My Letter to the Editor ran in yesterday’s Hawaii Tribune-Herald. Here is the letter:

Many Support CMP

Friday’s Hawaii Tribune-Herald headline read: “Mauna Kea Plan Sparks Suit.” Certainly, people are within their rights to sue. I would like to point out, though, that it is only a small group of people that opposes the Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP) for Mauna Kea and plans to sue. Many, many more Hawaiians on this island support the CMP. At the meeting where the Office of Hawaiian Affairs supported the CMP, OHA Trustee Robert Lindsey testified that there is overwhelming support on the Big Island for the plan. This is apparent to me, as well.

We must aloha the plaintiffs, though, for having been in the forefront of the Mauna Kea issues for so many years. They brought the issues to the rest of our attention. They won a lawsuit, in which it was found that a CMP was needed. (Now, however, they are arguing against it.) We must also mahalo the countless volunteers who worked on the CMP, addressing the concerns brought forward by the plaintiffs and doing everything they could to make this plan pono. It is very important that we malama Mauna Kea. I have not met one person who doesn’t want the best for Mauna Kea.

Three years ago, when I first heard that the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) was interested in coming to Mauna Kea, I volunteered to be on the Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board’s TMT committee. If it was going to happen, I wanted to have a hand in making sure it was done right. It was obvious to me that this is about our keiki and future generations now; it’s not about any of us. If we can move forward with this, they will be able to look to the skies instead of into the mud. And they will know that they can achieve anything.

Did you know that the TMT has pledged $50 million toward our Big Island children’s education? It will be administered by carefully selected community members and is earmarked primarily for K-12 education. If we do the CMP in a pono way, then and only then can we look ahead to a place where science and the Hawaiian culture can coexist. When it can, then we can site the best telescope in the world on the most sacred mountain in the whole world.

When I was a small kid, my dad, who was a very wise Hawaiian man, told me: “Get thousand reasons why ‘No can.’ I only looking for one reason why ‘Can!’”

Not, no can. CAN!

Richard Ha
President, Hamakua Springs Country Farms