Kicking TMT can down the road
Why don’t Mr. Kim and Mr. Ige just move all the equipment up the mountain from Mana Road. The protectors are not watching it, as far as I know.
But to the TMT board, I think your ship has sailed. The governor and the mayor have kicked your can down the road of no return. Good luck on getting them to act. From what I’ve perceived, they want you to go away, too.
Warren Hahlbeck
Waikoloa
Don’t change development plan
I am a certified purchasing manager, certified for life. I retired from Pacific Bell as a contract negotiator. I negotiated its largest equipment and software contracts for them. When I took that job, I took the responsibility to negotiate contracts advantageous to Pacific Bell. I fulfilled that responsibility every time for every contract I wrote.
When we, the Kona community, began to work on the Kona Community Development Plan, my first question was, “If we develop a plan that will guide this county to develop our community in a way that is the best for us, will the county abide by it and enforce it?”
I was assured that this is exactly why we were all there, to get input as to how the community wanted Kona to be developed. The people who gave input spent many thousands of hours over many months creating the best community development plan I have ever seen. The County Council voted the plan in as an ordinance and the courts subsequently upheld it as the law. We used the words shall and will to declare that it is imperative to have these actions taken on our behalf.
I oppose changing the Kona Community Development Plan by any means that will remove the imperative way it must be implemented.
To mischaracterize the plan’s wording as a liability is only to create fear and doubt. Changing shall and will in the plan would take its heart out and it may never be implemented as we all were promised. This is contrary to the spirit of the plan and to all who took part in creating it. It is not a liability, it is a responsibility to implement the plan as written.
When the County Council took on the job of implementing the Kona Community Development Plan, they were given the responsibility to implement the plan as it is written, every time, just as I did for each of the contracts I wrote.
Please contact your County Council representative and ask them to vote against weakening our Kona Community Development Plan.
Implement the written will of the Kona community.
Lawrence Ford
Captain Cook
How’d we get here?
How did the state lose control of Maunakea to TMT protesters?
We don’t know but Maunakea is state land and belongs to all of us, not just protesters. It clearly shows the poor planning and the presence of a weak, inept Hawaii state government. The stalemate continues with all of the facilities on Maunakea closed by the protesters. Billions of dollars in equipment are dormant along with all astronomers and staff. Doesn’t anyone care? What’s going on?
The situation certainly shows a lack of interest in science over Hawaiian culture. The protesters say they are not opposed to science but what else can you think when they insist on preventing the construction of what will be a major scientific instrument for obscure cultural reasons?
TMT will be the only one of three new giant telescopes to be located in the Northern Hemisphere. To be fully effective, TMT must to be on the very best site, which is Maunakea.
In addition to the scientific rationale for TMT on Maunakea, there are substantial educational, employment and economic benefits that TMT brings to the Big Island. Maunakea is the world’s No. 1 astronomical site in science productivity and facilities. TMT will blend in with the existing facilities to maintain that status for the foreseeable future.
There has been a substantial effort by TMT and Hawaii County to bring the cultural proponents to share their activities on Maunakea. So far they only have one goal, to stop TMT and ultimately to completely take control of Maunakea for their own purposes.
It would be very unfortunate to see the TMT end up in Spain rather than Hawaii because of these protests. There is no rational justification for that to happen. The protesters arcane cultural arguments about sacred land and desecration certainly do not apply to a majority of the public.
And just for the record there are no profit-making institutions located on Maunakea as the protesters often claim. Where is the common sense? Wake up people.
Gerald Smith
Waimea