Telescope - The View from Afar - Part 6

TMT supporters rally again at the state Capitol

Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Timothy Hurley, 8-2-19 via UC Daily News Clips

Thirty Meter Telescope supporters Thursday rallied at the state Capitol for the second week in a row, and like last week, they were greeted by a sizable group of TMT opponents. In a smaller replay of last week’s event, about 70 supporters lined Beretania Street on the Capitol side, while some 50 anti-TMT activists lined the mauka side. For more than an hour, drivers honked their support for sign-carrying and flag-waving demonstrators on both sides of the street as police looked on. Last week about 200 lined each side of Beretania without incident.

“The number of people here today is awesome since we thought of rallying only four days ago. So I think it’s great that supporters will come out after a big turnout last week,” said organizer Malia Martin with Imua TMT. “We’re out here telling our story. We’re not doing the numbers counting,” co-organizer Samuel Wilder King II said.

King and Martin, both Native Hawaiians, said lots of people remain intimidated and reluctant to publicly show their support for the next-generation telescope project.

“You got to bring more people out to speak publicly about it, and that’s the next steps: talking to people, getting them more comfortable with it,” King said.

On the mountain, meanwhile, anti-TMT activists canceled their regular midday media briefing Thursday, saying they were focused on storm preparations as Tropical Storms Erick and Flossie approach the islands. However, music, chants and offerings continued as usual during the noontime protocol on the closed Mauna Kea Access Road, where a crowd of about 350 people gathered to watch, chant and pray.

A 20-foot shipping container was deposited at the puuhonua site at Puu Huluhulu, and crews began loading items into it shortly after noon. The protesters have set up tents to shelter a warehouse operation, a kitchen, a day care center and other facilities, but it was unclear Thursday whether organizers planned to pull down each of those tents. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center has issued a high-wind advisory for Hawaii County as well as a flash flood watch as Hurricane Erick passes south of the island.

In Honolulu, on the kiai, or “protector,” side of Beretania Street, Lehua and Kealaula Cockett of Honolulu stood at the curb holding anti-TMT signs with their two sons and daughter. Lehua Cockett said she and her husband hadn’t gotten a chance to go to the mountain yet.

“We’re doing our part,” she said. “It’s desecration. It’s disrespectful. It hurts.”

Anti-TMT leader Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu said that, like last week, many of her followers felt compelled to respond to the pro-TMT demonstration, and she was there primarily to enforce the nonviolent “kapu aloha” protocol.

“We have seen how (the TMT) has galvanized our people, and emotions are running very, very high,” she said. “We’ve seen people come out for our marches and rallies in the past, but this is different.”