Scientific ‘gift’
With interest from afar I have followed the divisive controversy surrounding the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on the sacred lands of Maunakea.
All land on our planet is sacred, and we humans should always carefully consider the use to which we commit this precious and limited resource. I believe no use of this land could have a more positive impact for all of us than a commitment to a scientific endeavor that will benefit all mankind with increasing knowledge of our world. There would be no desecration or environmental harm.
There are many proposed projects that are toxically harmful to our planet, but the telescope is not one of them.
In my own state, a proposal for an environmentally disastrous mine (the Rosemont Mine) has been heroically protested by environmentalists and native people, and our courts have taken an important step in supporting their efforts.
Those who use reason and logic to weigh the evidence in these cases, instead of personal bias and agendas, can see through the misinformation that is unfortunately rampant in our society today.
I hope the people of Hawaii are able to take advantage of the gift they are offered to be a home for this amazing scientific instrument.
Laura Foster
Tucson, Ariz.
What’s our future?
Regarding the 2020 election, I’m the last person to want to stir up anger, but there’s a difference between anger and righteous indignation. And based on any study of history, politics and human nature, one can see that if the Democratic Party doesn’t inflame entirely justified righteous indignation against the richest one-tenth of 1% in the next election, the American form of government and the American dream will almost certainly die.
(I say the Democratic Party here because the Republican Party will never back such an agenda.)
The oligarchs, who’ve had their way with the American system since World War II, will then succeed in dragging us into another feudal age — with them, at least temporarily, as our feudal lords.
The reason is simple. For our system to function, there must be a balance of power between the different classes and interest groups in society. That is the essence of a democratic republic. That balance of power is what separates our form of government from dictatorship, plutocracy, monarchy or oligarchy — all forms of government that (even given the serious flaws of our system) are far worse. This is something Americans are now in serious danger of discovering for themselves.
Ultimately, these are not questions of left or right, liberal or conservative (words that in our current political context have no definable meaning). They are questions of the human soul, of egotism and self-aggrandizement, or love and altruism.
Which of these guiding sets of principles we now determine — with our vote — to live for will decide whether civilization has a future.
Harley Brent Hightower
Hilo