There was a scoping meeting about the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) at Kohala High School Monday night.

I thought the TMT did a good job going into the community and engaging the people right there where they live. They were considerate and did not presume to know what was best for the people. They said they came to listen and it was evident that they really did want to listen. These folks are a lot like us.

Joe Carvalho, Kohala community leader, welcomed people to the meeting. There were maybe 16 people present.

This next photo shows, left to right, Anneila Sargent, an astronomy professor from the California Institute of Technology, me, and Mark McGuffie of HIEDB. It is so interesting to listen to Anneila speak about astronomy. She loves the subject and it’s contagious.

David Tarnas, with his back to the camera here, was one of the facilitators. Here he was talking story with the students who were hired to help set up, sign people up and take down. It was good to have students from the community benefit, participate and get paid.

Alex Achmat, in this next photo, was persistent in asking questions about possible military applications. At the end of the night, he said he was satisfied that there was no military application. The TMT is being built specifically for the sake of science and discovery.

The photo shows that astronomers are people, too. Anneila and another astronomer, who is pushing a stroller.

At the end of the scoping meeting, people hung around talking story with each other. I hope that we can keep this tone throughout the discussion about the TMT.

My dad used to say, “There are a thousand reasons why ‘no can.’ I am only looking for one reason why ‘can’!” At this meeting, people were respectful of each other and were looking for common ground. It was very encouraging.