It is challenging to reach a win-win solution when the opposing entities’ single-mindedness is the prevailing attitude, and when a compromise is viewed as capitulating and/or caving in to extortion. A prolonged confrontation is costly not only for the two entities directly involved, but also indirectly to the broader populace.

Would a reasonable and pragmatic solution be that if the Thirty Meter Telescope is built to advance scientific endeavors, that atop Mauna Kea also be built a complex to advance Hawaiian cultural endeavors?

Initial funding for such a complex could come from TMT and the state. Perhaps the billionaires who reside in Hawaii would be interested in making a sizable donation. Add to that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Kamehameha Schools and Hawaii’s leading corporations, and before you know it, there could be $10 million to fund this cultural complex.

Would it not be better, as a lasting legacy, to demonstrate to the world that the Hawaiian values of aloha, pono, kokua and ohana, to name a few, were able to move a mountain and bridge apparently disparate scientific and cultural beliefs for the greater good?

Dan Brown

Moiliili

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