TMT construction begins Monday 15 July

[TomK]

TMT - 
Anyone who works for the observatories or is in some way connected with them is probably better off not stating their opinion or making comments perceived as pro-TMT at this point. The protestors have turned the TMT discussion into a team sport, anyone not for their stance is in their view against them.  Facts and logic such as pollution of the Mauna Kea water table degraded into emotional outrage long ago.  It’s turned Native Hawaiian family members against other family members if they won’t join the protest.  Any comment or opinion in favor of the observatories will become locker room bulletin board material (as it’s termed in sports) to rile up the team and get their blood boiling.  Except instead of a bulletin board it’s social media that reaches thousands.

Thank you, finally a voice of reason. As I explained earlier, this is not simple and it certainly isn't just a TMT vs native Hawaiian issue due to the upcoming end of the master lease.

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My suggestion is to give one or more of the decommissioned telescopes to native Hawaiians.  Hey, why not?

I'm not entirely sure how that would help. Firstly, decommissioned telescopes are removed and the land returned to its original state per the lease agreement, and secondly, only one telescope has been decommissioned so far (the CSO) and is currently in a state of being removed when it's allowed.

If you want to give a working telescope to native Hawaiians, then I suspect that will come across as somewhat patronizing because you can't just take over a telescope without passing on the knowledge of how to operate it and its instruments without keeping most of the original staff there. If you want to keep it as a husk of an observatory and only the building remaining, then what's achieved? To develop it into something else would require exactly the same kind of work at the summit that the protesters want to stop.