‘Stay home’
‘Stay home’
Regarding the Thirty Meter Telescope: Now, outsiders are coming to the Big Island to run our lives. Since when is that pono? Stay home. We don’t want you here.
The outsiders want to stop the TMT. Listen: We have the state’s lowest median family income. We have drug problems, spousal abuse problems, teenage pregnancies and the social ills that follow from that. The TMT is the only entity actually putting its money — a lot of it — where its mouth is.
They are offering education, the great equalizer. We of the older generation, fortunate enough to have our educations, are lucky. No one can take that away from us. But what about the youngsters coming up? Who will help them?
Usually, the present generation tries to help the next generation do just a little bit better. But on the Big Island right now, it’s just the opposite. And it’s being influenced by folks with fame and money who don’t even live here.
I am a Hawaiian. I respect my culture and its religion and traditions. I also respect its future. The Facebook generation tends to think in terms of today and tomorrow, but we Hawaiians used to think in terms of seven generations.
In 140 years, there won’t be telescopes on the mountain at all. We need to think about this carefully and not just react. How will we save ourselves on the Big Island?
Richard Ha
Owner, Hamakua Springs Country Farms
What is sacred?
Reading the pro- and anti-TMT debate, I think the word “sacred” should be removed from the discussion.
If Mauna Kea is sacred, then all lands everywhere are sacred. If you have gold bracelets or earrings on your body, go look at the damage caused by hydraulic gold mining, when entire “sacred” mountains are erased so you can have those bracelets.
When you drive a steel car or boat, first look up strip-mining, where “sacred” land is erased so you can drive your car and truck to the beach, to hunt, to fish, to party. And put gas in that car, which comes from drilling on “sacred” land to pump oil to be refined at a refinery built on “sacred” land. And buy products at the store, brought here on steel ships made from strip-mining on “sacred” land to meet your needs.
May God’s blessings be to all of you, regardless of where you sit on the TMT.
Kim Magnuson
Papaikou