The Thirty Meter Telescope protesters are doing everything they can to taunt the government into taking action to forcibly remove them from the road and start moving heavy equipment up the mountain, including putting out on social media that there are intentions to do just that.

Why? For the same reasons they erected an illegal structure up there and fastened a Hawaiian flag exactly where authorities would have to use power saws to cut through quickly, thus generating optics of their movement being victimized — with all the feigned moral offense and outrage that would follow. They even claimed the structure was intended as a “keiki library” to maximize their faux indignation.

They know that they have neither the law nor majority public support on their side, so they’re trying the “poor thing” approach to winning. But you can be sure that, if they’re allowed to win, not only will the state lose hugely on the business climate issue, this same tactic will be used more and more for small zealous groups to get what they want regardless of public wishes.

Jim Wolery

Kaneohe

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