Is TMT really needed?
Mr. Barry Taniguchi’s Thirty Meter Telescope column (Tribune-Herald, April 21) is disturbing and loaded with self-sanctifying innuendos, one of which is a veiled threat toward persons opposed to the divisive, proposed astronomical wonder.
Congratulations to those who took the pictures of “Powehi,” the black hole some 54 million light years from Earth — and they did it without a Thirty Meter Telescope!
To understand the need for a TMT, we should know that it is a Quixotic quest to romance The Singularity, that enigmatic mystery moment that triggered the Big Bang theory some 13 billion years ago. Star-gazers have wrestled with this baby since Day One. How humanity will survive without new information on this philosophical conundrum is anybody’s guess.
It is mistaken to think that no TMT would relegate Hawaii to a second-rate astronomy research center. The technology behind space exploration is in its infancy; larger telescopes are already being built, and Hubble-type satellites, as well as our (Earth’s) moon, are being surveyed for research and some, perhaps diabolical, purposes.
As for training and education in astronomy, Hawaii’s place is secure and will not be betrayed, as was the planet Pluto, by the pseudo gods that name, number and measure the heavens.
Particularly upsetting to me is the writer’s statement that the rule of law and democracy will contend against those citizens who oppose the TMT on Maunakea. “I pray that no one is hurt if protesters have to be physically removed to follow the rule of law.”
This law referred to is the law imposed by those treasonous persons who broke the laws and their word of honor in overthrowing the Kingdom of Hawaii that had welcomed and allowed them to prosper back in 1893. The vast majority of the citizens of Hawaii then did not want an end to the kingdom. Following Taniguchi’s logic, all laws born of that treasonous overthrow are nondemocratic and therefore illegal. Should they be obeyed and supported, considering today’s critical issues?
To close on a positive note: Pohakuloa may well be the best site on the planet for the much-needed International Home of the Olympics, much as Athens once was in the days at the birth of this truly international attempt at brotherhood.
How much money, jobs, prestige and goodwill would that generate for the state, county and nation? Can we trump that?
Think big — and most of all be PONO with the Earth. Every day is Earth Day with aloha ‘aina!
Ua Mau Ke Ea o Ka ‘Aina i ka Pono!
Tomas Belsky and Moanike‘ala Akaka
Hilo