in that area? The first Golden Rule you said was stopped by our own government from going into the nuclear testing zone. Do you have any concerns about that? Not particularly, no. Even when we are out in the water at the same time as the military basically giving a message of peace in contrast to their message of war, we coordinate so that nobody gets hurt and nobody gets arrested. This is something that it should appeal to a broad public, and therefore we don't want people to turn against us thinking that we're doing something crazy or dangerous. You're just trying to get across a message. You're just trying to get a message across. Hopefully the message is strong enough, is what I hear you saying. That's correct. We add our voices and the voices of the people that we're going to be interacting with to everybody else's voices that say stop the nuclear weapons and stop militarism. I understand there may have been some need for crew or need for repairs of engines. What's the status of the sailboat? Are you going to be ready to go? Is the Golden Rule going to be prepared to sail in July? I'm really happy to report that we have a new engine that's installed completely as well as a completely redesigned new exhaust system which was the problem with the engine that we had to have replaced. So yes, we're ready physically. We don't have big projects to do. We're ready to go. We have four wonderful crew members and all we have to do is hope that we don't end up with any bad weather. I noticed that in the next slide it will show that you had to turn back on your first attempt. You went out and you had to come back to San Diego, I guess. But what was the cause of that? Well, as I alluded to, the exhaust system that we previously had allowed water to come up through and into the engine and salt water in an engine can destroy it. So we had to get a new engine because it was in pretty bad shape. It's been repaired. It's been repaired. Okay, and on the crew, you're set with the crew and the captain. You've got four crew, is that right? We do have four crew, including the captain, yeah. And they'll be arriving in San Diego next weekend. Okay, now I want to finish up with a couple photos. There's a photo here. I'd like you to explain what this is and give us some ideas. Is this the type of thing you'll be doing when you're traveling around? I hope that we can do quite a bit of this. This is Puna Kamala Kalama Dawson. She's a Hawaiian elder who lives in Hawaii and came over to welcome the Golden Rule and crew to Hawaii. It was a wonderful ceremony and I would really like it if we were able to be received by the ports and wherever we go by the people that are native to that area. So we'll be coordinating with Puna and with other Hawaiian natives to see if we can establish a good protocol for our landings. And is this what you'll be doing for every port you go to? Sending out word in advance and trying to connect with the local folks? That's totally correct. We want to be welcome wherever we go. And I think that it would be a good idea to have a ceremony about that wherever we go so that we know that we're welcome and people know that we're coming and we'll arrange events long in advance for our speaking engagements. So I look forward to making a lot of plans for that. Starting soon in Hilo, you'll start hearing about where we're going to be. Okay, now we're going to take one last shot of your sailboat again, the Golden Rule and tell everybody how they can contact. You are the Golden Rule if they want to join up or help out. Thank you and we will need a lot of help. Our website is V as in Veterans, F as in for, P as in Peace, VFPGoldenRule.org and our email address is VFPGoldenRuleProject at gmail.com. I welcome your offers of help to be a speaker, an author, a musician, someone who can help coordinate events wherever we go. We'll need occasional host families, so a place to stay. People that can help with landing ceremonies wherever we go. So there's a lot you can do to help and then we'll be at the end of every presentation. We talk about other actions that you can take to support the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons that the United States or the United Nations has and the principles of back from the brink which is a way to, in the meantime, help us to not accidentally start a nuclear war like taking the Minuteman missiles off of her trigger alert. Thank you, Helen. It was great to have you on board and looking forward to your arrival here in Hawaii. Helen Jakard, the project manager of the Golden Rule, don't treat other people the way you don't want to be treated is the Golden Rule and so is the sailboat. So Helen, aloha, and we'll see you when you arrive on Oahu. Aloha, Mark. Thank you, everybody. We will be back in two weeks with another law across the Sea Program, aloha.