HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0383.022 2018-2020 COMM, X83
From: Bill Jardine
To: Council Testimony
Subject: Testimony re: Resolution 233-19Im JUL 9-3
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Date: Tuesday,July 23,2019 8:28:35 AM
TO; Hawaii County Council
Aloha Chair Chung,Vice Chair Eoff and Council Members,
Thank you for this opportunity to speak out as an old-timer living in Waimea,on the slopes of
Mauna Kea.I moved here from Oahu in 1957 and love the mountain as well as anyone alive today.
For many,many years,the science community behind the proposed Thirty Millimeter Telescope
have met with and accommodated every opponent's concerns.I believe they have delayed the
construction of the world's finest telescope for over ten years while accommodating everyone's
concerns.Now with all approvals in hand and all accommodations made,a group of intractable
opponents are performing civil disobedience to the discomfort and danger of the public seemingly
heedless of the very long and complicated process that has been completed.
The protestors claim"sacred"status for the top of Mauna Kea,where the original residents of
Hawaii mined and quarried the dense basalt rock,removing the stone and taking it off the mountain
for their own personal usage. Sacred indeed!Is this the same religion that was declared dead before
the missionaries even arrived in Hawaii?Is this the same religion that accepted human sacrifice as a
legitimate way to appeased the pantheistic gods of the time?If not,which religion is this that claims
sacred status for the adze quarry and surrounding cinder fields?
The Hawaiian people embraced new knowledge,whether written language or science or medicine.
Even the protestors could not arrive at the junction of the Daniel K Inouye Highway and the Mauna
Kea Access road if it were not for man's advancing knowledge that has delivered clothing,
automobiles,even roads themselves beyond the imagination of the original Hawaiians.Now they tell
us there should be no advance in our knowledge of the stars that the original Hawaiians revered.
Even a telescope that does not quarry the mountain the way the Hawaiians did at the time of the
ancient religion is now a violation of the new`old"religion?
The suggestion that this project be delayed because a group of media-savvy protestors are acting up
on the back side of Mauna Kea is preposterous and I urge you to deny this foolish gesture.
Mahalo for your mana'o,
William N Jardine
65-1291 Kawaihae Road
Kamuela,'HI 9674
(808)885-6061
Comm. N ✓'�1'
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