Construction crews turned back by protesters at Mauna Kea
Despite an announcement that construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea would resume today, construction crews turned back when faced with protesters who blocked the road at 10,000 foot elevation.
The protesters, who number about 200, left the road when police asked them to, then regrouped further up the road. The caravan came to an abrupt stop at the 10,000-foot level at about 12:30 p.m. because protesters had placed boulders in the road, blocking the vehicles.
Andre Perez, a Hawaiian activist and teaching assistant at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, was among the protesters arrested at about 11:30 a.m. “We have a human right to control our land. This is not American land,” Perez said as police took him away.
The first arrest happened at 8:39 a.m. and police arrested more people as the protest moved up the mountain. [emphasis mine]
First, I want to know exactly when this activist purchased the land, since he claims he has the right to control it. Second, what right does he have to rank himself above everyone else in this matter? Does he consider native Hawaiians superior to non-natives? If so, isn’t that somewhat racist and bigoted?
Finally, based on his own words above I think the activist revealed the true hatred that fuels his actions (as well as his fellow protesters). He really doesn’t care about the mountain’s sacredness. He simply hates the United States and wants to destroy it.
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Despite an announcement that construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea would resume today, construction crews turned back when faced with protesters who blocked the road at 10,000 foot elevation.
The protesters, who number about 200, left the road when police asked them to, then regrouped further up the road. The caravan came to an abrupt stop at the 10,000-foot level at about 12:30 p.m. because protesters had placed boulders in the road, blocking the vehicles.
Andre Perez, a Hawaiian activist and teaching assistant at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, was among the protesters arrested at about 11:30 a.m. “We have a human right to control our land. This is not American land,” Perez said as police took him away.
The first arrest happened at 8:39 a.m. and police arrested more people as the protest moved up the mountain. [emphasis mine]
First, I want to know exactly when this activist purchased the land, since he claims he has the right to control it. Second, what right does he have to rank himself above everyone else in this matter? Does he consider native Hawaiians superior to non-natives? If so, isn’t that somewhat racist and bigoted?
Finally, based on his own words above I think the activist revealed the true hatred that fuels his actions (as well as his fellow protesters). He really doesn’t care about the mountain’s sacredness. He simply hates the United States and wants to destroy it.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Please educate yourself. It is not a race issue it is a political wrong by the United States. Holomua. We seek compliance with the law! It is our kuliana (responsibility) to do the right thing. Hawaiians have never been racist or bigots. We practice aloha and follow our Queen’s guidance and mandate to allow the United States to follow their own and international law. I know of no Hawaiian who wishes to destroy the United States. We only ask them to honor themselves. Ku Kia`i Mauna! We are Mauna Kea!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow_of_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii
You can mouth whatever platitudes you like, but I am only expressing my impression of the protesters from their own words. Repeatedly they have expressed a disgust with non-natives and a hostility to the United States. Bigotry is bigotry. Just because they belong to a so-called minority does not give them the right to hate others because of their race or ethnicity.
They have also ignored a very detailed negotiated agreement between the astronomy community and the Hawaiian community that has worked for decades. Where were they for the past ten years when this arrangement was being worked out? They had ample opportunity to protest beforehand, and did not.
Please educate yourself.
Roger. Wilco. Bing, rinse, repeat.
It is not a race issue it is a political wrong by the United States.
So you say. Personally, I think we did Native Hawaiians a favor by deposing the Queen. If you look at how the subject populations of other “nations” ruled by tribal barbarian royal families have fared in the years since 1898, you might be inclined to agree that Native Hawaiians dodged a bullet by not following the path of bloody repression, in-group corruption and endemic poverty that those less fortunate parts of the world endured and are still, in many cases, enduring.
Holomua.
This word is said to mean progress or moving forward. By all means, let’s. That’s what the Thirty Meter Telescope is intended to do – enable the progress of astronomical knowledge.
We seek compliance with the law!
Not the laws against trespassing and the blocking of public thoroughfares it would seem.
It is our kuliana (responsibility) to do the right thing.
Your notion of the “right thing” seems conveniently flexible.
Hawaiians have never been racist or bigots.
I’ll see you your Wikipedia cite and call.
We practice aloha and follow our Queen’s guidance and mandate to allow the United States to follow their own and international law.
The last actual Queen of Hawaii is long dead, though I suppose her “guidance” lives on in some ways. I find that there is a pretender to the throne named Akahi Nui who had a “coronation” in 1998. He has apparently issued pretend passports and signed some pretend treaties. These seem to have roughly the same legal legitimacy as those deeds to Lunar and Martian properties that other charlatans with delusions of grandeur also peddle. No monarch any longer has any temporal authority in Hawaii. I regard this an an unalloyed Good Thing.
I know of no Hawaiian who wishes to destroy the United States.
Just its sovereignty I guess.
There are at least a few aggrieved nitwits in every state of the union who propose secession. I grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There were two secessionist movements there. One just wanted to secede from the state of Michigan and become the separate state of Superior. The other wanted to secede from the U.S. entirely. I now live in California. Recently, there has been some loose talk about slicing up the state into as many as six or eight pieces.
Unlike in Hawaii, racial minorities don’t seem to be significant players in any of these mainland movements. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this is because there are essentially no racial minorities resident there. In California, none of the non-white populations seems to see any tribal advantage to be had in busting up the state. I agree.
There seems to be some question as to just what percentage of the Hawaiian population is actually of “native” stock but none of the figures I’ve seen exceed 25% and some are in the teens. The Hawaiian secessionist/independence movements all seem to be predicated on rule of the 3/4 – 5/6 non-Hawaiian population by the minority Native population. Good luck with that.