04-11-2018, 06:46 PM
So.
Meeting started at 7pm promptly with a circle of handholding and pule.
Senator Kahele gave a 2hr lecture of the history of astronomy use on the summit of Mauna Kea and the various state and federal agencies and studies performed since.
Only mention to legislation given during the entire lecture was the bill numbers and brief summary...
HB 1985 - Form a new Mauna Kea management agency
HB 1585 - federal forensic audit and building restriction
HB 1767 - 4wd requirement on access road
There was no mention of any plans on how to improve the current problems he describes Mauna Kea currently faces under the current management (OMKM) and regulatory (DLNR) bodies.
At 9pm the lecture portion ended and we had 30 minutes for questions.
Maybe 5 questions were asked total.
With the exception of an IFA member all of the persons selected to ask questions to the Senator shared his ethnic background.
The Senstor bluntly and explicitly refused to answer 3 of the 5 questions asked one of which being if he supported the TMT or not.
The majority of the question and answer time was spent explaining the speakers surname, familial connections and area they grew up (in much more detail) most never actually asked questions to the Senator but instead espoused their opinion(s) to the audience.
The Senator closed the Q&A session by giving the floor to Walter Ritte (Hawaiian activist) who spoke in detail of the TMT being a turning point in the revival of the Hawaiian culture and of his personal friends/connections to the Menehune night marchers who have 'drawn a line in the sand' and would under no circumstances allow the TMT to be built - alluding to resorting to violence several times.
After much applause at 9:30pm we joined hands in circle again and another pule was held.
I was able to personally ask the Senator about meeting with OMKM and why he felt the the OMKM was not capable of rectifying the complaints he has made. In brief, he does not hold any confidence in the individuals who compromise the agency or their ability to bring about change.
I will say personally I was impressed with Senator Kahele in nearly every respect. I respect him more now than I did before the meeting and can honestly say he has changed my perspective about Mauna Kea in general. That said I still support the construction of the TMT and the $1 observatory leases; and still do not support HB 1985 or HB 1585 - I supported HB 1767 before the meeting and still support it.
I do think serious change of the management and regulatory/enforcement bodies of Mauna Kea is warranted, but do not believe HB 1585 or HB1985 would elicit such change. I would also like to point out that I truly believe Senator Kahele is acting in good faith and is a good person - I am sure we could all be friends with him; in addition, he seemed to be close friends with Dan Meisenzahl. Despite disagreeing with the gut and replace tactic and the content of these two bills I might even consider giving Senator Kahele my vote in the future depending on his opponent(s) - we could do much worse (I have personally met the majority of our state house reps and senators).
I did take some pictures of the presentation's slides I felt were pertinent as well as notes which I may upload to imgur if there is interest. That is all that comes to mind currently I've been up for about 18hrs so maybe I will have more to add tomorrow after some rest.
Meeting started at 7pm promptly with a circle of handholding and pule.
Senator Kahele gave a 2hr lecture of the history of astronomy use on the summit of Mauna Kea and the various state and federal agencies and studies performed since.
Only mention to legislation given during the entire lecture was the bill numbers and brief summary...
HB 1985 - Form a new Mauna Kea management agency
HB 1585 - federal forensic audit and building restriction
HB 1767 - 4wd requirement on access road
There was no mention of any plans on how to improve the current problems he describes Mauna Kea currently faces under the current management (OMKM) and regulatory (DLNR) bodies.
At 9pm the lecture portion ended and we had 30 minutes for questions.
Maybe 5 questions were asked total.
With the exception of an IFA member all of the persons selected to ask questions to the Senator shared his ethnic background.
The Senstor bluntly and explicitly refused to answer 3 of the 5 questions asked one of which being if he supported the TMT or not.
The majority of the question and answer time was spent explaining the speakers surname, familial connections and area they grew up (in much more detail) most never actually asked questions to the Senator but instead espoused their opinion(s) to the audience.
The Senator closed the Q&A session by giving the floor to Walter Ritte (Hawaiian activist) who spoke in detail of the TMT being a turning point in the revival of the Hawaiian culture and of his personal friends/connections to the Menehune night marchers who have 'drawn a line in the sand' and would under no circumstances allow the TMT to be built - alluding to resorting to violence several times.
After much applause at 9:30pm we joined hands in circle again and another pule was held.
I was able to personally ask the Senator about meeting with OMKM and why he felt the the OMKM was not capable of rectifying the complaints he has made. In brief, he does not hold any confidence in the individuals who compromise the agency or their ability to bring about change.
I will say personally I was impressed with Senator Kahele in nearly every respect. I respect him more now than I did before the meeting and can honestly say he has changed my perspective about Mauna Kea in general. That said I still support the construction of the TMT and the $1 observatory leases; and still do not support HB 1985 or HB 1585 - I supported HB 1767 before the meeting and still support it.
I do think serious change of the management and regulatory/enforcement bodies of Mauna Kea is warranted, but do not believe HB 1585 or HB1985 would elicit such change. I would also like to point out that I truly believe Senator Kahele is acting in good faith and is a good person - I am sure we could all be friends with him; in addition, he seemed to be close friends with Dan Meisenzahl. Despite disagreeing with the gut and replace tactic and the content of these two bills I might even consider giving Senator Kahele my vote in the future depending on his opponent(s) - we could do much worse (I have personally met the majority of our state house reps and senators).
I did take some pictures of the presentation's slides I felt were pertinent as well as notes which I may upload to imgur if there is interest. That is all that comes to mind currently I've been up for about 18hrs so maybe I will have more to add tomorrow after some rest.