Aloha Alive: The Dawn O'Brien Podcast
Why Aloha? the whole world knows what aloha is--love in Hawai'i--but better to ask WHY ALOHA? the answer is as essential as breath & as fun as whistling, so LET'S GO!
Aloha Alive: The Dawn O'Brien Podcast
God Called Her Home... Now She's Fighting for Hawaiʻi Tara Malia Gregory
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Hawaii does not feel “political” until the potholes wreck your car, the floods hit your street, or a disaster response arrives days late. We sit down with Tara Malia Gregory, a Honolulu City Council candidate, to talk about why this local seat matters so much and why she believes real authority is servanthood, not status. From East Honolulu and Hawaii Kai to Waikiki and the broader City and County of Honolulu, we get specific about what residents actually live with: roads, drainage, budgeting, preparedness, and the basic expectation that someone is accountable when things go wrong.
Tara shares her path from years on the mainland doing ministry, fitness and nutrition work, business ownership, and teaching, to a hard pivot back home after COVID-era restrictions and the devastation of Lahaina. We talk about returning to the aina, relearning Hawaiian culture with humility, and what malama kupuna looks like when it’s more than a phrase. We also go deep on faith and discernment, exploring how Polynesian Christians can honor lineage and culture without sliding into superstition, and why Tara sees aloha as God’s grace expressed through giving without expectation.
Then we move from inspiration to practical application: Kona storms, flooding, mutual aid, and why she argues the system gets rewarded for “reaction” instead of preparedness. Finally, we address election integrity concerns in Hawaii, including mail-in ballots, chain of custody, paperwork transparency, and the legal action she says is pushing for audits and accountability, plus where to register to vote and key election dates. If you care about Honolulu local government, Hawaii disaster preparedness, Lahaina wildfire recovery, or election transparency, this conversation gives you a clear place to start.
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Welcome And Meet Tara
SPEAKER_02Aloha, welcome to Aloha Alive. I'm so excited to have this Koahine Manahine, Tirahine with me today. It's Tara Malia Gregory. I have watched her online. And am I saying your name right first time? Tara Malia Gregory. Okay, Tara. Tarol but Tara. Tara. Okay, I like that even more better. Tara Malia Gregory. As I was saying, I've seen her on social media, and you are just a titta that's out there for the people. And we're gonna talk to you about a few things, but you're running for a very powerful seat. Sure. It's not a representative, it's not a senator. There's only nine of these. It's city council member for the city and county of Honolulu.
SPEAKER_00That's it.
SPEAKER_02Waikiki all the way out towards the east side.
SPEAKER_00Yep. To Hawaii. Why? Oh, that's a loaded question, but I love it. You know, I didn't choose this. Uh, it's something that happened over some years, um, months. Um, and it's a daily, daily, I would say sacrifice. That's my kuleana.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, it really started years ago, right when I was I was in Texas at the time. I had left Hawaii. I went to California for a brief moment, and then I got called to ministry out in Texas.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00So I was doing ministry for seven years in Texas.
SPEAKER_01Bless you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, doing fitness nutrition in churches out there.
SPEAKER_02So needed, taking care of the temple. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because if we don't take care of this, you don't do any other ministry. Yeah. And I was out there and I was serving in a different capacity, and I was building my businesses out there. I was part owner of a gym. I had healthy cafes, I was doing group training. Look at you. I was doing leadership and mentorship. Yeah. Um, and then I was a middle school teacher while I was out there too. Oh my gosh.
Texas Ministry And Public Service Roots
SPEAKER_00Like, let's just take on the hardest job in the world.
SPEAKER_02I work education in the state of Hawaii. Middle school is like the hard age because they're all getting hit. Like boys, literally 400% increase in testosterone. And you're like, hey, for a side hustle, I think I'll be a middle school teacher. Okay.
SPEAKER_00And then at my school, you're a teacher and a coach. So it was like 4 a.m. and in bed by nine o'clock. Right. Because you know you got you gotta do the correcting of paperwork and all the things. And all the things. And while I was out there, uh, it was during COVID. Wow. And I would say the first two hits that just really hit me um in my heart to come back home was when my grandmother passed away.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Uh during COVID. Uh, and my dad couldn't go see her because of the travel restrictions.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00But I did get to see her about 10 hours before she passed on a FaceTime call. And because I was in Texas at the time, how we were experiencing COVID was very different from out here in Hawaii.
SPEAKER_02We were the most restricted state in the United States of America.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. I was seeing friends, family, uh, the complaints, but then also the beauty of having a lot of shalom on the island and the mono restoring because of the restrictions, a lot of less stuff happening, but the restrictions were just I mean, they were inhumane, and we know those things.
SPEAKER_02We were arresting Kupuna trying to take their regular walk at parks. Yeah. We were arresting families for having more than four people in a car at the beach to enjoy a sunset. I mean, it was the most restrictive, like most asinine. And believe me, my dad would say, I hear you're swearing there, Donald Bryan, with saying asinine, that under governor Josh Green.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And that's when I started to research the governor, and I started to research what is going on over there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then Lahaina hit. And that's when I had my first couple of viral videos because I was so irate and being in diaspora.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right? And being not on the aina, not feeling the mana, but seeing what was happening, me knowing in my mind that it was a form of genocide. Yes. 100%.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00I could see, and it was, it was, it was something that tore my family apart because we were half of us were on the mainland, right? We're living on the continent, and then the other part, the other half of the family is here. Wow. And so watching that and experiencing that, that was really the catalyst that drove me home. And I the Lahaina was I was just I was just praying one day after I did a couple of videos asking questions, and I would always get my friends from you know, from home say, Well, you don't understand, you don't realize it. And then I saw a lot of the separation of ideologies, people not seeing that the questioning that I was having about the negligence of the rerouting of the water, or really calling for the Maui emergency management to come forth.
SPEAKER_02The water issue. That is to save the water and not the humans. I mean, essentially that's what it came down to. That's what it came down. And the person who was in power who made that decision, supposedly, because I always believe that you're a puppet being run by other um entities, hundred percent energies and powers behind you. So the real powers that be tell the puppets what to do. But this gentleman, if I would call him that, and that's a nice word, it he makes the call to do that and then um gets to get away with it.
SPEAKER_00Gets to get away with it.
SPEAKER_02So Lahaina was a moment, which is absolute horror and a grieving to the Holy Spirit for our people.
SPEAKER_00100%. 100%. And then you think of the verse, it talks about, you know, are we taking care of the land? Yeah. And who's taking care of the land? Good question. Right? Yeah. And so, as believers, what is what was our first call to action when Adam was given a directive to take care of the land, to take care of the Aina?
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00And I know that those in power and in leadership are not
COVID Restrictions And Lahaina Anger
SPEAKER_00interested in that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that played out in the lives lost. And so when I was in Texas, just watching this, having these conversations, you know, my I was just like twisting and twisting. And then I just I knew that it was time to come home. So I sold everything. I sold my house, I sold my car, I sold all my stuff. I had businesses. I handed those. I was invested. I was invested. But the value that I had experienced there was more in relationships, anyways.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, you were on a mission from God.
SPEAKER_00I was on a mission from God.
SPEAKER_02So if He's telling you come home after you did, you gave everything. And as Christians, as warriors, you give your all in a battle. But when God, the commander in chief, the host of heaven's armies, calls you back, that's it. Then you gotta go.
SPEAKER_00That's it. Pivot. It's like it's an Abram moment, like go. And I was like, at least I knew where I was going, right? I'm going home. So I came back with two suitcases and three boxes. Did not know where I was gonna stay. My uncle was going through some health issues at the time. Okay. So I stayed in Ainaheina, and then a friend of mine had a home that they were renovating in a Spinnaker aisle, which is out there in Hawaii Kai. So I was like, well, let me just stay out here and figure it out. And that's what I did. And I immersed myself in reading statutes, the laws, wow. Trying to understand what is behind this. Everyone says, don't go home because um they're so they're so left that no one's ever gonna even appreciate you, listen to you, understand you. Yeah, you've been on the continent for so long. Right, there's gonna be judgment, and those things did happen. Oh, big time. 100%. So I came back and I started just speaking to people and I started to serve. Um, and when I started really serving the community is when it unlocked for me that yeah, I need to immerse myself to the point where I gotta run for something. Yes, and thank you. I didn't know what that something was at the time.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think it's really smart. I've been uh engaged in the political realm or arena here in the state of Hawaii from an outsider in. I've been asked to run a number of times, and I just flat out said, there's no way I am an introvert, I need to go and be quiet. I can't be always about the people, but I do love the people of the state of Hawaii, let me be clear. But I think that running for city and county of Honolulu is one of the most powerful seats. As I said when we opened, you're not running as one of X amount of re representatives. There's tons of them, there's tons of senators. There are nine for the island, and this is uh the capital city, Honolulu, for all of the islands. Yeah, and that's a lot of power, Tara.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. And I realized that if there's someone that's going to be in that seat, it has to be a God-fearing servant leader.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00And I didn't see that. Really? I didn't see that. I didn't see that when and I think that'll offend people, the right people who hear you say that. Yes, I I didn't see that happening. And that was just from conversations, from people getting priced out, from kupuna. So I I run a class every morning, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. I love you for doing that.
SPEAKER_02I've seen that. That was one of the things I was gonna ask you about is why do you take such good care of our kupuna?
SPEAKER_00Why do you Malama Kupuna? Uh Malama Kupuna because my parents actually just moved back after 50 years in December. And we share a home together now.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00I moved back and I moved to six different places. I've been renting, renting, renting, and just trying to find my place. I lived in Sun Farm behind Kaiser High School, and I was learning about the Aina. I was going over to Waimanalo and just serving there and learning how to do the rock walls and the low E fields and the patches and how to how does this and I took it back and now I'm I'm I have my own colo on my lanai. I have been learning and I submitted to learning. God, use me as a vessel so I can learn and understand and immerse myself in my Hawaiian culture. Start to learn Olalo Hawai'i. Good. And yeah, I'm I'm a California girl. I can speak California because that's where I went to high school, that's where I grew up. But then inside, I've always danced hula from when I was little. Beautiful. I've always sang with my father. We sing Hawaiian music, country music, soul, all the things. Yeah, we gig together on the island now that he's here. I see that on your post. And we did that back when I lived in California as well.
SPEAKER_02Are you a kanakamaoli? Are you a Hawaiian? Yes.
SPEAKER_00I love both sides of my family. Why? So even my mother who was Hawaii. Yeah, Hawaii, and then we found that her birth parents. So I'm Kanakamaoli on both sides of my family.
SPEAKER_02Nicely done. You know, I just had another gentleman who's also running for a political office, Daniel Anthony here, and he was talking about needing to learn the culture of our our people, the people of Hawaii. And he was saying that as a non-native Hawaiian, but a Keikioka Aina. So he doesn't have Hawaiian blood, but he's been raised true and through and through by he was Hawaii by Hawaiian, his stepmom is Hawaiian, the Poe Poe family from Wa Waianae. And so learning the ways
Selling Everything To Come Home
SPEAKER_02and learning the culture, because he said, open up your fridge. How much of that is coming from Matson or from shipping? Versus um, you know, and I was like, bruh, I thought I was supporting local, and I'm I'm looking in my fridge mentally, and that's a lot. But learning our ways, learning aloha, because you cannot learn how to build rock wall or loco, which is the fish ponds. You can't learn the lay making. Thank you so much. You brought me a lay. I made you a lay, right? Oh, this is beautiful, yes. Learning, oh, that's Puamelia, um, a nue nue. That's the plumeria of the rainbow design, and just imparting. That's a quick little snippet of imparting the culture. Sure. Of giving ha, right? The breath of aloe ahead alo, face to face, that we were saying, talk story is so powerful because you're sharing space and your electromagnetic pulse from your body goes out five feet. Did you know that? And so when you're feeling in a really good space, you're sharing aloha, not even saying anything. Thank you for going back and learning all those things through all the moves. But now to be in an ohana, right? And that's how it used to be that it wasn't embarrassing to live with your parents. It's ohana, it's your hui, it's your law hui.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's it's the best experience. Watching my parents go from when they were young adults. So my my father's a Navy veteran, so he's a local boy, went to St. Louis High School. Yes, local boy that went straight to the Navy and he experienced Agent Orange.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00And he's had to live a life of the VA. And it took everything for me to say, Daddy, just take the VA. You earned this. And he's like, No, no, no. And he was very proud about it. Right. And now that he's experiencing the aloha from the VA, us living back together, yes, him seeing the aloha through my eyes now, because they experience statehood. Wow. Right? So they experienced. So when I went to, because I'm doing my Hawai'i Kopai Aina, right? So when I go and I look at their birth certificate, it's it's not it's a territory. Territory of Hawai'i. Yeah. Right. And so when I ask my parents that, all they knew was statehood.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00The things I'm learning about old Hawaii are new to them because they didn't get that growing up. That's amazing. So us being in the same household and me being hungry for that, right? Me wanting to know the culture in this way, me coming back home from going to Nanakouli because I wanted to learn trust law and I'm taking classes out there about international law. Good. And I'm seeing what is true righteousness and justice according to what God says. Yes. What did the United States do? And how can we fix certain things? I love being American, but I love being Hawaiian.
SPEAKER_02I love every single thing that I'm hearing. What I love that you're saying there is I was just home in Hilo. I'm a Hilo girl, Hilo grad, and uh my three younger sisters were there. It was kind of a semi-ohana reunion. And my mom was there. We're half Tongan. We're I'm from Tonga. Okay. And grew up mostly in Hawaii. And my sister, I noticed she was doing what you were doing. She was sitting next to my mom and asking a lot of the questions. Because we left Tonga when we when I was in middle school, I came and went to Washington Intermediate. Now it's Washington Middle School, Hawaii Doe. But uh we missed a lot of our culture growing up here. And to reconnect, connect is the way I like to say it, back to your Aina, back to your roots, back to your people, because it is, whether we realize it or not, such a big part of who we are. I'm proud of you, Tara Malia, for going back and unearthing it would be the word I want to use. And and sharing it also with your parents because too often, as with my own mama, my mom, they were for whatever reason at that time in the world history, Brown was not cool for some reason, right? And so she would erase a lot of it and whitewash a lot of the history. And so it was like, what? No, we're proud of who we are now. So good for you. And that's where the Malama Kuna comes in.
SPEAKER_00And that's where it comes in. It's it's really started with my parents and watching them or just the adoration I have. And even as a as a Christian, when you speak about when I hear now my kupuna called me back, I understand that because a religious so good mindset would say that's necromancy, or we don't do that, or we don't listen.
SPEAKER_02We don't believe in hauntings and serious and we don't, right? Correct. It's something else.
SPEAKER_00Right, right, correct. But that is something separate. Yes. But because I had, and I'll say it, I had a Western mindset about Christianity and about all things, uh, anything Hawai'i that would be pagan, right? Is it's that thin line. Yes. And you really have to have this discernment. You really have to be rooted in Christ and see things through a biblical lens to understand. Come on now. Coming back to my kupuna and what they had built and what the Lord had put in them for me to understand. When I have my hands in that dirt, I do feel my grandmother. Yes.
Malama Kupuna And Cultural Return
SPEAKER_00And it's not in a necromancy way, it's not in a pagan way, right? This this negative connotation.
SPEAKER_02And we're not gonna label it that way because the word is life, right? Which we believe in our Polynesian people, and the Bible says that. So we're not gonna call it necromancy. Right. It's honoring the kupuna.
SPEAKER_00It's honoring the kupuna. And we're told to do that. When we're told to honor our father and mother, that is all fathers and mothers. Yes. Your entire lineage. Wow. Right? To pray for your future by honoring. So good. Right? And like that's tied to a promise. Yeah. What happens when you honor? You will live a long, prosperous life. Amen. Prosperous in Christ, prosperous in service, prosperous in all things, aloha, right? Oh my gosh. So much goodness, friends.
SPEAKER_02And just that excites me when you talk about the spiritual aspect of our Polynesian people. I um am doing an episode with Kahu Daniel Kikawa talking about some of the Christian roots of our ha vai, right? Ha is the breath of life. Yes. Vai, the water of life, and then I is the one true God. And he wrote that book, right? Um, Io, God of Light, God of Darkness. I read that book. Right. And I read that book. So much of our Polynesian people, I'm Tongan, you're Hawaiian, but a lot of that they put it under the guise of, nope, that's superstition, that's the old ways. Well, yeah, there is some truth to that. There is some superstitious old ways. There is the darkness, there is the devil. But let us not give the devil undue attention and affection. That's good. He didn't run everything, and our people, uh the Tongaans are still the royal kingdom of Tonga. We're a Christian nation.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and I love that about your nation.
SPEAKER_02We're not perfect. However, we have a strong lineage and history. That's it. So I love that you're bringing up we don't give everything over to the devil, and there is good and solid just goodness to having our Polynesian culture. Yes, yes. We can redeem a lot of it too. Absolutely. I want to ask you a question. You're running as a conservative. You just mentioned you caught cracks for some of that already. Oh, sure. Why would you run as a conservative in this traditionally democratic state?
SPEAKER_00You know, I'm running as Tara Malia Gregory. Okay, come on. I am not running with any titles. Love it. If someone asks me when I'm door knocking, what are you? I said, I'm nonpartisan and we're gonna talk about paving these roads. Good. I'm nonpartisan and we're gonna talk about the potholes. I'm nonpartisan and we're gonna talk about did we ask to dredge this over here? Right or not? Right. Like I'm nonpartisan because when someone sits in a seat of authority, and authority doesn't mean over someone. No, it means servanthood. Wow. Okay, you have the authority to wash feet. Yes. Okay, Jesus didn't come in with a cane and a crown. Not about the title, but about the towel. Come on. And that's it. And so if I have the authority, authority means you get the opportunity to be a mouthpiece for the real authority, which is the people. Yes. Right?
SPEAKER_02So when that's that's your boss, you're a public servant. But I don't know that I've ever heard somebody say exactly what you said. It's about servant leadership. Yeah. Who actually meant it with any amount of heart or spit or anything, unless they were like doing their false political promises. Yeah. So thank you for saying you're here nonpartisan, which means she's not Democrat or Republican, running as somebody who wants to have practical answers and accountability for everyone. I just saw you on an Instagram post talking about how um it's funny that recently Mayor Blanchiarty is talking about a certain account. You know, this is what I'm talking about right now. And it's funny that these things only come up accountability during an election year. And it was um budgeting a certain amount of, let's say, X amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars, right? For an issue that you caused. But now I look like the hero because I, oh, let's be accountable for that. And I'm thinking to myself, wow, this girl did her research. That's the system. And you were talking about it's not just about reaction, which costs the taxpayers dollars because it's always after the fact. There's never anybody's name connected to anything, there's no accountability, and then boom, it's election year, and now we need something to run on, right? So it's not about reaction, it's about positive action. Correct. Being proactive and saying, no, we're gonna have accountability. Speak to that, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's the preparedness, and that's now a buzzword, right? Preparedness is now a buzzword. Why? Because we just had Konolo storms. That's right. And the ball was majorly dropped during the Konolo storms. But it was That's a really nice way to say it, I might say.
SPEAKER_02The ball was dropped. Um, it was more like a bomb dropping. It was a bomb dropping. Literally, it was a weather bomb. Right. And the response was twice as worse as the actual event.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Absolutely. And so if we're gonna speak about preparedness, I mean, why did I even come back home? Because I saw we weren't prepared. I saw that there was a system built to not be prepared. Wow. So that in reaction, we can call FEMA. Wow. In reaction, we can blame one another. Yeah. In reaction, I can be the hero of the story that I created for this to be my hero's story. Right. So this is we've got to understand, this is decades worth of planning to be unprepared. Yeah. And it is playing out, and it is obvious, and maybe people don't have words for it, but when I talk to people every single day, and I talk to hundreds of people all the time. All the two canvassing the neighborhood. Canvassing the neighborhood, going to all the meetings, going to the city council, going to speak at the Capitol, neighborhood boards, neighborhoods, neighborhood boards, all of the things, and then I'm with my Kapuna all the time because I'm with my parents, and my parents' friends are my friends. Yeah. I love it. I love it. They're my clients, yes. So when I'm talking. They're like, why didn't they have a plan? Yeah. Their plan was to not have a plan because you get more money on the back end of not having a plan.
SPEAKER_02Holy smack. Right? So the bottom line is the bottom line. The bottom line is the bottom line when they money is money. That I'm sorry, I'm using a line that I learned from my daddy. He was a financial planner way back in the day, and he would always say, Don, no matter what, all you know, look at this hand while this hand is sliding stuff, look over all no matter the razzle dazzle, always look at the bottom line. Yeah. Because the money will take you straight back to the source and the why. So the bottom line is about money, and the bottom line is the bottom line. So it's it pays more to be unprepared.
Faith Discernment And Honoring Lineage
SPEAKER_02Correct. Which makes a huge amount of sense. I remember during the false missile alert, and there's I don't want to get into all the conspiracy theories on whether it was a real missile or whatever. Yes. But the state of Hawaii for over 30 minutes thought we were going to die as one, or that a missile would land here and cause major devastation. And I remember a picture of a dad, a local boy, putting his child down into a sewage manhole. And that was the best answer. Because we don't have bomb bunkers, we don't have survival mechanisms, we don't have a response to your point. Correct. I'm drawing a very extreme example, but this is real. This is the truth of how Hawaii reacts in the midst of a major, either nature, right, natural disaster, which was the Kona Lowe's, or a man-made disaster like the false missile alert. So talk to us about the plan for that as you are stepping into becoming city councilwoman.
SPEAKER_00Yes, absolutely. And then I just came from a neighborhood board last night, and this became the entire topic of the neighborhood board last night. Really? And I was sitting in the room.
SPEAKER_02Which neighborhood board?
SPEAKER_00It was neighborhood board culio. Okay. Okay, so we're sitting in there and we're in Ainaheina Library, of which I did a talk story myself the week before. And it the energy was so different. Right? The neighborhood boards are, I would say, the beginning of the system. Wow. It's the beginning of how to say the right thing to the right person to move the needle for what your special interest is. Yes. And I think that's very obvious. That's frank. And it's and there's there's a lot of almost condescension in tone if you're not speaking what they want you to speak. Wow. But we are called to be bold and courageous. We're called to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. And last night this was the conversation, and I was in the room with the current incumbent. I was in the room with the potential council member that may not be me stepping into that seat. And what I had to say was really important. And it was that I'm not talking about what we're going to do when the Kona Lows hit myself and guess who? Inside Outreach, which is a faith-based nonprofit, and three churches mobilized from East Honolulu to the West Side. Wow. To Manoa, to North Shore. And we got them timely resources when they needed it. Yes. And why do we do it? Because people were calling me saying, Tara, are you doing anything with this? Because they knew I was the girl, always at the city council meetings and always at fighting the bills and always a thing. So that when disaster struck, they're like, She's a civic engagement girl. So what are we doing? So I had to pull it together with New Hope Hawaii Kai, with the House Established, with uh Inside Outreach, and then with uh Kings Oahu.
SPEAKER_02And I was able to And those are all doer churches. Doer churches. Always on the front line. Always on the front lines. And the scripture says you are blessed if you do something about it. Not just no, don't sit there and pray about it. And prayer is powerful. Please don't get me wrong. But you have to add some practical application to those prayers. And they show up like you should show up on the front lines.
SPEAKER_00And that's what we did. And so, you know, there's like Daniel Molina, and then I have my girl over Margaret that's over at um at Kings Oahu. And then actually a brilliant young lady, uh um, Star Thurston, she was at the house of Thurston. She's fantastic. Forever Miss Hawaii. She's fantastic. I connected with her because she had this app, malamamap.org. Oh, wow. And she created an app. I'm getting chicken skin.
SPEAKER_02Yes, those are god bumps, by the way. Because we're not created in the image of a chicken. Okay. When the spirit of God goes in, we stand up. Whether you're standing or not, your skin pops right up.
SPEAKER_00That's it. And so she was so genius in her creativity.
SPEAKER_02Part of her Miss Hawaii platform that she created that app. And now she made it applicable. I could be wrong. I always love my version of the story. It's a lot sassier and spicier. And I know Stardoth since she was a little girl, but um, she created that app, and then you can make it applicable to real life destruction or real life hard times.
SPEAKER_00She did such a fantastic job. And you know what did a fantastic job? Just being on social media. You know, what we talked about earlier about, you know, the enemy and his schemes and things like that. But what's great about what we know about God is he's the only creator of things. Thank you. The enemy can only take things and manipulate them. That's right. He doesn't create anything. He's a con. He rips off, he copies, he's a copycat.
SPEAKER_02There's one creator God, and then there's the copy can a con who usually, when he copies it, does a really horrible job and corrupts it in the copy. That's it. There's a virus connected. Yeah. Don't ever sleep with that.
SPEAKER_00That's yeah, that's it. That's the one. But when I was able to connect with these leaders in the community that didn't need a title, they didn't need funding. They didn't need a committee meeting. They didn't need meetings after meetings. They didn't need a resiliency hub, okay? Because they're pushing for those resiliency hubs out for millions of dollars in every in every neighborhood. They want a two million dollar resiliency hub. But they've been planning that for years. We didn't plan, and a gentleman said last night, we are the resilience. Yes, come on. We are prepared. Yeah. If my house, me and my house shall what, serve the Lord? Yeah. Well, me and my house shall be prepared.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00So if I'm prepared, then I can share with you how I'm prepared, and you're gonna share with them how they're prepared. And you share with them and you share with them. And then I just get on my little text message like, hey ladies, actually, no one knows about the West Side, but they've been underwater. I saw it online. I followed these specific accounts. We got to get water over to them. So then I call another girl. She had for like a week. I go to Costco, I look at my Venmo. I have hundreds of dollars in my Venmo account because my friends sent me Venmo. They knew I was gonna go Costco, get the water, send it over. Do whatever. I drove over to the North Shore to drop off at Insight Outreach's drop off. You know, so and I'm not saying this like, oh, I'm sorry, it wasn't me. I don't hear that about it. It's us. Yes, it's the Lahui. It's a copy, it's the committee. Yes, we just we got we. Yeah, and we don't need the permission from the government. So as a city council member, when I'm stepping in, I'm just stepping in as me. Right. What we're already doing. Wow.
Nonpartisan Service And Local Accountability
SPEAKER_00Why don't we, why can't the men that showed up with the high water vehicles get um get get money for that? Right. Why don't we spit the money over to the guys? Get them some diesel, get them some gas, get some some gas. Those men that came and saved the kupuna out of their homes literally, literally with their own privately owned machinery to come and water vessels, take them over.
SPEAKER_02The lifeguards who had to paddle out in the dark, right, because they knew what was going on.
SPEAKER_00Why don't we use the budget to reimburse them? Why don't we reimburse the Lahuy? The people that show up time and time and time and time again. The the farms that were flooded, the amount of poi that we're not gonna have this season coming up because of that flood, because of the lack of preparedness, we had a budget to clean the streams. Wow. March 9th happened. Yes. That was an emergency proclamation. Good. Four days later, the storm, the first Kona Lo hit. You had four days. Yeah. Then the city and the state doesn't really show up until three days later. Wow. So when the actual National Guard was actually called, we do not know. Yeah. Because we don't know what they say. There's no transparency. There's no transparency.
SPEAKER_02Even if the state of Hawaii has what's called the Sunshine Laws that's supposed to allow us to report and give transparency by the public servants, government leaders, there's still no transparency. Nope. For example, we recently had an accusation, which became true it had to be federally investigated of a paper, brown paper bag. You and I both know it probably wasn't a brown paper bag. Bruh, who carries brown paper bags? Yeah, I'm from the 70s. I have my little lunch, my brown paper bag with my PBJ in it. So cute and my um soda wrapped in tin foil. Tin foil. Because you know, aluminum can needs aluminum tinfoil. That was your your um Yeti back in the day. That was your flask, family.
SPEAKER_00Oh, there's some foil now.
SPEAKER_02But there was this uh money that was dropped to essentially the person who took the hit for it or the fall was Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke, who's now no longer the lieutenant governor of the state of Hawaii. And all of that to say this that all of this funding that doesn't get appropriated the right way. Right. And you're bringing up some of the stuff that happened in the Kona Lo and the mispreparedness. It's not even preparedness, it's like a misallocation of funds, it's miscommunications, it's it's mal it's bad. Yeah, it's really bad. It's our government is grifting, it's not ignorance, it's grifting, it's that's a nice word for stealing, yes, for taking. Yes, and I saw that it even happened where the Lahui, the Ohana shows up, and I love the uh heart of Aloha that does this, yeah, Tara. If and you've seen it, you live it. That during the Lahaina wildfires, it was Molucci and Lanai that sent the boats.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Not just that night, when they could see with their own eyes the fire burning into the night. And I remember going to sleep that night, much to my chagrin and shame, that I saw a headline. Oh, the um Coast Guard is being sent over to Lahaina. People are floating in the water. And I thought to myself, as I my head laid onto my bed, I went, Why are people in the water? I didn't get the scope that they were burning an entire town. Like you said, genocide. I didn't get the scope of that until the next morning we all woke up and saw the news, and it was like, just devastation, unimaginable. It's still unimaginable. The very first time it's happened in the history of the United States that an American town was burned to the ground. I mean large swatches of it. I've been to Lahaina many times since it happened and dropped prayers, dropped practical helps, etc. But it was the Lahuy who showed up. Sure. And and the government had to literally block them. Oh, you cannot bring in relief supplies via boat anymore.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, because that's not part of the plan.
SPEAKER_02Holy wow. This is what you're you're speaking to. That's what I'm speaking to. Thank you. Yeah. Now I'm gonna pivot us here, and I know that you're all watching and getting excited. And I am a big believer in inspiration meeting practical application. 100%. I don't just want to get you all riled up. I don't want to get you all excited or you know, you see so many people in the political arena just beating their chests and getting angry and and commenting a million comments to fight, but never bring a solution because she and I, Tara Malia, Gregory and I, are women who like inspiration. We love Jesus Christ, but we bring the practical application. When is election day? Election day is August 8th. Okay. Okay, so that's the primary. That's the primary. The general election is November. November. November 3rd, I think. That's it. And so get registered
Kona Storms Preparedness And Mutual Aid
SPEAKER_02now. Do you know how they would get registered? Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Um, this is what we're fighting as we sit here. Okay, yeah, I have legal action against the county and the state, and specifically Scott Noggo, the chief elections officer.
SPEAKER_02Okay, somebody finally did it. So uh good old, and I'm being sarcastic to the T, Scott Nago is not a he's not a good guy. He's not a good guy. And the Office of Elections is one of the most corrupt places because if they can cut it off at the source, come on, then the rest of it can be run, right?
SPEAKER_00They went straight to the bottleneck. They went straight to the bottleneck. And where we sit right now, there is a chair of the commission, Chair Curtis. His expiration ended in June. And we were supposed to have a new officer come into that, and the commission was supposed to decide what was going to happen with Scott Nago. Well, that was on the 24th of June, and it was canceled. The meeting itself was canceled. And so if this gives you some depth into not only is the election what, like a month away, right? A little over a month away. At the time of this taping, as we are speaking right now, I am in an appeals court for something that I had put out there in legal action with two other people. I had um a gentleman, um, Doug Paznick, who is former military, and we all get on these elections commission meetings for six hours. Six hours every month. And this is like lots of statutes that I could run through all the statutes that this specific chief elections officer has broken from chain of custody, yeah, from um not having signature verification.
SPEAKER_02Right, any type of transparency and accountability.
SPEAKER_00Did you know Oahu doesn't even have any paperwork to back the numbers?
SPEAKER_02The shocker of shockers for me. I saw I've seen this story develop in the last about year and a year and a half. Yeah, it's gotten hot in the last year. It's gotten super hot, like lava hot. And then I saw that there's no paperwork even to track any, and I went, wait, what happened to any type of government accountability and transparency? What happened to the sunshine loss? But that's what Hawaii does.
SPEAKER_00If there's no paperwork, there's no evidence. And if there's no evidence, there's no conviction. And if there's no conviction, there's no solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_02And this is where you have regular local Joes and Marys saying, you know what, can we please bring Doge to Hawaii? Can we please bring extra eyes on? Can we please? And and you're telling me the meeting was canceled and now you've gone to legal action. Now we've gone to legal action. How do we register to vote?
SPEAKER_00You register, yes. So you register to vote. Well, here's another thing. I won't get into the statutes. I'll keep it simple. What you can do is you can go to capital.hawaii.gov and you can see how to register there. You can go to the elections office and you can see how to register there. I have a link in my Instagram. You can register there. You can go to your local satellite, um, satellite city hall, and you can register there. You can go many places to you can go online and just type in Hawaii elections elections and it will pop up how to register. But here's the issue: they want us to register and they want us to do mail-in ballots. And those mail-in ballots go out the third week in July. And the problem with that is the only paperwork that we found that really has teeth, that really has any backing behind it, is what happened on the Big Island. And on the Big Island, there was the United States Postal Service only invoiced the city and the county for 56,000 ballots that were mailed in. But Chief Elections Officer Scott Nogg reported 76,000 ballots, which created who got to who who won the election in the Big Alan. Right. Yeah. I'm sorry, County of Hawaii. County of Hawaii. So basically, 19,042 ballots are unaccounted for. Holy God, I just want to vomit right now. The level of lying. Yep. And so basically that's the only piece of evidence that we actually have that we want to audit those specific bins. Wow. Because from 2024, and this is from the 2024 elections, but this is how they interpret the law. They interpret the law that we preserve, it says within the statute, we preserve the ballots for 22 months. But we preserve them to audit them. But what the Attorney General and the Chief Elections Officer are saying is no, we're preserving them. And then after we've preserved them, then you can audit it. Well, of course, that's going to be after the 2026 election. Why do we preserve them? We preserve them for the purpose of auditing.
SPEAKER_02Do we need to preserve that? Is it a nature conservancy preserve preservation? These are the things.
SPEAKER_00That's ridiculous. Why else would you save all those ballots? Why would you save the ballots? Well, they, and this is my assumption, is they would like to save them. So if they're destroyed after 22 months, legally, there's nothing we can say about that. And 22 months is September. It's the month after the August primaries. Oh, how convenient. That is why we have legal action happening right now. How convenient. Correct. Correct. So we have legal action pending. You need to tell constituents what how are you going to pay this?
SPEAKER_02We're paying for the storage of the preservation. Talk about that. Talk about that. You know what? And I I know we're talking about mail-ins. I get my mail-in ballot. We all do in the state of Hawaii, and I literally walk it in, you know. And I don't know if you want to call me simple porgy. By the way, Porigies are really smart people. I literally walk it into the city and county of Honolulu, to the city hall, and I make sure that they register it because I still don't know. I'm so old. I remember going to public school cafeteria and they'd have to look up your name, right? Match your voter ID. It should be like that, too. Your state ID. It's what I voted for. And then you had to go in a booth behind that flimsy little curtain, but there was some kind of privacy, and then go and they would punch it in. Like there was such a process about it. Yes. And now it's, I'm just gonna drop it in the mailbox. Who knows if it makes it? And why is the guy I never voted for who should be in prison still in office after I just did my huge mail in?
SPEAKER_00I I would equate it to this is the way that I explain it to people. You know, of course there's absentee ballots. You can still service member, you're serving our nation, you're in another. Or you can actually you actually sign send in an application, and if there's some erroneous like type of situation that's happened in your life where you have to absolutely homebound something, then you can apply for that. There's always an exception. There's always but the mass mail-ins, right? That's what people don't understand. Mass mail-ins mean we have found evidence and testimony of people where dogs have ballots. Right. Or dead people. Deceased people. Yeah. Or you've got 12 ballots with the same name on it to the same household or to different households. We haven't had a real audit. And that's what we're calling for. That's what's the actual legal. We just want to know that our voter roles are secure. Our voter roles are somewhat to the T of who's actually living in the
Election Integrity Claims And How To Register
SPEAKER_00house that you're sending it to. She's so cute. Somewhat to the T.
SPEAKER_02That's like an oxymoron right there. That's like saying Malsamon or Jumbo Shrint, right? Somewhat, somewhat to the T. Like we get close to settling at this point.
SPEAKER_01We're a little bit legal. Just a little. We are. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So if we want more information about you, Tara Malia, tell us what your website is.
SPEAKER_00Sure. So I'm at taramalia.com. So that's tarot like taro, but t-a-r-a-m-a-l-i-a.com. And then I'm on social media also. That's the best platform because that's the quickest way I can get up information as much as I can. Do the research and get it up. And that's at taromalia underscore Gregory, or my campaign website on Instagram is taramalia808.
SPEAKER_02I love it. And um, if you're an old school, old fool like Auntie Dawn, I wrote a check. And if you're writing to support, it's Tara Malia Gregory for Hawaii. Or friends of, okay. Friends of. Sorry, I mixed up you and um Daniel Anthony and his is that one. That's a good one to get it. Friends of Tara Malia Gregory. That's the one. Easy peasy. We'll put it on the screen for you. Last question.
SPEAKER_00Yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_02What is aloha to you?
SPEAKER_00Aloha to me is is many things, but really it's it's really God's grace. Um because of his grace, uh, we can give without expectation. Right? Because of his grace, we can connect to this Aina and have that mana that he created to flow through us. Very much. Because of his grace, you know, I didn't tell my testimony, but I was at rock bottom and um I had overdosed actually, and I was in an emergency room, and I had not grown up like that. I'd found myself in Hollywood and I was in marketing and I was in Vegas, and because of his grace, when I was alone, and all I knew was my mom wasn't there, my dad wasn't there, my sister wasn't there, my boyfriend wasn't there, my boss wasn't there, my friends weren't there. In a moment when I had hot tears coming down my face, all I heard was, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So aloha to me is every day I have to live with this aloha, knowing that it could have been my last day, and maybe today is, but I am gonna get without expectation because that's what my father did for me, and that's what Jesus did for me on the cross, and that's what aloha is for me.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Thank you for being so transparent about that moment. And I hear you, you weren't raised that way. You weren't that wasn't really you, but the devil is a sniper, he takes the shot when he sees it. And I what I know of you is you were a top athlete in the state of California. That's a lot of competition. You were at Vanderbilt University, and you were a business owner. I see nothing but stars all around you, but even in the dark moment, that light shone brighter for you. I want to ask you. Last last question. Who is your aloha hero? Someone who lives pure aloha, either past or present in your life.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's it's my parents uh and specifically my father. Um watching my father and the way that he is with the people around him, the way he edifies his family, he edifies a stranger that he meets, uh, the way that he just he plays his music in front of Starbucks every morning while I'm teaching the kupuna, and people just gather around him. That he has such an aloha spirit, and when you talk to anybody around his they they know me because of him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah you.
SPEAKER_00They're like, oh yeah, that's that's your dad. You're you're ready for office, but that's your dad. He's the one playing Hawaiian music early in the morning time, eight o'clock in the morning, because he loves it. And he's looking over at the Malca. You can see the Malkas and the Makai from that Starbucks. Which one? The one Hawaii Kai. Yeah you know Hawaii Kai um town center. And you can see it, and as the wind is blowing, and I'm like watching my dad, and if I could only be that every single day, if I could only omit that type of aloha where he doesn't expect anything, he's not performing for people. You know, maybe we perform B-side kitchen, and maybe we perform over at you know Elk's Lodge and all these things and do the gigs, but when he's there, it doesn't matter if anyone's there or if 30 people are like just listening. Imagine having your going to Starbust to have some coffee, and there's this like Kanaka outside with his hat on, army uh Navy veteran, just playing music because he loves it. And it's so cute. They turn off the music while he's out there because he they let him play his music.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh, God bless you. Hawaii Kai Town Center for honoring him. Yes.
SPEAKER_00What's your dad's name? Roddy Adrian Gregory. Roddy Uncle Roddy. Everybody calls him Uncle Roddy.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, next, I'm gonna go there just to see her dad. What days is he gigging and he's doing it for free?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. He's there, eight o'clock.
SPEAKER_02I love it. Roddy Gregory.
SPEAKER_00Um is there anything you want to say straight to him? Say it. You know, I just I just want to take the opportunity to say thank you. Um, Mahalo to you. Uh, to have a podcast like this where people in politics, which by the way, we don't really have this as our first thing, not me at least. So this wasn't my first thing I wanted to do in my life. There's many other things that I felt the Lord is calling me to do, but this season is for politics. To have a Christian slash political podcast that really takes these issues like head on, I never thought I would see it in Hawaii.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00And you really are a trailblazer. I want I want to tell you, and I'm not just floating your boat, like really, when I saw you come across uh my screen, because there's three types of Christians right now, there's the Christian that loves Jesus but just doesn't believe that the church should have anything to do with politics. Right. And then there's the believer who knows that they should back other politicians, but maybe Christians shouldn't be involved. Wow. And then there's people like you and I that know that the mantle that we have, come on, that the the Jesus that we know that will come down with the government on his shoulders, boom, that we need to be carrying that as a bride of Christ. Yes, for you to be so present to that for such a time as this, it's such an Esther moment. And I really do want to thank you for this type of platform. Thank you. It's an encouragement. So please keep tuning in because this has really been refreshing to me because it can get lonely out there. Uh, but just know that you have people and that there are leaders like this that we can watch and we can continue to listen.
SPEAKER_02So beautiful. Thank you for that blessing, friend. And I consider you a friend. I've I've seen you from afar
What Aloha Means And Final Blessing
SPEAKER_02on social media, on Instagram, and just following you and so proud of you. Thank you for coming home. Thank you for making it home.
SPEAKER_00Mahalo.
SPEAKER_02Our Ohana, our lahui, all of the people of Hawai'i, and whether you consider yourself a current resident or you've just come in recently, you consider yourself a person of Hawaii. This is a very special place, and you're helping to be a guardian of the specialness, the aloha spirit. You and your father. I just love when I see the old guys like your dad. Sorry, I said old, older, older, uncle. Um, I'm always auntie. Uh, but they wear their veterans' caps, right? They're so proud, but they also keep um playing the ukulele, playing, singing. You look like a beautiful hula dancer just sitting there. So thank you for all you're doing to share and make this place the Hawai'i Aloha that it is, the home that we know. So thanks for tuning in again. Please vote and vote for Tara Malia Gregory and for her whole hui. She is a very special woman, and I believe there is so much difference that's gonna come through that. So remember, there are three words I teach in choose aloha. Make a little heart say aloha. Aloha. A bigger heart say always wins. Wins. Put it together, say aloha, aloha, always wins. From hula halao o terra, Malia Gregory. It's Dawn and Dawn and the beautiful hula dancer. Aloha.