08-09-2019, 05:07 AM
I keep talking about a silent majority of Native Hawaiians that support the TMT. I hope that part is true. If it is this is the logical next step, to appeal to them. Those who feel good about blocking public roads are probably not reachable but at least in theory they are the minority.
It seems plain that there is fear of retaliation against those who speak up in favor of the TMT. In this climate that is unavoidable. The protesters are visibly standing up for what they believe in although I think that the risks they are taking (arrest, in front of cameras, by police who later release them) are less than the risks that can be inferred await those who cross them. Prominent Hawaiians visibly standing up for the TMT would be a long awaited revelation.
There was a short report on the protests on the news in Central NY recently. As is the style these days the predominantly white news personalities were cheerfully bantering about this sort of "feel good" story and generally taking a sort of knee-jerk "enlightened" stance. One asked "can't they build it anywhere else?" To me that is a strange question because first, no, there is nowhere else on earth that is as good and second why would they look elsewhere? They have the support of the majority of Hawaii's citizens, the support of the majority of Native Hawaiians, and they have satisfied all the legal requirements. The question is sort of like can't black kids go to school somewhere else. Well sure. Why do you ask? I mean this news guy literally could not have considered the implications of his statement and yet he felt totally at ease making it. That would probably be different if there was a kindly Tutu on the record waxing poetic about her grandchild the astronomer carrying on the Hawaiian tradition of astronomy and how Hawaiians can now continue to lead the world in discovery.
It seems plain that there is fear of retaliation against those who speak up in favor of the TMT. In this climate that is unavoidable. The protesters are visibly standing up for what they believe in although I think that the risks they are taking (arrest, in front of cameras, by police who later release them) are less than the risks that can be inferred await those who cross them. Prominent Hawaiians visibly standing up for the TMT would be a long awaited revelation.
There was a short report on the protests on the news in Central NY recently. As is the style these days the predominantly white news personalities were cheerfully bantering about this sort of "feel good" story and generally taking a sort of knee-jerk "enlightened" stance. One asked "can't they build it anywhere else?" To me that is a strange question because first, no, there is nowhere else on earth that is as good and second why would they look elsewhere? They have the support of the majority of Hawaii's citizens, the support of the majority of Native Hawaiians, and they have satisfied all the legal requirements. The question is sort of like can't black kids go to school somewhere else. Well sure. Why do you ask? I mean this news guy literally could not have considered the implications of his statement and yet he felt totally at ease making it. That would probably be different if there was a kindly Tutu on the record waxing poetic about her grandchild the astronomer carrying on the Hawaiian tradition of astronomy and how Hawaiians can now continue to lead the world in discovery.