 to journey with you as we learn how to take your health back. Today we will be discussing the health of Hawaii's small businesses since COVID lockdown. We are coming to you live from my home office in Makiki and from the studios of ThinkTek Hawaii which are located in downtown Honolulu. Today we shall be talking story with two very concerned and dedicated business owners who want to know who is essential in Hawaii and how much more can we endure. Today I'd like to introduce you to the Aloha Freedom Coalition which was formed to assist business owners during these times of COVID lockdowns. We have with us today Hela Meek and Laurie Kahiapo who are very active, I mean very active members of the AFC which stands for the Aloha Freedom Coalition. Welcome ladies. Thank you Wendy. You're welcome. Alrighty let's jump right in. Okay so let me start with the first question. Tell us a little bit about what is Aloha Freedom Coalition? Thank you so much Wendy. Thank you for giving us the platform to reach out to other people in Hawaii. So the Aloha Freedom Coalition is it's a fellowship of citizens of Hawaii who are very concerned about the the situation that we find ourselves in with this COVID-19 and we feel compelled and compelled to stand in opposition to the unreasonable what we feel are unreasonable and oppressive government guidelines and so we just formed a group and we're we're trying to expand our group and get more people involved. We have a motto our motto is to maintain freedom to preserve Aloha and to protect Ohana. We in the Aloha Freedom Coalition which was established in September of this year 2020. We fear an open-ended cycle of emergency lockdowns hanging over us and we believe that these lockdowns infringe upon our fundamental rights to make a living, our constitutional rights. These rights are protected under the 1st and the 14th amendments of our constitution. So we're afraid going forward that this lockdown strategy is going to continue. So we want to we want to do something about that. We also believe that our mainly one of our main concerns is for the small businesses that are in Hawaii. We believe that the neighborhood cafe on the corner the small bar or restaurant where we love to meet up with our friends and have dinner and have fun with them we believe the little business the little store where you can find that perfect gift. We believe that bed and breakfast and we and all those little businesses are essential. So we just feel that it's discriminatory against the small businesses in Hawaii to be labeled as non-essential because they are essential. They are essential to each business represents up to 29 people and all of them are affected by the closures. So the Aloha Freedom Coalition is like I said it's a group of very concerned citizens of Hawaii. Many of us are business small business owners who want to do something about this. We wanted to stop and we are asking the community. Don't you agree? Don't you feel the same way that we do? Wow. All right. I know a little bit about the AFC and we'll call it the AFC for now for time's sake. You know when I went to one of the meetings just to understand what I was getting to put forth to our viewers I know that there are four active committees within the Aloha Freedom Coalition. So maybe can you just tell us a little bit about what tell us about some of the committees there? Sure. We're starting out with four main pillars. Business, the church, government and the media. I am running the business part of the Aloha Freedom Coalition but we are very concerned about freedom of religion which is also a constitutional right that we have as Americans and how we are being restricted from worshiping, from singing, from meeting together in church. So our church group is very concerned. As far as our government pillar we're trying to work with the community to showcase certain candidates that we feel align with our values as a group standing for our freedoms and our rights. So that would be government and that also includes law enforcement. So we're trying to include law enforcement in our government group and through this group up until now we have an election today. We have been sign-waving and showcasing certain candidates through the government. And then the last group is media and we have a group of very talented people who have managed to put up our website and our Facebook page, our Instagram page and our Twitter page and we're gathering photos, we're gathering events, you know we're gathering information. We want to educate people through the Aloha Freedom Coalition about what our rights are as business owners and as citizens and also science. We want to inform people on not just the one directive that we're receiving about science but other approaches to science. So we're using the Aloha Freedom Coalition and our four pillars as a platform to try to educate the community and gather support in the community. We believe that if we join together as one voice, one united voice, then we can actually change the course of our life here in Hawaii together as concerned citizens. Alrighty, so maybe Laurie, can you tell us again a little bit more about each of the pillars that you mentioned? I know I mean the pillars, the committees, I know that we have some slides like that one was showing was a stay-at-home slide and I know that you wanted to talk a little bit about that. Can you just expound on that please? Yes, so that will kind of deal with our government group. We're really wanting to help the public understand which candidates are in agreement with our vision of the Aloha Freedom Coalition which is for freedom, our basic freedom and our rights, our constitutional rights. And so we aligned with several candidates and if you go to our website you can actually find a link with recommendations that we might have for you and because please understand though this doesn't end after today after the election. This is only the beginning. We plan to keep going because our freedoms are from now on. And so it's really important we feel to elect people that will use common sense, that will use honest evaluation of facts. So we don't have to resort to these strict communist style edicts and limit our freedoms. So it's been a wonderful opportunity to get to know the candidates and help others get to know them, to let them know that we're behind them, that there is a whole coalition of people which is why we need more people with us because we feel like as a group that has a common vision there's much strength. And because everyone has their own giftings, their own viewpoints and I love the way that we've been growing. It started small and it's slowly growing as we get the vision going and more business owners and more elected officials understanding where we're coming from so we're really excited about that. Yes and that's the most important part you know like I was a small business owner and during these times if I was still a small business owner I'd be beyond distraught. I wouldn't even be able to want to wake up I'm sure because it's just it's quite depressing if I could not open my business after having established for the last 20 years and now all of a sudden someone tells me I can't do it anymore. So it's good that the people the small business owners and the business owners have a place or a group that they can like sort of cry on your shoulders and on each other's shoulders because we're all in it together and so it's very important that you you're there and that we let more and more people know that like you said Laurie it will continue it doesn't mean that today's election day and we stop no it's kind of just beginning and the group is getting bigger and bigger and wow. And so Laurie tell us about another one of the committees I know the slide says five or less what a mess so tell us a little about that. Okay yeah so Hella did touch on the media group which we are really excited to have some extremely talented people talented people and also welcoming others who who really feel moved to this committee this pillar because we feel it is important that people have a platform where they can come and find truth common sense truth. So we our team puts together and assesses the virus risks balance again with the full consequences and cost of the response options so we want to bring accurate information to people to dispel many of the fears that of course we know that fear it petrifies it paralyzes us and it's just not a good place to be in so we want to help to bring truth and so that's why our website is really important we want you to understand that there is a place you can go and find balanced information and so this is one of the posters they came up with of course because as you can see look at families have more than five children and you know for many of the tears you can only be out with five people in your state of health and it just doesn't make sense Hawaii is about Ohana the United States is about family that's that's a pillar of our of our of our living that's the way we live that's just who we are and to say that you I heard of a family that had I think four children they got pulled over by police because they had six in their car now what are you going to do another went to bring their child out to dinner and they have four children and so so the dad said okay put put my baby my one-year-old in another table okay get a high chair go ahead you know it's just that ridiculous and and so these moves feel like they're tearing us apart during businesses tearing families think about her kupuna think about her now who are truly suffering and I have heard one one kupuna my friend's mom said she almost rather died and not not be with her loved ones and not be able to even talk to them and I hear that a lot I hear that a lot that they don't want to experience anything further when they are pulling up the families and tearing them apart and breaking down businesses that they probably started and passed it to their family or their family yes I hear that statement a lot and what a sad statement to a very rich population of kupuna yes and there are treasures and yes um like I believe common sense is this and it's been all through history when there is a plague when something comes around like this you um quarantine those that are that are elderly and frail or vulnerable and you know what we know our risks it's up to us if we want to go out it's up to these kupuna if they want to have their their grandkids over they know our risks and that's freedom and that's what this country was founded upon freedom so take away these rights to just to just live with aloha the way we've always lived our mental right to freedom is is at risk and that's why we're here we're so passionate and we want we love our kupuna um I had to have comprehensive the other day she's in a um one of those living living communities and he just thanked me just profusely for just calling her and that's how lonely we are so for you that have kupuna you know call them have your grant have the grant it's all they need you more now than ever so lori thank you I know there are four committees we got to move along and you expounded on two of them and now we talk about the third one and I think we have a picture of the flag so I can only guess what that one is all about so share with us the third committee okay so as we know the third committee is about churches and this is such a passionate group and leader and they really want to unite the body of Christ and inform them of not only their god give their constitutional rights but the god given huliana their responsibility to maintain the freedom to worship and gather to bring their people together um without faith who are we right and I I tell people many times I've had such um many ups and downs in life like we all have but faith is one strong pillar I think the strongest pillar in our in our lives and so to take that away from people is just not right we have the freedom now to fight for freedom um you know that the first amendment says congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or the press or the right of the people to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for redress of grievances now if you notice nationally they're allowing these protests that part of the amendment to go through but they're not allowing churches to gather and they're not allowing them that freedom and we need to stand together uh to help one another um to uh to establish once again that freedom because many churches are not gathering and many people are feeling the brunt of it we need our faith in this day and age yes we truly I mean I'm I'm affected big time 25 years sitting front roll center at church and now it's not I sit in the front row of my sofa watching tv uh as they pipe it in streaming live so I understand truly and so now the last part lastly you have a large committee dedicated to our local small businesses which have been so adversely affected by the COVID lockdowns so hella maybe you can tell us a little bit about how small businesses are affected with this COVID uh well um it's it's very very unfair the the big box stores the large corporate businesses which are deemed essential are are able to profit and thrive during this COVID lockdown and the little uh small independent businesses that are deemed non-essential are forced due to overbearing regulations to close their doors and they're also uh under heavy threat of penalties very high penalties the small businesses uh are a very very high percentage of Hawaii's economy is the small business the independent small business and um this this is going to affect Hawaii for years to come if if these businesses are not able to reopen the state is trying to help them you know with funding and and and other resources but many of them are falling through the cracks they don't qualify for one or another reason for the funding um many of them for example restaurants and cafes and bars who are dealing with products that are perishable it's very difficult for them to to know what they should purchase how much food they should buy when at any time arbitrarily the state can shut them down again um they also need to have had after the first lockdown they needed to invest very high amounts of money for this PPE equipment for sanitary equipment for plexiglass for masks for all these things that are supposedly needed now to to run a small business and honestly um we just believe that small businesses are able to uh to navigate through this this situation with common sense and and to be fully open without necessary uh overbearing restrictions from the government we think that we can do that we think that we have the ability to navigate this crisis without these draconian uh broad and arbitrary measures that are being forced upon us and have are having a terrible uh result we have in Hawaii um the most severe lockdown in the whole country at this point and we have the biggest reduction in our economy right now in the country and we have the highest rate of business closures in the country um we want this to stop we we don't want this to continue and we're asking everybody out there don't you agree don't you want this to stop don't you think there's a better way to mitigate this virus than uh this broad stroke this broad brush that affects everybody the same even though everybody is not the same right wow oh so it's such a dim forecast for so many small businesses if the lockdowns persist hello how does this affect our local residents well many residents i believe who have had to close their businesses i think over a thousand businesses have closed already uh they're going to have to they're in debt many of them are deeply in debt they've cleaned up their savings in order to try to do the right thing to to follow the rules um and they're going to have to close and they're going to have to leave the state because how can they stay i mean how can a restaurant owner who lives on a very small margin as a profit be expected to continue functioning on a 50 percent or less um model it's just not it's just doesn't make sense it's not feasible i think that ultimately small independent businesses are not going to be able to survive and the big corporate businesses are going to thrive and we feel that that is discriminatory and it's it's not good for hawaii at all for sure i mean we just heard the sad news about alan wong and he's his restaurant is already locked down and closed up so we can't even go have our last meal there but uh it's it's done the history of all those memories of and the traditions another one is done and so for alan wong you know we we just um say mahalo for all the years of great great culinary experiences that he shared with the rest of hawaii in the world and um just so sad to hear about another one and i just that's the worst part about the news hearing that one more business goes under so alan you know you're really passionate about all all this um what brought you uh what brought you and lori i'll get to lori as well what brought you both to this small business group you know it really i've never been involved in politics actually and and i recently sold my business six years ago so i am working from home now i'm still i still have a small business but i'm working from home i'm no longer in retail um but it it all started with this this uh actually bud stonebreakers campaign to be honest when i saw his video it really resonated with me i felt like finally there was somebody who understood the bigger picture rather than following a narrative or uh just following uh uh guidelines given from above i felt like here was a candidate who was an independent thinker and he could see what was coming down the pipe he said that if we kept going the way we're going we would end up in poverty or in prison and now six months later the picture is a lot more clear so that's what got me started and uh when when his campaign did not result in an election he was not elected as mayor we discussed amongst each other what do we do now how you know we really got excited we really for the first time in my life personally was i was involved in politics and civics i wanted to make a difference i wanted to get out there and and do something and so we discussed what do we do now and we decided let's keep going let's form a group a new group we called it the aloha freedom coalition because we believe in aloha we believe in ohana we believe in a our treasured way of life here in hawaii where we love our family we love to get together with our friends and family it's not natural for us to be isolated to not be able to hug each other to not be able to visit our our kupuna and so we decided we're going to do something about this we are going to get together we're going to form a coalition and we want many many people to join us because we see that many people feel the same they the same way that we do and those who may not have felt that way a few months ago are starting to see that in the long run this is this is just not it doesn't it doesn't feel right this feels very wrong so that's why we we formed this coalition and uh and we're working very hard to to make a difference going forward and we thank you i know many who are finding out about the aloha freedom coalition are going to be very grateful that there is a group of people that um have a heart for each other to save each other and to just be there for each other so um we're going to get the word out so that we can help more and um now i want to ask lori so lori are you uh are you too a small business owner tell us about yours yes so my husband and i have had a musical entertainment business for about 24 years um that's my husband's full-time work and i actually joined him uh full-time oh that's your husband that's a guy i know him oh he's your business oh does he know that okay oh sorry lori keep going okay um yeah so we um you know it was it's been 24 years he's been doing this and so i recently had quit my job because things were getting busier busier we were booking entertainment for other venues outer island and so on and it was really nice to work together um in the same industry and um gosh about four months after i had had quit my former job and uh we're rolling we you know one week in march one uh one gig at a time would call us and cancel sorry we're done sorry we're done indefinite and we you know having been through so many things in life you know we turn to god we turn to a cool we turn to christ and we just said lord we just kind of laughed and said what next you know we don't know we didn't know much about you know like most of us we didn't know much about this this uh coronavirus and so we were a little terrified at first right until you get the information um and then we thought maybe a month maybe two months but um you know the months have gone on and not only my husband and our business but many entertainers you know are not working um it's been very hard unemployment is super minimal and some people don't even get that all mainland tours have been canceled for us and for most people yes um restaurants though they're opening are are at half capacity many of them unable to hire their entertainers back so um so my husband from working like four or five nights a week is now we're blessed one night a week um and we're very very fortunate um and blessed by and let's give a shout out lori to where he is working where people can still go and hear him it's at duke's waikiki and you know go there support these local these local business that has um just been always very um very kind and generous to not only the patrons they've always been welcoming and so much aloha there and and you know one thing they didn't want to stop music they're smart that they knew that the music would get their customers through when they whatever they came out to dinner for they could come out of a great meal by the ts restaurants and then listen to great local entertainment they ts restaurants i gotta give a shout out duke's of waikiki hallelujah amen they're spot on because they know not just the tourists but they take care of the locals and they continue to take care of our local entertainers and that's so important i mean just for every for our sanity as well as the entertainers sanity as well i mean i know we know melvin and by the way mahalo to melvin for my beautiful shea necklace but she goes online and she performs every sunday from 11 to 2 online because she doesn't have a venue to go to so kavika god bless you you're being blessed and you're blessing duke's for being uh for a constant performer there and i believe he plays on fridays is that right lauri um well starting november's gonna be random fridays to saturdays okay i will try to post on his website kavika that's great that's what we need to hear and now we move on and i i know we don't want to neglect to address our precious kiki how has this affected them lauri you know um we all know children are being affected according to psychology today the research the research has shown that children and adolescents are experiencing mental distress due to the closures of schools and activities sports having to maintain social distancing not being able to see their grandparents and their friends wear masks there's a lot of anxiety and worry and depression and even suicide and people don't like to talk about that those stats are not readily available so a lot of people don't realize it is a huge issue my heart breaks breaks fine too i know and you know i i guess well i i want to get to the next slide so i want to just make sure that we know we got to share with people how do people access your information and how do they join the freedom coalition movement so uh you can look for us on facebook aloha freedom coalition we're also on instagram and twitter we also have a website alohafreedomcoalition.org and we uh we are having a an upcoming meeting this november 7th at the ranch church in waimanalo which is at 41539 manca callow street and all the information is right there or just take that phone number and call us and that would be the best thing because we got to say aloha to everybody right now but you've got all that information watch the youtube again and you know what come join us at the ranch and you know what if you know a business owner please tap them on the shoulder and say you know what you got to come with me to this place i'm going to get some help and your sanity back because i i met a group of people that really love and care for us come on down all right so go ahead and source that information and right now ladies i just want to say mahalo to both of you for taking your time in your day and for being here and sharing your heart and your aloha with the rest of us so right now for now aloha everyone mahalo mahalo