Arguments will be forgotten
One million years ago, Mauna Kea was born on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from the nearest Earthly continents.
Five hundred thousand years later, Mauna Kea peeked up from the ocean waves, into the air. For hundreds of thousands of years after that, plants, animals and birds, that had the strength and fortitude, made the journey to Hawaii, to colonize the new land and make it verdant.
Finally, 1,500 years ago, brave Polynesian voyagers arrived on this land, to make it their new home. A thousand years later (a hundred generations for the Hawaiian people, but only a heartbeat for Mauna Kea), other humans arrived, from the far reaches of Earth — and within another hundred years (less than the blink of an eye), humans from all over the world had made Mauna Kea, and these islands, their home.
Today, these small beings squabble and fight, over who “owns” this great mountain, and who has “the right to decide its future.”
One million years from today, this mountain will still stand, majestic and serene — and all these arguments and pilikia, from tiny humans on its surface, will be long forgotten.
Joel Aycock
Hawaiian Acres
Two reasons why TMT won’t be built
I have a prediction about the telescope on Mauna Kea. It is possible it will never be built. The Thirty Meter Telescope will fail for the same reasons as the Superferry: It is too big and does not fit in here.
Developers are thrown off balance by all these protesters. They have no clue about the awesome power of the Hawaiian Spirit when it joins with the aina.
These modern carpetbaggers, TMT supporters and the like, see a plundered landscape with no protection because of a weak County Council and they move right in for a real estate kill. The latest audacity is getting the approval of an 18-story monstrosity on the top of our sacred mountain.
It will fail for two reasons.
The first is the tragic flaw in all the encroachments on our island, and that is these projects are too big.
It will be a giant cringing eyesore, a constant splinter of hurt on our majestic Mauna Kea. The vague scientific knowledge gained by one more telescope (out of the 14 already there) can never make up for the everyday blight sitting on top of the most beautiful mountain in the world.
It will provide fewer local jobs than a small hotel and the money they promise is a mere fraction of the usual school budget. The science money is a flashy bribe. Our “Mayberry” County Council is easily swayed by any out-of-towner.
The second reason the TMT will fail is an intangible one.
Hawaii Island is a sensitive place, a different animal that mainlanders can’t comprehend. There is a sacred bond that runs through every kamaaina resident, a limit to development we all share. It is a line that we draw in the sand that says this is enough, and beyond that — no way. Aole TMT, no TMT.
It is the spirit of a people that will stop it. If Hawaiians keep going to court railing against it. If they keep going up there and doing the hula and singing the chants that reverberate with the land, the police being kamaaina themselves will not arrest them for very long. They can’t. It is like arresting themselves. You can’t put such heart in jail, not in Hawaii.
Heart and what is right supersedes any law or permit, and what is right always wins. They are marching side by side with Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Caesar Chavez and anyone who every protested against an immoral, unethical law.
Developers can railroad through a permit for anything, go through the “approval process” but that doesn’t make it right.
The governor stopping the work during the Merrie Monarch and beyond shows that the project is already doubtful, already questionable. In the end, the governor will join with the people seeing the unique beauty of Mauna Kea and with aloha, tell the telescope builders to leave.
Dennis Gregory
Kailua-Kona
Treat pot like alcohol, cigarettes
Here’s a common sense approach to marijuana dispensaries: We have already found workable solutions to similar drugs, namely whiskey and tobacco. Treat marijuana the same — a fat tax with a stamp, limit access, safety first. Allow limited home production strictly for family.
Stop this greedy squabbling. You don’t need an MD’s permission to buy beer or aspirin.
R.L. Frost
Kailua-Kona