This latest incident where the Thirty Meter Telescope protesters erected a structure, only to have it razed, has me stumped (“Crews raze a building illegally erected by protesters near Mauna Kea,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 7).

Up to this point the protesters based their cause on selective abiding of the law to protect the mauna.

Then they turn around and do the very same thing they are protesting — with the exception that they themselves did not follow the law.

Moreover, when the building was removed, they state on their website that they “condemn every example of the state of Hawaii’s selective enforcement of the law.”

These two fundamental contractions undermine the protesters’ credibility. People who live in glass houses should not throw rocks.

However, there is still opportunity to regain some integrity with supporters and the community. The protesters could apologize and offer to pay the taxpayers back for the costs of removing the structure.

Donald Chock

Waialae-Kahala

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