MAUNA KEA PROBLEM

These below are my views/comments on the issue (for anyone interested) which were previously published @
URL: https://www.patreon.com/posts/astronomy-faces-28990973
"Astronomy Faces A Field-Defining Choice In Choosing The Next Steps For The TMT"
Posted by Ethan Siegel @ Aug 9 at 1:00am

First of all:
Are Native Hawaiians the real/true owners of Hawaii?
Are Native Americans the real/true owners of North America?
Are Native Australians the real/true owners of Australia?

History of our world clearly shows that each & every piece of land keeps changing owners!
Which ones of those are the real/true owners?

IMHO, there is really/truly no such thing as any group of people being the real/true/permanent owners of any piece of land on Earth!

&, IMHO, peaceful protests are OK, but I would not call blocking a road peaceful protest!

Also, IMHO, all issues like this should/must be resolved using democracy, as USA being a democratic country!
(Meaning a state-wide public referendum in Hawaii!)

I remember reading about many years ago that Native Americans were protesting
& trying to prevent NASA from doing something on the Moon, by claiming Moon is sacred for them!

So, all the countries need to stop sending "stuff" to Moon, because it is sacred to Native Americans?

Or, all the countries need permission each time (thus effectively making Native Americans owners of the Moon)?

If I was representing the astronomers & the protesters said to me:
"You all must leave because this mountain is sacred to us!"
Then I would answer:
"We will stay because this mountain is even more sacred to us!" :-)

If we compared, all contributions of Native Hawaiians to human civilization, in their whole history,
against/versus, all contributions of astronomical observatories on top of Mauna Kea,
(for example) within last 40 years, which side we really think would be (much) greater???

IMHO, if Native Hawaiians really valued/cared Mauna Kea, then they would be really proud that
it serves whole humanity so greatly, thanx to all astronomical observatories it hosts!!!

IMHO, comparing sacredness of Mauna Kea (to Native Hawaiians),
to sacredness of Vatican (to Christians) or sacredness of Mecca (to Muslims), etc, is UTTERLY RIDICULOUS!!!

If it was really that sacred then:
Where were they when the 1st astronomical observatory was about to be build?
Where were they when the 2nd astronomical observatory was about to be build?
Where were they when the 3rd astronomical observatory was about to be build?
...
Where were they when the 13th astronomical observatory was about to be build?

So they realized how sacred it is @ the 14th???
How about anybody try to build anything like that @ Vatican or Mecca today & see what happens???