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Whether I agree with their stance on TMT or not, many Hawaiian people are making contributions to fellow Hawaiians on a daily or weekly basis. My sources are people I know personally. These are just off the top of my head:
Youth mentoring
Land clean ups
volunteering at vax clinics and promoting vaccinations
Caring for covid patients
teaching hula to keiki
teaching martial arts to youth
reviving taro growing
Certainty will be the death of us.
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many Hawaiian people are making contributions to fellow Hawaiians on a daily or weekly basis.
Yes, that’s true.
And I’m sure it has a positive affect on the lives of the many people it touches.
I simply wanted to point out that the groups and organizations at the Mauna Kea protests specifically stated their goals were to improve the lives of Native Hawaiians & the protect the environment of the mountain. The individuals you know personally, working at land cleanups and taro planting have probably contributed more to those objectives than the organized groups on the mountain, from what I’ve seen. Your friends don’t talk the talk, they walk the walk. Thankfully.
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Many of them are strongly against the building of the TMT and all of them participated in at least some of the protests on the mauna. That's why I listed those individuals.
Certainty will be the death of us.
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I'm not sure this particular discussion will end up well. The Mauna Kea Observatories are involved in helping out the local community through the Food Basket, they've built and provided free equipment to doctors and nurses on the island in order to reduce their chances of catching Covid, all their local employees are paid well and have access to health care, vaccinations, free tests for employees and their families, and weekly/daily requests for volunteer help on the island for a variety of issues including Mauna Kea and the whole island.
Basically, people on either side of the TMT argument help our community. All of us should applaud the help everyone on either side of the argument provides to the Big Island community.
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I think the construction and operation of TMT would put a lot more money and education into our community, enabling even more acts of kindness and teaching. A virtuous cycle that gets us away from dependence on tourism, stops brain drain, attracts talent and wealth to the island, which allows for local businesses to thrive, more investment in our education, better healthcare, attracting more non-exploitive business, creating more good jobs...
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The fact that the TMT is not built yet is disfunctional Hawaii in a coconutshell.
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"All of us should applaud the help everyone on either side of the argument provides to the Big Island community."
Agreed. The "us" vs. "them" is what's driving us apart.
Certainty will be the death of us.
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"All of us should applaud the help everyone on either side of the argument provides to the Big Island community."
...
Agreed.
Yes.
It doesn't matter what your preferences are, your politics, your beliefs, any of that. What counts is whether or not you make a positive contribution to our island home. And the world.
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09-14-2021, 08:27 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-15-2021, 12:46 AM by HereOnThePrimalEdge.)
The Mauna Kea Working Group, whose stated purpose is to recommend a new management and governance structure which will oversee the telescope community atop Mauna Kea, has again delayed their visit to the mountain due to COVID. An onsite tour was deemed necessary because:
“The intention was to visit the mountain, since not everybody (in the working group) had been there,” said Hilo Rep. Mark Nakashima, who chairs the group. “We thought it would help for people to become more familiar with the mountain and get a sense of the physical layout.”
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/202...-maunakea/
So...
After everything that has been said of Mauna Kea, its heritage, culture, history, sacredness... some of the people entrusted with a decision that may affect its future have never been there. And if they've never been there, what are the chances they understand the full scope of the controversy? Or the chances they've spoken with people at the observatories? Or people in the protest groups who had blocked the road?
It makes you wonder what the qualifications were for an appointment to the group.
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I am biased in that my brother worked at the IRTF for a decade or so and went to the summit on a monthly basis. I myself visited a few times. Our experience is that the whole cultural scene has been grossly exaggerated. The premise of people claiming that construction of the TMT will interfere with their generations long practice of worship at the summit is flawed because they basically have not been there until now and from what I have heard maybe not even now.
So, people talking big who have never even been there? Sounds about right.
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