‘Shocked’ on the mauna
My wife and I were shocked earlier this month when we drove past the Maunakea Access Road.
The “protesters” have erected dozens of shoddy, makeshift tents and structures, including a wood platform, along about a mile stretch of the Daniel K. Inouye Highway (Saddle Road).
The whole area is an absolute atrocity and probably illegal! There’s even a temporary stop light at the access road intersection, I imagine to slow down traffic for protester safety when crossing Saddle Road and enhance the ability for police to issue tickets for innocuous vehicular offenses to passersby.
The state should have long ago anticipated this mess, but never developed a plan to deal with it — typical of the way government reacts instead of prepares.
Mayor Harry Kim’s worthy plan was doomed from the start with no positive input/endorsement by the anti-Thirty Meter Telescope crowd. No one seems to want to physically act to stop this ridiculous situation, which we should know by now will never be resolved, given the unwavering protester obstinacy.
Just arrest a few leaders, and hope for the best. No one wants a violent solution, but violence will only occur by protester resistance to legal attempts to remove them from the area, where they most certainly will return or be replaced by others.
One approach might be to simply and continually remove any illegal overnight structures, or pass legislation, if necessary, to do so. And bus people away from any attempts to block legal Maunakea access. The expense to do this would, I believe, be justified/supported by most of us — the silent, law-abiding majority.
But, the way things are going, be prepared to never see the TMT get built!
Neal Herbert
Hilo
Remember when?
Remember when we would drive up Maunakea when it snowed to have snowball fights and let our kids play?
Remember when folks would bring down truckloads of snow and build snowmen on the shore of Hilo Bay?
That was before Maunakea rangers were hired to “keep us safe” by closing the road above Halepohaku.
That was before the self-appointed Maunakea “protectors” decided the mauna belonged only to them and kept everyone away.
AUWE. ENOUGH ALREADY!
Have a super Thanksgiving!
Jack Lockwood
Hilo