Big Island Video News will be featuring the presentations made by the many different speakers slated to talk at the Common Ground series. The archive will be available at this location.
LAUPAHOEHOE, Hawaii – The first of four highly anticipated TMT & Maunakea: Common Ground talks was held Tuesday night in Lauphaoehoe. The meetings are being organized by the Hilo-Hamakua Community Development Corporation. The organization is hoping to bring the community together on the highly divisive issue. Both sides of the argument – for and against building the $1.4 billion project on Mauna Kea – were represented.
Lanakila Mangauil was asked to provide the cultural perspective. Mangauil is a recognized face in the movement to block the construction of the observatory from the mountain. He was the one who first charged up the summit in October 2014 during the groundbreaking ceremony. He managed to delay the event long enough for reinforcements to arrive, halting the ceremony. He again sprang into action in March when the contractors returned to the summit to begin building the telescope. Eventually joined by hundreds of others whom share his opinion, a blockade was formed on the access road by Hale Pohaku which holds to this day… even after the highly publicized arrest of 31 individuals on April 2nd.
Is this guy independently wealthy? How does he have all this free time while the rest of us work? Where does EBT fit into his cultural perspective?
truth… Mahalo, for This Lanakila..
and Heller Worng EBT Line… U on the wrong Page…lmao
U don’t have to Be Wealthy to Speak the Turth… And u Dont have to Listen too… U Jus Need to Stay true to Ur SELF…. Ty, For My ROOTS… #iLoveMyRoots #tmtshutdown #wearemaunaawakea
ahhh the concept of a language other than the one you claim eludes you does it? did you watch the video? …where he tells you he is a teacher and answers the questions you asked?you are an idiot and because of this nobody cares or respects what you have to say. EBT?…your racism is sticking out like a sore thumb…
Darwin, keep working and paying your taxes to the illegally occupying country called the United States of America and their illegally implanted government called the Fake State of Hawaii. The bottom line is this: “Is there a Treaty of Annexation between the United States of America and the Hawaiian Kingdom”??? NO THERE ISN’T!!! Under International Law without a treaty not only is Hawaii not a part of the United States, but Hawaii is under an ILLEGAL & PROLONGED OCCUPATION by the United States of America for the past 122 years.
Your problem is that you are one of those who refuse to accept the TRUTH and how Lanakila is able to do what he does is of his concern….NOT YOURS!!! So, crawl back into that Americanized brainwashed cave you crawled out from and continue to live in the land of make believe.
Go to “hawaiiankingdom.org/welcome” and educate yourself to the….TRUTH!!!
There you go with your put downs and stereo typing. Not all of Hawaiians rely on welfare and EBT. Many of us work real jobs and pay our bills as well as taxes. We are paying for something that is illegal. You, Darwin is an example of how oppression began, putting native people down, trying to walk all over us, no respect for culture, attitudinal thinking you are better than us and most of all racist! You need to stick that opinion of yours somewhere else, perhaps where the sun don’t shine, because whatever you are trying to say to destroy us is not working anymore. We know who we are and we know that we have a voice, we know where we come from and where we are going. IMUA!!! Mahalo Nui, Lanakila, I am so proud of you! You are our warrior! Continue to do what you are doing for our precious Mauna and all of Kanaka Maoli. E’O! Malama Pono!
How did Jane Addams get to be the spokeswoman for American women in the 1920s? How did MLK get to be the spokesman for African Americans in the 1950s and 60s? Who were they and what had they done that you should care or respect what they had to say? These are equally silly questions.
I’ll explain. Despite your dubious assumptions, Lanakila has a job and is a prominent, active, and contributing member to his community. Thus, during this time of protest, he is in turn being supported by his community and the other protectors up on the mauna. A revolutionary concept, I know. It’s what happens when people band together for a cause bigger than themselves as individuals.
For “a free thinker,” as your profile says, you’re rather focused on ad hominem details instead of the ideas and arguments presented. That is if you’re even listening at all.
Ignorant….keep paying your taxes, keep going to work, and let us worry about protecting our culture and our sacred MAUNA and why the hell do you care? and if you don’t KULI KULI your WAHA!
I’m not talking about all Hawaiians I’m talking about that guy
Racism? What does race have to do with EBT? This guy clearly doesn’t work. If you don’t work and collect welfare, I have zero respect for you and could care less about your cultural perspective
I live and work in this community and till now, never heard of him.
Where does he work that he can take weeks off to block construction on Maunakea?
Why is it that you don’t want Hawaiian culture to evolve? Why does it have to be stuck in the past?
Treaty of Annexation; http://www.angelfire.com/big09a/TreatyOfAnnexationHawaiiUS.html
Clearly you did not watch this video because he introduces himself and says what he does. he is a school teacher. An educator I have know Lanakila for a few years met him when we were still in high school. You don’t have to come from money to have a voice. It is this ignorance that must be corrected. Hoolohe Pono me kou pepeau me kou naau and kou puuwai. Listen well with your ears, gut, and heart. Maka walu take in all perspectives and educate yourself
Why is it that you don’t move away from the people’s home that you hate? Where do you work? Life care center singing halo and whipping your hair to the old man sleeping.
No one said you have to come from money to have a voice. I’m simply wondering how he has all this free time to protest and be up on Maunakea. Typically if you aren’t working, you’re either wealthy or you’re living off your fellow man, the latter of which is unrespectable.
Are you paying attention? He’s currently taking leave from his job, during which time he is being supported by the other protectors of Maunakea and their supporters. That’s what communities do for each other when they subsume themselves to a greater cause. Don’t worry, none of that support is coming from your pocket.
If you had watched the video you’d know exactly where he works. He’s a teacher, mainly working in Honoka’a but also teaching classes at Waiakea Elementary school in Hilo.
He’s taking weeks off because he has to for a larger cause than himself – for his kuleana. Again, we’re lucky that Jane Addams and MLK didn’t decide that their jobs or personal concerns took precedence over their kuleana to social justice.
Hawaiian culture has evolved plenty. What you’re actually asking is why we don’t just leave behind our culture for American cultural values. If we are to be Hawaiian at all we must recognize our kuleana to this ‘aina, and to this honua in general. Perhaps it’s time that Western cultural values learn something from Hawaiian perspectives and itself evolve. Or is that too much free thinking for you?
I’m curious how someone graduates from High School in 2004 and becomes a teacher in 2005 (yes, I watched the video…please tune it at the 2 minute mark for his resume). AFAIK, you actually need a college degree from an accredited institution plus pass a few state teaching exams to become a teacher here in Hawaii. This guy is either lying or he is a rocket scientist to get his bachelor’s degree within a year of graduating high school. Which is it???
This is amazing how Lanakila tries to co-opt science into his religious views. The EXACT same nonsense being done by the religious right on the mainland and the climate change deniers. And, he and the protesters wonder why people say they are anti-science. This ENTIRE video is living proof they don’t get it! SMH.
“We’re very scientific…extremely!” @ 5:40 mark. “You wasn’t there 4 billion years ago so what does it really matter” @ 7:10. “was it so important that we have to dissect it to death? No.” @ 10:10. Does he even understand what science and the scientific method are? Let’s just take the last statement. Yes, in fact, science would have you dissect it to death until you understand all the aspects that make it so. If you can’t provide that proof, that verifiable evidence, then it is just a story…it is NOT science.
If you want more textbook definitions…
The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.
Just kind of wondering why his name isn’t listed in the Waiakea Elementary staff directory, and it’s not listed in the Honoka’a Intermediate-High School staff directory, either.
Who knows. If Disqus will let me share the links, here are some articles that speak of his varied employment over the years:
http://hamakuatimes.com/hamakua-youth-center-hyc-staff-and-special-programs-p247.htm
http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections/news/local-news/nonprofit-sought-grow-food-county-land.html
http://nipora.com/ojrzanow-hawaiian-culture-workshop-with-joshua-lanakila-o-2/442783
http://damontucker.com/tag/lanakila-mangauil/
Look, I think it’s just great that he works at youth centers, works with young people, and all the things that your links point to. But — let’s get real here.
“Who knows?” isn’t a responsive answer.
When somebody stands up in public and talks about being a teacher, and people talk about how he’s “taking weeks off” then it’s pretty obvious that we’re supposed to think he’s a teacher, like the teachers in the school system.
It seems clear that he’s not. Don’t misunderstand me. There are many teachers out in the world and they aren’t all in school and they don’t all have degrees. I have had teachers like that, and I treasure them and my time with them.
But this smells to me like people trying to raise his status by tricking readers (and viewers) into thinking he’s got more academic and professional chops than he really has.
Science admits it’s mostly fallible…not a little fallible…not somewhat fallible….MOSTLY fallible. To think that stupid people with machines will ever trump nature is is plain stupid. Keep watching mainstream media and pray to the policitian, doctor, science, “authorititative” gods like good little slaves.
what do you actually know about ‘that guy’ to make judgment? Back to watching TV, you go.
Why do you choose to pay taxes when it’s OPTIONAL to the braindead? Your taxes to to pay for illegal wars all over the world. Hope you sleep well at night.
Does ‘work’ only equate with the procurement of FRN’s (federal reserve notes–look it up or go back to sleep)
I live and work in this community and till now, never heard of you, Darwin, until you showed your absolute ignorance here. Go pay your taxes like a good slave and contribute to the murder of millions globally.
Why does it matter so much where, what, when, why he works???? Deflection?
You really don’t need to come from a brainwashed public school system to understand truth. In fact, public schools are counterproductive to real knowledge. Stay away from it and keep your kids out of it.
Only corporate slaves value jobs and a paycheck above truth. Sad.
Not at all. It’s about telling the truth — about not misleading people. Do you really think that the anti-TMT crowd got all those UHH students on board by telling the truth about such things as the true environmental issues? Much of what they said is quite false. They are still saying it (for example, that what happens at the summit will affect the Mauna Kea water table).
So here we have a guy getting his supporters to think he’s an actual teacher in the school system, when it seems pretty clear that he’s not. And on this very page you can find his supporters backing him up by alleging that he’s a teacher in the system — even naming schools that have no record of his employment there. Look at what Mark Stoleson wrote just above. What are we to make of that? Isn’t that no more than people being swayed by untruths?
It’s straight from the good old Fox News / rightwing radio playbook: assert something that’s false, don’t retract it, let the credulous come to believe it and spread it . . . . Mission accomplished.
That’s why it matters so much. Either it’s true, or it’s not. Either it’s a way to falsely gain prestige and a wider group of supporters, or it’s not.
Can you point me to anything that Paul Coleman said about himself that’s not accurate? His background? His education? If you can, then I’ll join you in going after him, too.
More senseless deflection from the real issue, TRUTH. Public school is the opposite of truth. No child left behind from being completely brainwashed by the corporate machine called U.S. Inc. Learn your history.
Why is it that YOU don’t want humanity to evolve? Why do you contribute to human enslavement?
I get the feeling you never actually studied science, or you’d understand what “fallible” means and how it’s used.
I’m guessing you think that chemtrails have something to do with it. Just a guess.
Above truth? You can’t handle the truth and a job either apparently
I’ll keep working, paying taxes and climbing up the socioeconomic ladder. You can keep living off ebt and doing nothing with your life
I suppose if you need to feed yourself, put gas in the car, go on vacation etc etc., you’re going to need some of those notes.
There’s nothing illegal about war. We’re a sovereign country and can wage war to protect American interests as needed.
Total BS. Science makes no such claims.
You are not a scientist and are not a representative of the scientific community. You aren’t even a representative of the Hawaiian community, you just speak in support of a faction of it.
Science merely claims to be imperfect and always seeking to refine its complex process to improve itself.
Religion, on the other hand, claims to be infallible and unquestionable in its authority.
The real arrogance of religion is not that it tells people what to believe but that it tells God(s) what to believe. People who speak of God(s) generally believe they speak for God(s).
And you clearly don’t know anything about nature, a force that destroys life with the same lack of concern or intent that it creates it with. Nature operates very imperfectly and at whim. Nature removes more land from the surface of Mauna Kea in a year with rain and wind than all the telescopes combined ever have or ever will.
Do you think nature cared at all about the sacred lands and sacraments to gods that were wiped out in Indonesia and Japan with earthquakes and tsunamis?
Ancient Hawaiians removed resources from Mauna Kea for numerous purposes. They did not see doing so as a violation of any sacred belief.
There is a saying: “Tradition is for man, not man for tradition.”
You’re seriously equating the TMT to the violent oppression of African-Americans?!? Of women?!?
Conflate much?
The TMT is backed by a variety of peoples of varying ethnicities, INCLUDING Hawaiians (and feminists). The TMT is a multi-ethnic, multi-national endeavor that has absolutely nothing to do with the oppression of any ethnicity.
To paraphrase the great Inigo Montoya, “You keep using this word, “ad hominem.” I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Your equivalencies are more false than George Washington’s wooden teeth.
Keep tilting at windmills, Quixote. Maybe, some day, one of them might actually turn out to be a dragon… sporting your tail.
Mother Nature: mass murderer of more innocent people than any other force in all the known world and in all of known history.
How many Hawaiians did Kam I gun down?
And what of the original inhabitants (possibly from the Marquesas) that may have been brutally subjugated and murdered by the Polynesians now commonly referred to as Hawaiian?
And what of the refusal of the Hawaiian people to eradicate one of the most destructive invasive species ever introduced by humans to the islands, the wild pig, simply out of “custom?”
Your arguments lack consistency – and honesty.
Right. Because the TMT is an affront to social justice.
Again with the false equivalencies, ad hominem, and appeals to authority figures you presumptuously claim would be opposed to the TMT.
You’re the walking embodiment of logical fallacies.
Yes, of course, because everyone who is an accredited teacher has been brainwashed.
I guess the Trask sisters are brainwashed, eh?
You never went to a university, did you?
The roads are optional?
Awesome! Stop driving on them.
Questions:
In the 70’s and early 80’s how many people were ever arrested or even cited for speaking Hawaiian anywhere? When was the last time anyone was cited or arrested just and only for speaking Hawaiian? Well?
There is a very big difference between an obsolete law that has been left on the books and is no longer enforced and one that is presently intact and enforced.
There are laws on books all over the US – thousands of them – that are no longer enforced. They get forgotten and are usually stricken when some twit tries to use them as a loophole.
For decades now, Hawaiians have been openly practicing their rituals in public and private spaces with total support (my Hawaiian half-sister being among them). The only opposition comes when a permit is required to have an event in an area that needs to be prepared in order to accommodate and forewarn the public of alterations in usual traffic.
Lanakila speaks not only against the TMT but any and all forms of construction anywhere on the mountain, the tallest on Earth, as an affront to the sacredness of the land on purely religious grounds. This, despite the fact that ancestral Hawaiians excavated materials from the mountain for various construction projects. These ancestral Hawaiians did not deem this behavior as an affront to the sacred.
If no studies have been done to verify where the water table begins why does Lanakila speculate at length on the topic? He furnishes no formal studies to back his claims on this topic.
AND… Has any study ever proven that any of the currently present telescopes have had any effect on the water table at the potable source? Have any contaminants ever been found in the potable water that were traceable to the telescopes?
Religion was used as an excuse to persecute Copernicus and Galileo and to viciously murder Hypatia of Alexandria. Religion appears to be the primary motivation behind the opposition to the TMT, which is being fallaciously equated to such atrocities as war crimes (on this very site, in fact). I challenge Lanakila to tell a Holocaust survivor that the TMT is tantamount to what s/he experienced in a concentration camp.
Why doesn’t Lanakila speak of the desecration of the islands by the presence of the wild pig, one of the most invasive and destructive non-native species in the islands, one that pretty much all Hawaiians unilaterally oppose the eradication of? And what of the numerous birds rendered extinct for nothing more than to adorn capes? It’s okay for one class of people to desecrate the lands for their own arbitrary purposes but not for others? Why was this not covered in his discussion of the “kapu laws,” which he states are environmental laws? The wild pig has been and continues to be devastating to Hawaii’s environment, native wildlife, and ecosystem in ways that the TMT can’t even sniff at.
Lanakila speaks of how the world is aware of the protest movement yet fails to acknowledge that the technology he is using, to spread this message to the world, is both directly and indirectly the result of technology exactly like the TMT. The tech the results from projects exactly like the TMT literally saves lives all over the world – and in Hawaii. The kind of tech that the TMT and its cousins inspire give birth to also has the potential to save not only huge segments of the human population but possibly of mankind en toto. That’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact. Look it up.
Lanakila speaks of the increasing cost of gas and crude. He’s right. Tourism for all but the wealthiest is, unless a magical new resource emerges to replace jet fuel, facing an increasingly bleak future in Hawaii. The economic crash that hit Hawaii during the 90’s sent a lot of Hawaiians on a mass exodus to places like Las Vegas, which is among the few places that provides opportunity to people with little more than service sector experience.
The economy of Hawaii’s future will be based on agriculture, shipping and commerce, the military, various sciences (marine biology, geology, and astrophysics being chief among them) and manufacturing. Hawaii has a strong future for a robust laboring class that should be treated and compensated fairly. It is THE hub on which the spokes and wheel of the Pacific turn. This is why no major nation will ever ignore it and why the US is, for better or worse, arguably the only developed nation that could protect it from competing interests. The expulsion of the US government would leave Hawaii vulnerable to China, Russia, the UK, or any other nation that would certainly see it as a ripe opportunity. And imagine what would play out on the world stage should North Korea take keen interest should the US leave.
It is right for Lanakila to speak in defense of Hawaii but he has to look at the bigger picture if he truly cares about its future. I see no evidence in his arguments that he is doing so. He is vilifying what is ultimately an relatively innocuous installation while also speaking against the US “occupation” while completely ignoring the power vacuum that would result if his vision of a US-free Hawaii came to pass.
Using terms like “complete devastation” is also just patently absurd. Complete devastation is what Hiroshima and Nagasaki looked like after the bombs were dropped. It is what Dresden looked like after the fire bombing. It is what Nanking looked like after the Japanese invaded. It is what Indonesia and Japan (and Hilo) looked like after earthquakes and tsunamis wreaked genuine havoc… To use such terms as “complete devastation” and “war crimes” in the context of the TMT is a total insult to the victims of such atrocities. It also makes one’s position look incredibly suspect on its face.
The inference that 90% of Hawaii’s forest is now gone due to the effects of Western colonization is patently false. Look at Hawaii. Look at 100% of it. Look at 10% of it. Only 10% of Hawaii is forested? Really?
The TMT is not represented by military interests. Nothing that the prime movers behind the TMT have released to the press has been “militant” in tone. With few exceptions, the overwhelming majority of articles have been entirely civil in tone. Many major media sources have published articles sympathetic to the protest. Lanakila’s proclamations that all the major media are unilaterally vilifying the protestors is simply not true. There are exceptions but they do not dictate the rule.
If you read the comments sections in most of the articles covering the story there is a very large number of people speaking in support of the protest. And speaking of militancy, most of the threats of violence have been coming from those within the protest movement. One such person even threatened violence against a hapa teenage girl who started circulating a petition in support of the TMT. The fact is that, especially in Hawaii, the only people being threatened in a “militaristic” fashion are those who support the TMT, many of whom are of Hawaiian descent.
As for “conservation lands,” the TMT is consistent with all construction projects that are approved to be placed in conservancy regions throughout the entire US. The TMT is not a hotel or any similar structure that would significantly increase human traffic in any manner that poses a threat.
There are many worthy causes to be fighting in Hawaii. This is not one of them.
The TMT will do much to help move Hawaii and Hawaiians into the future. What Lanakila proposes holds Hawaii back in an attempt to “restore” the islands to a romantic idyll that never really existed in the first place.
No one is asking the Hawaiian people to forget. Not at all. But everyone has to learn to let go.
Every society that clings to the past gets buried with it. THAT is the natural law.
Questions:
In the 70’s and early 80’s how many people were ever arrested or even cited for speaking Hawaiian anywhere? When was the last time anyone was cited or arrested just and only for speaking Hawaiian? Well?
There is a very big difference between an obsolete law that has been left on the books and is no longer enforced and one that is presently intact and enforced.
There are laws on books all over the US – thousands of them – that are no longer enforced. They get forgotten and are usually stricken when some twit tries to use them as a loophole.
For decades now, Hawaiians have been openly practicing their rituals in public and private spaces with total support (my Hawaiian half-sister being among them). The only opposition comes when a permit is required to have an event in an area that needs to be prepared in order to accommodate and forewarn the public of alterations in usual traffic.
Lanakila speaks not only against the TMT but any and all forms of construction anywhere on the mountain, the tallest on Earth, as an affront to the sacredness of the land on purely religious grounds. This, despite the fact that ancestral Hawaiians excavated materials from the mountain for various construction projects. These ancestral Hawaiians did not deem this behavior as an affront to the sacred.
If no studies have been done to verify where the water table begins why does Lanakila speculate at length on the topic? He furnishes no formal studies to back his claims on this topic.
AND… Has any study ever proven that any of the currently present telescopes have had any effect on the water table at the potable source? Have any contaminants ever been found in the potable water that were traceable to the telescopes?
Religion was used as an excuse to persecute Copernicus and Galileo and to viciously murder Hypatia of Alexandria. Religion appears to be the primary motivation behind the opposition to the TMT, which is being fallaciously equated to such atrocities as war crimes (on this very site, in fact). I challenge Lanakila to tell a Holocaust survivor that the TMT is tantamount to what s/he experienced in a concentration camp.
Why doesn’t Lanakila speak of the desecration of the islands by the presence of the wild pig, one of the most invasive and destructive non-native species in the islands, one that pretty much all Hawaiians unilaterally oppose the eradication of? And what of the numerous birds rendered extinct for nothing more than to adorn capes? It’s okay for one class of people to desecrate the lands for their own arbitrary purposes but not for others? Why was this not covered in his discussion of the “kapu laws,” which he states are environmental laws? The wild pig has been and continues to be devastating to Hawaii’s environment, native wildlife, and ecosystem in ways that the TMT can’t even sniff at.
Lanakila speaks of how the world is aware of the protest movement yet fails to acknowledge that the technology he is using, to spread this message to the world, is both directly and indirectly the result of technology exactly like the TMT. The tech the results from projects exactly like the TMT literally saves lives all over the world – and in Hawaii. The kind of tech that the TMT and its cousins inspire give birth to also has the potential to save not only huge segments of the human population but possibly of mankind en toto. That’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact. Look it up.
Lanakila speaks of the increasing cost of gas and crude. He’s right. Tourism for all but the wealthiest is, unless a magical new resource emerges to replace jet fuel, facing an increasingly bleak future in Hawaii. The economic crash that hit Hawaii during the 90’s sent a lot of Hawaiians on a mass exodus to places like Las Vegas, which is among the few places that provides opportunity to people with little more than service sector experience.
The economy of Hawaii’s future will be based on agriculture, shipping and commerce, the military, various sciences (marine biology, geology, and astrophysics being chief among them) and manufacturing. Hawaii has a strong future for a robust laboring class that should be treated and compensated fairly. It is THE hub on which the spokes and wheel of the Pacific turn. This is why no major nation will ever ignore it and why the US is, for better or worse, arguably the only developed nation that could protect it from competing interests. The expulsion of the US government would leave Hawaii vulnerable to China, Russia, the UK, or any other nation that would certainly see it as a ripe opportunity. And imagine what would play out on the world stage should North Korea take keen interest should the US leave.
It is right for Lanakila to speak in defense of Hawaii but he has to look at the bigger picture if he truly cares about its future. I see no evidence in his arguments that he is doing so. He is vilifying what is ultimately an relatively innocuous installation while also speaking against the US “occupation” while completely ignoring the power vacuum that would result if his vision of a US-free Hawaii came to pass.
Using terms like “complete devastation” is also just patently absurd. Complete devastation is what Hiroshima and Nagasaki looked like after the bombs were dropped. It is what Dresden looked like after the fire bombing. It is what Nanking looked like after the Japanese invaded. It is what Indonesia and Japan (and Hilo) looked like after earthquakes and tsunamis wreaked genuine havoc… To use such terms as “complete devastation” and “war crimes” in the context of the TMT is a total insult to the victims of such atrocities. It also makes one’s position look incredibly suspect on its face.
The inference that 90% of Hawaii’s forest is now gone due to the effects of Western colonization is patently false. Look at Hawaii. Look at 100% of it. Look at 10% of it. Only 10% of Hawaii is forested? Really?
The TMT is not represented by military interests. Nothing that the prime movers behind the TMT have released to the press has been “militant” in tone. With few exceptions, the overwhelming majority of articles have been entirely civil in tone. Many major media sources have published articles sympathetic to the protest. Lanakila’s proclamations that all the major media are unilaterally vilifying the protestors is simply not true. There are exceptions but they do not dictate the rule.
If you read the comments sections in most of the articles covering the story there is a very large number of people speaking in support of the protest. And speaking of militancy, most of the threats of violence have been coming from those within the protest movement. One such person even threatened violence against a hapa teenage girl who started circulating a petition in support of the TMT. The fact is that, especially in Hawaii, the only people being threatened in a “militaristic” fashion are those who support the TMT, many of whom are of Hawaiian descent.
As for “conservation lands,” the TMT is consistent with all construction projects that are approved to be placed in conservancy regions throughout the entire US. The TMT is not a hotel or any similar structure that would significantly increase human traffic in any manner that poses a threat.
There are many worthy causes to be fighting in Hawaii. This is not one of them.
The TMT will do much to help move Hawaii and Hawaiians into the future. What Lanakila proposes holds Hawaii back in an attempt to “restore” the islands to a romantic idyll that never really existed in the first place.
No one is asking the Hawaiian people to forget. Not at all. But everyone has to learn to let go.
Every society that clings to the past gets buried with it. THAT is the natural law.