When you want to see the stars, find someplace dark
Comments on reality
We are now in March, looking back to October when the TMT contested case began. Five months of hearings endlessly repeating the same details about every aspect of the case.
Yes… My patience has run out long ago.
Among the endless hours of testimony there have been occasional moments of fireworks. We have heard wild theories, mangled science, inexcusable ignorance, evidence of unemployment claims fraud, and several very likely incidents of outright perjury by telescope opponents.
There are days when it seems like the entire island population comes to Mauna Kea. This is certainly the case on a snow day, the first day the road is open after a fresh snowfall will see a crowd of folks ascending to the summit to play in the snow.
One local tradition is the hauling of snow from the summit to the beach. On some days dozens of pickup trucks can be found on the summit, or filled with snow making their way down the mountain road. The snow will be the basis of parties and games on the beach or in green tropical lawns. Online you can find photos of snowmen under palm trees or snowball fights and smiling keiki on Hilo yards.
A number of other commentators are noting the use of alternative facts by telescope opponents. While I have commented a few times here on DV about the issue, it is heartening to note that I am not alone in this.
Many of the witnesses have testified on cultural and religious issues, no problems here, these are personal matters where there is no objective truth. But over and over we have seen witnesses make very specific physical and scientific claims that are simply wrong. It will be interesting to see how these inaccuracies are addressed in the findings of the hearing officer.
No, Mrs. Townsend, there are no glaciers on Mauna Kea. There used to be, about ten thousand years ago, but they are gone now.
On Monday I tuned back into the TMT contested case hearing, it is a soap opera that has become rather addictive over the last few months. I will often keep the video feed up in the corner of my monitor, attempting to pick up the more interesting bits through the day.
Mr. Michael Lee was offered as a witness by Harry Fergerstrom, one of the more extreme participants in the ongoing contested case hearing. It is no surprise that this witness would espouse some of the more interesting claims made against the TMT project. I expected some wild claims, I was surprised at just how wild.
With a few notable exceptions the petitioners in the ongoing TMT contested case hearing are lay people with no background in astronomy or the natural sciences around which much of the testimony concerns. Sometimes this disparity results in innocent misunderstandings, something to be expected. Unfortunately in this case these misunderstandings are all too often used to justify ugly insinuations or even accusations of misconduct by telescope opponents.
As the TMT contested case drags on we continue to watch. Thanks to the efforts of the staff of Nā Leo TV the entire proceedings are streamed live. Several of the latest witnesses for the University are Hawaiian supporters of the telescope project, it is these voices that I am most interested in hearing.
“Where did you grow up?”
“How old were you when you learned that?”
“Who taught you that?”
“When was the last time you were on Mauna Kea?”
“When did you last worship on Mauna Kea?”
“Where did your family worship?”
“Do you pray to Poliʻahu?”
“Who are the parents of Poliʻahu?”
What is it about online commenting that enables people to make totally racist and insulting comments?
I make a point of following the pro/anti TMT issue. It is an issue that reveals some of the simmering tensions here in the islands, among those are issues of race and cultural identity.
You cannot reason with zealots. They deify a pile of rocks and worship a mythical past which was in reality a Hobbesian fantasm of violence, disease and poverty. – Richard Johnson Esq. in a Civil Beat comment
I have neglected to include the most egregious comments here, they are just too rude for me to re-post. You will just have to settle for the moderately insulting comments here. Want to see the worst? Just wait for another TMT article in the local press and read the comments.
We have been through weeks of the TMT permit contested case hearings at this point, with no end in sight. I have often kept the live feed in the corner of my computer screen through the day.
Other petitioners seem unable or unwilling to understand repeated instructions from the hearing officer. At least most of the grandstanding has settled down as it became apparent that it would not be tolerated in the hearing room and that Judge Amano would evict those who repeatedly disrupted proceedings.
Several times during the recent contested case hearings I have listened to telescope opponents ask witnesses on the stand and under oath, “Have you asked the mauna?” or “Have you asked Poliʻahu?” I have heard a dozen variations on the question, but that is the general sense of it. They are asking if the witness has asked the gods or goddesses who are reported to dwell on Mauna Kea if building the telescopes is allowed. Poliʻahu in particular, the goddess of snows and ice, is identified with the summit of Mauna Kea.
I think of all the nights I have spent alone on the mountain. So often I have sat in the quiet, with nothing but the mauna and the stars. Sometimes I am sitting beside a small telescope, and taking a break to simply enjoy the night. Sometimes I am waiting for a camera, somewhere nearby in the dark. Sometimes I am just sitting doing nothing at all, simply enjoying the beauty of this place. In any case I am alone with the silence, the stars, the mountain, and my thoughts.
Tomorrow is election day. A day so many of us have been awaiting, and dreading. This election has seen so much rancor, so much passion, it is difficult to measure by any past standards. Tomorrow it will be over in one way, and I suspect, just starting in others.
This election is too important and life has a way of disturbing any plans. Not that my vote will decide the presidency, that will have already occurred by the time polls close in Hawaii. But rather it is too important to me personally. I can not abide the thought of not having voted in this election, an election where so much is at stake for our country.
There is only one acceptable outcome tomorrow… That Trump loses hard. That our country rejects hate, rejects divisiveness, rejects racism, and rejects the lies. I, like so many others, will be watching the election results very closely tomorrow, sweating the results from each battleground state. It will be a long day.