Within an hour of being notified that the missile alert was a false alarm, five organizations had gotten in touch with each other and had posted a Facebook event calling for a protest at the Federal Building that afternoon. Refuse Fascism was among them. More than 50 people came to the protest within just a few hours. They were angry, loud, and placed the blame squarely on the Trump/Pence Regime chanting: “No War! No Trump! We Won’t Take It Anymore”, “Now’s the Time; Now’s the Hour; Drive the War-Mongers Out of Power!” and “No Nukes! No Excuses!”
Outrage on Social Media:
- “The level of fear we just experienced must be a fraction of what folks must feel every time the U.S. does live-fire training on Pōhakuloa, what the folks on Guam fear will happen at Litekyan, and what the North Koreans must feel with all our guns pointed at them every single day.”“My first thought on hearing the warning: “Fuck Donald Trump!”
- “Today we remember that the U.S. is at war with at least 7 countries, and that every day people living there live with the fear of being bombed. The big difference is that they don’t get a 20 minute warning to say good bye to their loved ones and the bombs actually do drop. Lucky ours was a false alarm.”
- “Now can we get serious about abolishing nuclear weapons?”
- “For the record, if we all die right now it is due to the US Occupation of Hawaiʻi.
- So if we survive this, how about we get them OUT???”
- are you pissed off? Let’s hold the emergency response team responsible for their incompetence and Trump for making the likelihood of nuclear attacks a day to day reality!
- “If you are on the mainland reading about this false nuclear threat alert that woke us up in Hawaii this morning, I urge you to not shrug it off. You cannot imagine how terrifying this experience has been for many of us…. For fuck’s sake, do something for peace. No human being should have to go through this, and while we’re breathing a sigh of relief, millions in war zones across this planet live with the reality of that violence every day. This is fucking bullshit.”
- “Still think peace and anti-war is hippie bullshit? Time to get off our asses and do something!
- “It’s Trump we’ve got to blame – not North Korea! Get him the hell out of the White House!”
From actor Jim Carrey
I woke up this morning in Hawaii with ten minutes to live. It was a false alarm, but a real psychic warning. If we allow this one-man Gomorrah and his corrupt Republican congress to continue alienating the world we are headed for suffering beyond all imagination. ;^\ pic.twitter.com/Kwca91IIy2
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) January 13, 2018
From a Refuse Fascism activist in Hawai’i
This morning an alert blasted out on every cell phone on every island of the State of Hawai`i – three loud buzzes followed by a warning: “Ballistic Missile Threat Inbound to Hawaii. Seek Immediate Shelter. This is Not a Drill.” This was followed by a deafening silence as people waited a nuclear bomb to fall. Many rushed to their phones to call the media or the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency or turned on their television or radios to get more information but could reach no one. Media phone lines were overloaded; the Emergency Management Agency’s website crashed. Some rushed to get their “emergency supplies” together. Parents opened manhole covers and shoved their kids down storm drains. Others called their friends and family or posted Facebook messages saying good-bye. And then came the wait – a full 37 minutes before an official message was sent saying that the warning was a false alert. Given that residents of Hawaii have repeatedly been told that inter-ballistic nuclear missiles could only be detected 20 minutes before arriving in the islands, many expected nuclear annihilation.
Hawai`i has been on edge for months. Every first Tuesday of the month island-wide sirens go off to “practice” emergency alerts that notify residents of incoming ballistic missiles. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency has been conducting meetings in neighborhoods to advise residents how to prepare for the unthinkable. If anyone had read the mainstream morning paper they would have read the first page headlines: “Isle Military Brass Weighs N. Korean Threats” reporting on a major conference on nuclear preparedness at the State Capital yesterday in which retired Air Force Lt. General warned that “There is a real threat (to Hawai`i)…The U.S. is the designated recipient because we are public enemy No. 1 to North Korea” and noted that Hawai`i’s proximity makes Hawai`i the likely target. Politicians and military officials have been demanding additional military funds to build a more powerful missile defense system to intercept missiles predicted to come in from North Korea and many people are being won over to the idea that the U.S. has to launch a pre-emptive war against North Korea because “there’s no other choice.” In a state where war-mongering is rampant and North Korea is constantly being vilified, the missile alert was not only terrifying but further drives people to support the Trump/Pence Regime’s calls for war against North Korea. However, this is not an easy task.
Trump does not have widespread support in Hawai`i. Hawai`i’s population has a close connection to Japan and Korea. Stories of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are told and re-told and while the history of the U.S. war against Korea is less well known, many are aware of the devastation caused by the Korean War and have close connections with families in Korea People remember Pearl Harbor and there is widespread fear that the massive presence of the U.S. military in Hawai`i makes the islands more vulnerable to attack. Nonetheless, today’s missile alert may push many more to believe that the only way to avoid being the target of a nuclear war is to strike first.
In light of the widespread fear that government officials and the media have been spreading, it has been heartening that a few individuals and organizations have been writing letters to the newspapers, holding small protests denouncing the monthly missile tests, and crashing the Emergency Management Agency’s “community preparedness” meetings. Today that message resonated and was amplified.
Within an hour of being notified that the missile alert was a false alarm, five organizations had gotten in touch with each other and had posted a Facebook event calling for a protest at the Federal Building that afternoon. Refuse Fascism was among them. More than 50 people came to the protest within just a few hours. They were angry, loud, and placed the blame squarely on the Trump/Pence Regime chanting: “No War! No Trump! We Won’t Take It Anymore”, “Now’s the Time; Now’s the Hour; Drive the War-Mongers Out of Power!” and “No Nukes! No Excuses!” An on-line petition denouncing the missile sirens as war-mongering came alive. Actions for disarmament were called on the MLK Day holiday and beyond. Within minutes of the alert Facebook pages were ablaze with messages denouncing the U.S.’s militarism and the Trump/Pence Regime. However, as soon as the alert was lifted, state officials began creating committees to “investigate” and the Federal Communications Agency has promised a “full investigation” in order to divert the righteous anger against U.S. war-mongering to demands to fire everyone involved in issuing the false alert.
In a small way the silence against the very real danger of nuclear war was broken in Hawai`i today but these voices will fall silent if they are not joined by millions of people across the U.S. who refuse to go along with efforts to create an atmosphere of fear in the very real threat of nuclear war and instead fight to end the nightmare we are living in and take to the streets to drive out the Trump/Pence Regime.