The Hawai'i legislature and postcard counting

Tomorrow is the opening day of the legislature. We're going down there and we'll be sure to talk with some state representatives and senators tomorrow. It'll definitely be a full and busy day, but it will be great. I'm sensing a general feeling from people that after today's American presidential inauguration ceremony, that there is high hopes for the future with Barack Obama as a world leader. It's definitely inspiring.

I finally got around to counting the postcards. I want to thank everyone who participated with us and signed/filled-out postcards. Without giving out a specific number, I'm happy to announce that we collected well over 1,000 postcards.


There are however, some senatorial districts where we could use more signed postcards.
- Senatorial District 2 which encompasses: Waiakea Uka, Kalapana, Volcano, Kahuku (Big Island). For Senatorial District 2, we had no filled-out postcards.
- Senatorial District 16 which encompasses: Pacific Palisades, Pearl City, Waimalu, Upper 'Aiea, 'Aiea Heights.

Anyway, we began mailing out some postcards. A very generous person donated two books of stamps to our efforts on Saturday. Unfortunately, we don't know the name of the person, but we're extremely thankful. In lieu of stamps, many other people donated their loose change and then some, which will definitely be a tremendous help in covering our postage costs. Mahalo nui to all our supporters. We'll continue to mail out cards each day as part of our strategy to remind our legislators that this is an issue that we want them to deal with quickly.

As a reminder, on Saturday (1/17/09) the Kupu'aina Coalition conducted a drive to help elevate the voice of people who want the ceded lands protected. Below is a picture of Jocelyn Doane talking with a supporter and having her filling out two of our cards. One to her state representative and the other to her state senator.


Jocelyn, among with a number of other volunteers, canvassed Kapi'olani Park to get signatures of supporters.

Below is a picture of the Kupu'aina Coalition booth at Kapi'olani Park. Here, we had five people using laptops at a stationary place for supporters to go to and sign postcards.