Andrew Von Sonn, 2010 candidate for Congress-District 2, Transcript:

Introduction:  My name is Andrew “Vsevolod” Von Sonn.  Vsevolod–my middle name is my Dad’s first name, and I decided to keep that in and it will be on the ballot. My parents are immigrants.  Freedom was a big issue for us always and so I have a lot of… that’s where I’m coming from.  About freedom… In fact, I don’t know if you can see my t-shirt (that says) Power to the People.  We’ve got a bunch of t-shirts out there now, and they glow in the dark.  On the back, we have the Declaration of Independence.  The Declaration of Independence got my attention years ago.  It’s just a beautiful document.  What I want people to do is to just

Click image to view VIDEO of our interview with Congressional Dist. 2 candidate Andrew Von Sonn.

remember our roots basically in terms of how free we really are.  The Declaration of Independence creates us as equal beings and the way we are being treated now is not as equal beings.  We’ve got an economic system which is really an aristocratic money system and very few people control all of us.  And it’s a big deal.  People have to become aware of this.  The banks are making all kinds of money–still; and the people are struggling–it’s not right.  We have the power to take it back.  The Declaration of Independence says that we do.  We have the right to reform governments

Stimulus Funding: Do you think stimulus funds have been put to their best use?  If given the opportunity to infuse more stimulus funds on Maui, what areas would be a priority?  Answer:  I don’t consider myself to be an expert on what’s been going on with the stimulus funds.  I really do feel that we need the stimulus funds.  Basically what bothers me is that there’s so little to help us do what we need to do andwe spendso much money on war.  My understanding is that over 53% or over 50% of our deficit is war-based.  So we sendour young kids over there.  We sendthe National Guard Kids–which is so criminal to sendthose kids over there.  So we send our kids and our children over there to die, and have to kill just to protect themselves and for what?  Is the money machine, is the war machine that powerful that they can keep us doing this?  We need the money for our country; We need the money for Maui.  What would I do if we got some andlet some of that loose?  Take care of education–that’s obvious.  It seems so simple.  I would extend unemployment benefits. And I’d get our kids back from those wars andwe’d have money here.  There would be money to spend.  We have an elastic money system which creates problems continually.  That’s why people are yelling about the deficit.  Yeah, there’s a deficit, but all the money that goes to war and all these other expenditures–that deficit makes this one that’s really for the people, really miniscule. 

Drought:   Drought conditions in the islands continue to pose a problem for firefighters as well as farmers and ranchers in the islands.  What can be done at the federal level to support fire suppression efforts and the agricultural industry?  Answer:  I don’t know what to say about the drought.  I’m not a big fan of getting the feds involved in our lives because I think that it can become very oppressive.  But I would like to see them come in and stop the cane burning.  That’s one thing that would be nice.  The Environmental Protection Agency, I would like to see them come in and stop the cane burning.  Everybody knows it’s not just a nuisance, it’s a health threat.  No way you could do it in DowntownL.A.  No way you could do it probably anywhere but here because it’s kind of like — oh we’ve been doing it so long — so they keep doing it.  Anyway, I guess that’s a side issue, but it’s meaningful to me.  In any event, how do you stop droughts?  Gosh I don’t know.  Obviously we’ve really got to conserve water, andbe really intelligent about that.  We live on an island in the middle of the Pacific.  We’ve got to be smart about how we conserve our water.  In terms of agriculture, I think we’ve got to become self sustaining.  And we easily can do that–we’ve got an incredible soil here.  By the way, one thing also with the burning of the cane, it burns it down to the soil.  You see all that dust in the air, that’s good soil that’s just going up into the air.  It took eons to create that soil and it’s just going up into the air.  Stopping that will help save our environment.  I want to see family farmers, small farmers…  I’m going to a meeting tonight so I’ll know some more even after this about what the farmers are doing to make sense out of it all.  But we need to become self-sustaining.  This world is–even if it weren’t as chaotic as it is, it makes sense for us to be self sustaining.  We don’t need to be shipping food from everywhere.  We can grow it here. 

Akaka Bill:  What are your thoughts on the recently revised Akaka Bill, and do you foresee its passage in the near future?  Answer:  If I understand the newly revised Akaka Bill–and correct me if I’m wrong–the newly revised Akaka Bill, I guess what Lingle was against was the fact that the Hawaiians might have some sovereignty before she could get in there and control them as much as she’d like to.  I could see where the Hawaiians would be very cautious about letting the state control them, and submitting to the state.  All you have to do is go to the courthouse and watch the quiet title action and see that the land was stolen over 100 years ago and keeps getting stolen through quiet title action–and it’s ugly–and that’s state law.  So I can see where the Hawaiians would be very uncomfortable with that.  I think the Hawaiians have a right to their own nation, so it’s hard to say they’re going to be under the Secretary of the Interior and he’s going to be controlling them, and he calls the shots.  And then they talked about cutting off land claims–that stuff shouldn’t be cut off.  That stuff is ugly history, but it’s got to be dealt with.  On the other hand, I don’t know what the Hawaiians are going to get in the short-run from the system that we’re in now.  I’d like to see the system evolve–they (Hawaiians) should run thier own lives.  I don’t know if it’s going to get there.  I don’t know what I would do.  I would talk to other Hawaiians and ask them–some I’ve talked to say no-way do they want that Akaka Bill because it takes away their sovereignty and they believe they have a right to full sovereignty, and I agree with them.  How you do that, I’m not quite sure, but I do agree with them. 

Closing thoughts:  I’m not sure about the campaign information– vonsonnforcongress.com –what that will plug you into is more information about me and Bad Taste T-Shirts dot com, and mayflowerunlimited.com.  Most of those –I’ve been doing those for years–and all are freedom inspired.  That’s where you can findout more about me.  Since I don’t have a lot of money to run the campaign, I’m trying to get people to go to my website.  So they can find out more about me through vonsonnforcongress.com.  Any other thoughts–yeah, Power to the People.  Everybody go out and read the Declaration of Independence and realize that the power that’s inherent in that document.  That’s really the heart of my campaign.  I want people to wake up.