 Our host is we journey to take your help back. We are coming to you live from my home in the hills of from the hills of Makiki and from our think tech studios in downtown Honolulu. Think Tech Hawaii shares the opinions from about 45 different show hosts with mighty and powerful personalities and some very colorful. Today I'd like to introduce all of you to a dear friend. His name is Bud Stonebreaker. Who is Bud Stonebreaker? And why does he want to talk about the health of the city and county of Honolulu? I know that he wants to share his heart, his passion for the Aloha Revolution, for freedom, for Aloha, for Keiki. And what I would like you to take away from today's discussion, there's so much actually is that he is our only candidate for mayor. He is a statesman. He empowers the people and wants to preserve the Aloha spirit. Not to mention a fabulous father, a loving husband, and many more attributes that you're going to soon find out. So everyone, please welcome Bud Stonebreaker Aloha Bud. Aloha, thank you, Wendy, for that wonderful introduction. I don't know if I'm going to be able to live up to all of those things. And you do daily. So don't worry about it. I've been watching you for a while and I'm just excited about what you're doing. But first of all, I want to just say mahalo to you for sharing your heart for the people of Hawaii. Mahalo to your family, your beautiful wife, and just all components of why you're doing what you're going to do. And we're all here to support what you are going to endeavor. So without further ado, let's find out a little bit more about Bud Stonebreaker. Please share a little bit about yourself, Bud. Oh, thank you, Wendy. Well, I was born and raised here in Hawaii. I was born in Wahiwa General Hospital, attending physician Dr. Bunzo Nakagawa. And in those days, my parents were here in the islands. My dad had moved here in the late 60s to shape surfboards. And he ended up shaping for lightning bolts and he had a business in town right down near where Aloha Tower is. And my mom, she worked as a maid at Kulima, which is the old name for Turtle Bay. We lived out there on the North Shore and I grew up in the beach. You know, every one of us is like a callow. We just grow where we're planted and we adapt. And so my roots are on the North Shore of Oahu, Sunset Beach, Pipeline, Pupukea, Velsiland. All those places were my playgrounds. I played soccer growing up in Haleva. Just the best upbringing that somebody could ever hope for. And then years later, I moved into town. Well, my dad moved when I was about 11, so then I became a townie. I had to buy a pair of slippers, at least to start wearing shoes, because I was such a country bumpkin growing up. And so we moved out to Hawaii Kai, so I went to Neo Valley and Kamila Wiki School out there and then I went to Kaiser High School and I graduated in 89. Any time I meet somebody from those old days, I always start off with an apology. I'm so sorry for how colloquial I was back in high school. But, you know, it's just one of the best places, I think, ever to live and grow up. Of course, I went to college at Pacific University in Oregon, among some other smaller schools around California. And I did some traveling into when the Soviet Union fell, I traveled there and I lived and I did some outreach and some humanitarian work. And I've also done that over the past number of years. I'm a minister and so we've done relief work in Cambodia, South Sudan, during their struggle for independence, also in the former Soviet Union. And so I've had a chance to see the world in different places. And I understand how valuable freedom is and it's so important for our people because in Hawaii here we are so blessed with a form of government that gives us a voice and gives us freedom. And so coming back many years ago, I was married in 1997. And my wife and I have been here raising our family. We have six kids. And so I've fallen in love with this place all over again. And for a time there, I was involved in politics. I was a state representative for six years from 2000 to 2006. And I got my full inoculation for the temptation of politics because politics is it's a mean game. And there's a lot of partisanship and there's a lot of party lines. And that's one of the things I didn't really enjoy about politics. I like to deal with people as they are, individuals. I don't want to classify as one thing or another. I don't see people in terms of those differences. And that's one of the things that bothered me about politics is right away they began to tell me about the demographics. And growing up in Hawaii, like most people, we don't see demographics. We don't see ethnicity. We love every culture and every person. And we're actually proud of that in Hawaii, that we have that kind of healthy outlook and perspective on life. And so when I got involved in the State House to Representatives back in 2000, I just wanted to be a good voice for my community in Hawaii Kai. And we did do some good things, even though it was a real struggle. And I wasn't well-liked by some of the bureaucrats there. They don't want to change too much. But we were able to change things like the quarantine law. Remember back in the 90s and early 2000s, if you brought a pet home, you had to have that thing go to prison for six months, right? Quarantine in Hawaii. And so we were able to change that so that pet owners, if you came back from college and you had a dog or a cat, you wouldn't have to go through all of that if you just went through the proper procedures. So that's one thing that I'm proud of doing. I'm a pet lover myself. We have three dogs. That's a big deal because there are many, many pet lovers. My daughter, especially in all the different people of Hawaii, I would say maybe at least 50% of the population, especially now doing isolation, isolation have come to re-favor having a four-legged friend to just give them comfort in these times. But you know, but- I don't know whether if you know, but the dog union has endorsed me for mayor. It's a wonderful phone. I guess. And do they count as two votes or one? But you and I come from the same kind of humble beginnings. I was born in the West Side, so I say I'm a West Side titta, but God had favor over us because he let us enjoy the greatness of a childhood in Hawaii. He let us enjoy sleeping and living on the beach and enjoying the simpleness of life in Hawaii. And then he moved us to town and then he made us look like some of the others, but our heart was still the country. And so that's the blessing that we both share and that's the powerfulness of what we have is because we can relate to all, whether whatever side of the island you came from, that's very, very, very powerful. And so I'm so excited that you shared with us your roots of growing up here in Hawaii, but what does that mean to you? Well, it means that, both of us coming from humble beginnings, it doesn't automatically, it's really a strange thing. Nobody wants to claim to be humble, that's not something that people do, but people that like humble people are usually humble people themselves. And so local people are wonderfully humble in that way. And because I think the most important things of life are the things that we value here in Hawaii. We value family, we value music, we value our culture, we value the beauty of creation. We value the aloha spirit and the friendliness that we have. And at the same time, we recognize that we need real leaders. We need leaders that will tell us the truth and they'll do the right thing. And right now in Hawaii, we have the city and the state both arguing over who's responsible for the homeless population, or as I call them the houseless, because many of our local Kama'ina residents who don't have homes, they don't consider themselves to be homeless. This is their home, Hawaii is their home. And they don't have shelter. And that's most likely because the government has made it so hard for people to live and work that we have a housing crisis here in Hawaii. And the zoning issues that we have in the Department of Planning and Permitting, just to get a permit. I mean, most people have houses that they have non-conforming units. And they're so afraid to ask for a permit for a new unit because they don't wanna get in trouble for the old one, but it was too hard to get a permit in the first place. So just about every single house here in Hawaii has non-conforming units. And not only that, it's so hard for people to add on, to make a place for auntie or their grandma or somebody that has a need. And so these are things that just happen when the government begins to get stagnant and stale. They just don't do the services that we pay for. We pay taxes for the roads, but the roads don't get fixed. And that's just simply wrong. And they asked me these, the wonderful thing about living out in Waimanala, because after many years living, sort of we had our own Ohana unit when I was raising the kids. There's no way to make ends meet, especially when you're young and coming up. So my wife and I, we lived at home and raised our kids for many years before we were able to save up and find a place in Waimanala. But when we got to Waimanala, it was just like I came home, because I was out in Onakuli the other day and I was just saying, why an I coast that side? It's just like the dry Waimanala, same down to earth people. And we're just the wet Waianae out on our side. That's my people. That's our people. I was glad when we moved there because I wanted our kids to see what it was like to not have sidewalks and to still be afraid of the dog running out of the yard to chase you like I was growing up. You know, we have, it's just our community is wonderful. You'll see people walking their pet roosters or their pigs or riding horses on the beach. And these are the things that we love. And what we've seen with this whole COVID crisis is that the government leaders have, they reacted in the right way initially. But when the scientific data began to come back about the deadliness of this disease and how widespread it actually was because hundreds of thousands of people, millions even caught this virus and they passed it and they didn't know it. And that, that is what develops our herd immunity. In fact, now that we're testing more in Hawaii, we're finding that there are more cases, but these numbers are being used to keep people in a state of fear. And really the lockdown mandates are all outdated and not necessary right now. And so we could actually open our state safely, caring for the most vulnerable, the kupuna. If we were just sensible about this, but right now the numbers again, it's something that I feel that this direction, our city and our state is going, is actually sort of strangling the aloha spirit. It's keeping people separated by mandate. And it's telling people to follow the lines and it seems like there is this effort to cause people to come into compliance and to not think for themselves while keeping people in fear. And it's something that really concerns me because it's an omen of bad things to come and freedom is at stake. And so this is why I initially decided to run for mayor because we can't continue down this path that we're creating a surveillance state. We're almost copying the country that this virus came out of. We're beginning to have what China has, which is a social credit system and we're judging people based upon whether they're complying or not. And they have a surveillance state where their cell phones are followed and their networks are tapped. And just after the Wuhan virus came out of China, the coronavirus that we call it now, hundreds of millions of cell phones were shut off by the Chinese government. They have human rights violations there that are almost too scary and sad to talk about. But what we're seeing in our culture is a shift toward that doctrine of government. And it's one of control and it's not one that celebrates freedom. And I believe it's one that by separating us from one another, it is a threat to our Aloha spirit. My neighbor, she had a baby about six weeks ago and she said they tested her for COVID and if she had COVID, they were gonna take her baby away from her for two weeks upon birth. Now, to separate the sacred bond between a mother and child for something that for all practical purposes is a very, very, very minor risk to a young, healthy woman and a baby. But they did this. You know, it's happened in Canada. A woman was, she was infected or she was testing positive. She didn't have symptoms, but they did a C-section and took her baby for 55 days. Now, when we see the government going in that direction, it's very important that the people of Hawaii stand up and they rise up and they stand for truth and they stand for Aloha and they stand for freedom. And that's why we're called the Aloha Revolution. Right, I was gonna ask you about that. The Aloha Revolution, that sounds so, so what we need to look towards and forward to. So what does that mean for the people of our island, bud? Well, Wendy, truthfully, right now it seems that many people are still very trusting of their government leaders. And that's one of the things that we love about Hawaii is our generous spirit. And sometimes we'll have a family member, maybe a cousin or a relative that's, you know, a chronic, they're always in and out of jail. And yet, and we love them. We cared for them and we look after them even if they cause us heartache. But you know, we shouldn't have that same sort of generosity toward our political leaders. We need to hold them accountable. And if they're leading us in a direction that's not good for the people of Hawaii, then we need to rise up and we need to shake away the shackles of fear or partisanship. And we need to look for somebody that will work for the people of Hawaii and not special interests and not special financial interests. You know, every candidate that I'm running here is so connected that if they get an office they're gonna have years of payoffs to make. Some of them are so connected to the media which has allowed us to get into this state by continuing to promulgate fear and not asking the right questions about the coronavirus. They seem merely to be holding or carrying the water for these policies that are given. In fact, I recently did a video about the Hawaii Star advertiser, a friend of mine was reading through and he front page and he went through the finance section, the sports section. And then he came to a section called China Daily and he called the newspaper and said, why is there a paper in here that it's very, it's propaganda. All the stories are pro-ji-jin-ping and they're against Hong Kong and they're against Taiwan and they're promoting the World Health Organization which is a compromised organization. In fact, in Japan, they've made legislation to change the name of the World Health Organization to the Chinese Health Organization garnered 500,000 signatures. So they're caving, this newspaper is catering to all of this narrative. And the Honolulu Star advertiser when he called them, they said, oh, you weren't supposed to get that. It only goes to certain people. And sure enough, if you look up in the State Department, this is an organization that is the Communist Party of China and they print, this is a CCP production, this China Daily. So literally right now, Wendy, our people in Hawaii are being subjected to propaganda. For sure. From foreign agents. For sure. And when these things happen, we need to think beyond our own specific neighborhood, which is important. We need to think globally. Yes. But we have to act locally. And that's kind of one of the reasons that I'm running. I believe that as mayor, I can be a voice of reason. I believe that I can be a voice that will stand against sort of the standard narrative that is being pushed by the governor and by the Department of Health. And I think that we can go in a better direction while caring for our people. So, Abad, you know, you just said it all right there. You know, and my question is, I mean, with all the different issues of our city, what would be the core message of your campaign for mayor? Well, that's a good question because I mentioned all of the reasons to be motivated. And that's the root. And that is our Aloha Revolution Root. We believe in freedom. We believe in our Ohana and protecting the Kapuna and the future for our Kiki. And this is why we're motivated, but the opportunity that we have to grow in our core responsibility is unique. We are gonna face a budget shortfall. And everybody understands that we are going to have to fundamentally change the way the city government works. We cannot have any more exorbitant studies thrown to cousins like we've seen in previous administrations. We can no longer waste money and overlook corruption that has existed. We can no longer overlook what they call the pay-to-play system, the old boy network. We can no longer tolerate these change orders that cause the rail project to double in price. And we have to begin doing what we are supposed to do as a government that is taking care of our roads, taking care of our water systems, taking care of the trash, picking it up and supporting the police department and dealing with the department of planning and permitting. So people can diversify, they can grow food on their own land, they can plant on their own land. So I'm telling people that I'm running to be the janitor-in-chief. We need to just get back to our essential job. Clean it up. In the old days, they would hold a broom. You know, they'd come and stand on the back of a truck and talk about it too far. But we have to trim away some of the things that are holding us back. Otherwise, they're gonna borrow billions of dollars and they're just gonna borrow and borrow and borrow on the backs of our children. And I don't know how that's sustainable. We can't keep governing that way. Right. And you know, that leads me to my next question. You know, how do we keep our kama'aina from leaving our state for other opportunities abroad in the world or in the nation? How do we keep our kama'aina from leaving us? Oh, well, right now with these quarantine mandates and these lockdowns, even though the governor said they'd be lifted for people that have proof of a negative test of COVID within 72 hours. Listen, people that are coming to Hawaii on vacation, they can't get tests for COVID within 72 hours. When they go to CVS to look for a test, there's no option there that this is a pressing issue because they're going on vacation. And usually it's not one person or two, it's a family. It's three or four or five of them. And they can't, it's just not reasonable to expect them to do that. And so if we continue down this narrative and the economy doesn't open again, they're saying that up to 30,000 people will leave. And there are many of my supporters who will tell me that they often find themselves looking on real estate pages or Zillow about the price of living, the cost of living in other places. And it's very tempting. They don't want to leave Hawaii, but many people have because there's just no opportunities here because we seem to be almost imploding under the weight of our own ambition. The rail project just continues and continues and continues. And if they continue to stretch it out the way that they are, it's gonna take forever before it gets running and it will just cause more congestion and more headaches and longer taxes. And these are the kinds of things that are frustrating for people. And I don't think they need to be that way. I think we can do it better. Wow. And then of course, another question that's on everyone's mind is what measures would you be taking to reopen Oahu and tourism? Well, I think the most important thing is that we continue to keep our people safe. And we can do that with less stringent mandates. Many people will wear a mask and stand in line because they are polite and maybe because they care for other people. But if we begin to recognize that a virus will do what a virus does no matter what, if you go to the doctor and you have a viral infection, if you have a cold for example, and you go to the doctor and he says, oh, it's viral. Well, we know that a virus just has to run its course. And by the way, did you know that 20% of all of the common cold is caused by coronavirus? There are four different kinds of coronavirus that cause the common cold. And then there's MERS and then SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2. And so we are not unfamiliar with these kinds of virus. This is a novel coronavirus, but it's something that like all viruses, they must run their course. And so we are grateful to learn that the virus is only as deadly approximately as the flu. It is highly contagious, but a large number, a majority, they say, even up to 82%, you know, that cruise ship that was sort of sequestered, remember that? Half of the passengers caught it, but of those half that caught it, I think it was 82%, they did not know they had it. They were asymptomatic. And so this is the way that the virus is reacting in many people, especially healthy people in Hawaii. So right now we have 18 deaths attributed to COVID, but we know from the numbers on Maui that four of their six deaths were admitted to the hospital for other illnesses. They were only diagnosed with COVID upon arriving at the hospital and the hospital said that they died of the other illnesses and not from COVID. So two thirds of the cases on Maui died with COVID and not of COVID. And we don't know the numbers on Oahu. The thing is that all the testing now, when somebody goes to a hospital, they're automatically tested. And so if they're automatically tested, some of those people have the virus and it's asymptomatic, but they are being classified as a COVID hospitalization. And so we really have to be wise and discerning when it comes to the numbers because the numbers are being used to keep people in a state of anxiety and fear. And really it's not the way to go forward and to press through this crisis that we're in. You know, I don't know, but if you know that, I know you knew I was a chocolate maker and I had 20 years of making Hawaii happy with chocolates, but you know, Keoko has another plan for me. He converted me from a chocolate maker to a farmer. And I have for the last nine years been promoting growing sustainably. And when I heard your platforms about that and your love for planting in the Aina, I know we resonated with personalities and desires and directions for our state. And so how can we diversify our island's economy through agriculture? Because that's what I've been studying. And I know that you are a Kalo, you love being in the Loi and you are a Kalo farmer. So just tell us, tell us what are your thoughts about diversification towards agriculture? Well, we do wanna diversify our economy, but I believe that the foundation of that needs to be a foundation of growing our own food. You know, in Hawaii, we import almost everything that we eat. We import mango from Peru and bananas from Ecuador. Now, growing up, I thought that Hawaii was the source of mango in all the world. I later learned that other people have mango too, but the fact that we don't or we can't grow our own. Right, but you know, it's just a thing where we can grow these things. But growing Kalo on our farm for the past year, we began farming about a year ago. We have our ministry owns a ranch. And on that ranch, we have begun farming. We have citrus avocado, lychee, and we have mango, but primarily we're aiming at Kalo and we have a dry patch, now a mala. And we are planting more. We have some other interesting farming ideas that we want to press forward with. But during this process, we also took, me and the staff, we took a class with the University of Hawaii for Kalo. And we learned so much, but one of the things that farmers know is that the soil is one of the most crucial things, the elements within the soil. And if soil is mistreated or trampled, like on our ranch for a while, we had problems with our growth because we hadn't treated the soil properly for years before we purchased. It was trampled. It was used as a polo field and cars would drive on it. So the soil was compacted. It was, it really needed to be nourished and sort of built up again. And when we added some organic material and we fostered the soil's life, boy, it just grows. It is so. That's right, right? Our polish. That's why in the country of God's country, they let the land leave fallow. And then they have better production, but we don't do that. Unfortunately, I'm going to ask you a couple more questions before we run out of time, but I'm so sorry to interrupt. But what are your goals to improve the conditions of our city? That's what we really want to know. Well, I want to fix the roads for one thing. Thank you. But it works. It works together. If we release to the people what the people have earned with their trust in their taxes, by doing what the city does, and that means fixing the roads. We have, we ranked number 47 in the nation as far as our overall road quality. We ranked number 50th for rural road conditions and number 48th for urban road conditions. Not good. And so we have to fix that. But if we have this sort of positive outlook on, for one, we can fix what we have, but also we can grow. And so it's the same sort of philosophy and a mentality that the people deserve a chance to be free, to grow and to expand and to replenish the soil. But that comes when the government will step away and say, okay, we're not going to tax you anymore. We're not going to hassle you anymore. We're going to let you, yeah. And if you're going to grow, yeah, let the people grow. There you go, you can hashtag that. Yes. But that's really my, I believe that the life of the land will be perpetuated in righteousness. And that means that the government just does what the government is supposed to do. Yay. And it sounds simple, but I really believe that's the key to our success in the future. I'll give you 10 seconds to answer, why should you be the mayor of Honolulu Bud? Oh, for freedom and for our keiki, for Aloha that we might just live and grow like we always have here in these islands. Amen. Amen, Bud. So our prayers are with you as you journey into this next season and all of Hawaii will be voting with you and for you because we want change and it's time, Bud. So mahalo, mahalo kia kua for you to step forth and make a difference for us here in Hawaii. Aloha from now. Aloha to you guys. So Aloha, Bud.