A black eye
A black eye
The debate about the Thirty Meter Telescope has become extremely divisive for our community.
These protests segued from protecting Mauna Kea to a debate about the restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom and questioning the legitimacy of the State of Hawaii.
The lack of enforcement by Hawaii County and the state isn’t helping matters. Gov. David Ige’s administration is the prime culprit for the latter.
His administration is afraid of taking on the protesters head-on and waiting for the courts to do the dirty work for them, it seems.
The Hawaii Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments Aug. 27 for one of these lawsuits. It’s questioning the legality of the Thirty Meter Telescope’s conservation district use permit. In addition, the Hawaii Supreme Court has a pending decision involving the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, which might have legal ramifications for the Thirty Meter Telescope project.
The problem with this course of action is twofold. The TMT has legally binding permits to start construction now.
The lack of enforcement on the part of the state shows they’re catering to the whims of the protesters. This has given Hawaii a huge black eye on the world stage.
Why would anyone want to invest in Hawaii? The state has shown it’s content with sitting on its hands instead of enforcing the law.
This doesn’t bode well for Hawaii’s future. We need to diversify our economy away from unsustainable industries, such as tourism, real estate/construction and the military.
I strongly think we all need to take a long, hard look at what Hawaii’s future should look like.
The latter is being completely ignored by the anti-TMT protesters.
They are hellbent on stopping this telescope project, but haven’t stated any economic alternatives to improve the future of Hawaii.
Aaron Stene
Kailua-Kona
Anarchy island
The dictionary describes anarchy as “a state of disorder due to the absence or nonrecognition of authority.”
Is Hawaii Island in a state of anarchy?
Shall we condone it? After the Mauna Kea incidents, what’s next?
Robert Hoffman
Hilo