Letter: Respect rights of those who benefit from TMT

The Thirty Meter Telescope will be a wonderful gift to the Hawaiian people. Here are the protesters’ complaints and how they have been addressed:

>> Fourteen telescopes are too many. Five telescopes are being removed, leaving nine.

>> Hawaiian burials and cultural practices will be disrupted. At the TMT location, there have never been burials or cultural practices.

>> There are few benefits to Hawaiians. The nonprofit TMT consortium will provide 1,000 jobs, pay $1.08 million in annual rent and $1 million per year for STEM education on Hawaii island. It will enhance our reputation and diversify us away from tourism. The rest of us do not want our children to move to the mainland because they cannot make it at home.

Is it na‘auao to always look to the past, never the future? Is it pono to be selfish? There are about 560,000 Native Hawaiians, with 298,000 still living in the state, plus a million non-Hawaiian citizens. There are at most a few thousand who are protesting the TMT. They have their rights. They have been respected. The rest of us also have rights. Please respect those as well.

R. “Oli” Olson

Haiku, Maui

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