The TMT people don’t get it.
The armchair-raving Rambos who want to sweep the Hawaiians off Maunakea don’t get it.
Christians who aren’t into this many Hawaiian gods thing don’t get it. Construction workers drooling to get hired to build the telescope don’t get it. The cops standing around, staring at the hula dancing protectors, don’t get it.
Taxpayers shelling out millions of dollars for cops standing around looking at protectors don’t get it, they are mad as hell about it.
Letter writers to West Hawaii Today always telling the governor to do his job don’t get it. All the Republicans in the state and maybe the world don’t get it. Law and order types, and visitors from the mainland don’t get it.
Over there, they don’t mess around. Those protesters would be long gone by now. Thank God, we’re not over there.
Only a few understand why the Maunakea protectors aren’t rotting in jail. It’s the most blatant crime in the world, a bunch of Hawaiians set up camp and block public access to a public road. They are breaking the law so arrest them, end of story.
Bring in the police vans, throw them in jail already and build the telescope. What’s the holdup? What’s wrong with this picture?
That’s what no one gets and what everyone should already know. We live in paradise, remember? That’s the first hint.
For eight long, embarrassing months, Hawaiians have blocked a public road and not one politician or policeman has raised a finger to stop them. Strange.
What is everyone not getting about this situation?
The answer is in front of your eyes, in case you forgot, this is Hawaii, land of aloha. Hawaiians being respected for so long proves there really is aloha here.
It proves that behind our daily drudgery and problems there is a little bit of paradise.
Mayor Harry Kim gets it, the Hawaiians protecting the mountain get it, Gov. David Ige gets it. He explains it to us in his 2020 State of the State speech. These are his beliefs on the subject.
“Let me speak on the Thirty Meter Telescope and Maunakea … there are some who have encouraged me to take strong measures against those who are protesting on Maunakea. That would have been the easier course. But it is not just the authority of law that is at stake. It is much more than that.
What is also at risk is the glue that has always bound us together: Our sense of aloha. It is the thing that underpins our laws and gives them meaning and an ethical foundation. I will not break that bond no matter how convenient or easy.”
Our aloha is stronger and higher than money, jobs and even the stars.
Now you get it.
Dennis Gregory writes a bi-monthly column for West Hawaii Today and welcomes your comments at makewavess@yahoo.com.