“Given that all involved in the TMT impasse have a deep sense of reverence for the site, compromise is a worthy outcome” (“Mauna Kea plan offers a solution,” Star-Advertiser, Our View, Oct. 18).

Taken at face value, this statement doesn’t even make sense. As the governing body of an educational institution, the University of Hawaii Board of Regents can have only a scientific or secular interest in the matter.

“Reverence” or religious feeling has nothing to do with it. There is, therefore, no basis for compromise on its part unless science itself can be compromised by a system of belief that is irrelevant to it.

The same goes for the Native Hawaiian protesters. What appeal can the irrelevant expressions of religious feeling from the regents possibly have on them? There is no compromise.

Edward D. Lasky

Hawaii Kai

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