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HAWAII NEWS | LEE CATALUNA
HAWAII NEWS | LEE CATALUNA
Cataluna: Ige must fear the truth about Mauna Kea
By Lee Cataluna
Gov. David Ige has sunk to a new low, declaring a group of unarmed, nonviolent, organized Native Hawaiians an “emergency.”
Emergency proclamations are meant for hurricanes and floods and wildfires. What exactly is the emergency on Mauna Kea? That an international company can’t start its huge construction project? That Native Hawaiians have organized into a savvy, powerful force to stop a project that has yet to prove it won’t leave lasting damage to the mountain? That they’re chanting and praying and livestreaming the protest?
Are Hawaiians the emergency? Is a construction project as vital as a hospital or a military base that it merits every law enforcement protection state government can muster?
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There have been no riots among the kiai. No acts of violence or threats of violence. They’ve blocked roads, but that is hardly an emergency situation. There’s no standoff where people are unwilling to talk or negotiate. They haven’t stomped on ambulances or taken out firetrucks or thrown rocks at police vehicles. The old folks who were arrested didn’t even resist.
Shame on David Ige. The one time in his entire limp life he decides to play tough, he takes on the grandmas and the people assembled to protest a project that they believe is wrong, as is their right.
Ige himself has in the past admitted that the management atop Mauna Kea has been lousy for decades:
“We have in many ways failed the mountain,” he said in 2015. “Whether you see it from a cultural perspective or from a natural resource perspective, we have not done right by a very special place.”
Since Ige mouthed those words, neither he nor his administration, the University of Hawaii nor the Department of Land and Natural Resources addressed the long list of failures that have piled up over the years.
Just because the state Supreme Court said TMT could start construction doesn’t mean it should. Too many serious questions have yet to be addressed. A telescope can be a thing of great value, but how it is built matters. This is smelling like a Superferry deal, where all the skids have been greased and huge concerns have been ignored. A good thing begun badly is forever going to be tainted.
What is happening right now on Mauna Kea can no longer be framed as science versus spiritual beliefs. Those opposed to further development on Mauna Kea have actual, measurable science on their side that UH has yet to address, like chemical spills on the mountain, sewage tanks, removal of natural and cultural features.
If Ige has been casting about for a legacy to eclipse his false missile alert debacle, he’s found it now: He will forever be known as the guy who declared an emergency when Hawaiian kupuna stood up to protect the mountain. He stood in his air-conditioned office in Honolulu and waved his pen to make it possible to suspend laws, shut down public property and call in the National Guard when a large, diverse group of Native Hawaiians and their allies stood to protect a place and a culture unlike any other in the world.
There is an amazing confluence of forces here, though, because while it was so heartbreaking to watch footage of kupuna being arrested and carried off by law enforcement, the feeling of sorrow and outrage was mixed with pride and admiration. Who tougher than those elders? Who stronger than the line of women defending an entire mountain with just their linked arms? Who more fearsome than men fighting with just their voices?
David Ige must have hid in his fifth-floor office and trembled.
ʻWE ARE NOT FOOLED" - http://FreeHawaii.Info
#MaunaKeaNeedsYou #KuKiaiMauna #ProtectMaunaKea #WeAreMaunaKea #SeeYouOnTheMauna #AlohaAina #AoleTMT #TMTShutdown #FreeHawaii #HawaiianKingdom
OPEN LETTER TO HAWAI`I GOV. DAVID IGE - READ AT THE HAWAI`I STATE CAPITOL
On behalf of `Īlioʻulaokalani, we, the undersigned kumu hula and practitioners of hula and other forms of Hawaiian knowledge and culture, descendants of Wākea and the lands that comprise the pae `āina of Hawai`i, we do vehemently assert our ancestral rights to these lands, as well as our continued opposition to the construction of the TMT.
We also protest and disavow your “legal” unleashing of violence against Kānaka Maoli through your declaration of a State of Emergency.
As you are (hopefully) aware, but perhaps haven’t fully realized the irony as yet, the people who overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom back in 1893 did the exact same thing—they deployed military troops and power in the name of “maintaining peace.”
In reality, they did it, as do you, in order to maintain power so that you can continue to subjugate and oppress our people and our `āina, all the while speaking of the greater good—of capitalism, of Christianity, of codified law, of land as private property, of your so-called civilization, assimilation,... and now, astronomy.
We want you to know that we are not fooled by your statements, now or previously, about the “legality”of the TMT.
When you create the system that creates the laws and also interprets and adjudicates them, then your version of “legal” sometimes has nothing to do with any version of “pono.”
The TMT decision is a prime example of that and rests on a very tenuous legal interpretation (as acknowledged by Hawai`i Supreme Court and many others) and yet you persist because it is “legal.”
To this we cannot, and we will not ever, agree.
We want you to know that we are not fooled by your statements about the need to declare a “State of Emergency.” We clearly recognize and will educate others to recognize this as an excuse for you to unleash sanctioned, legal violence against peaceful citizens of Hawai`i—both young and old, Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian—who feel so strongly that we risk our physical, emotional, and spiritual—and economic—health and well-being of ourselves and future generations in order to stop this.
Know that we are not fooled by your statements of concern for the safety and well-being of we, the protectors. We know and will educate others to know that you are the one putting our lives at risk solely in order to protect the economic and political interests of the state, the university, private corporations, and no doubt, yourself.
As some of our kia`i leave the mauna, others will go to it. As some step aside, we will fill in... and so on... and so on... and on... a mau loa aku.
We are Hawai`i. We are Maunakea. We are `Īlioʻulaokalani.
Vicky Holt Takamine,
Māpuana de Silva,
Robert Uluwehi Cazimero,
Pualani Kanaka`ole Kanahele,
Noe Noe Wong-Wilson,
Nani Lim Yap,
Manu Boyd,
Sonny Ching,
Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu,
Maelia Loebenstein Carter,
Keola Dalire,
Kapua Dalire,
Leilani Basham,
Kahikina de Silva,
Kapalai`ula de Silva,
Hōkūlani Holt-Padilla,
Kehau Kekua,
Ke`ano Ka`upu,
Lono Padilla,
Snowbird Bento,
Kēhaulani Enos,
and the other kumu hula of `Īlioʻulaokalani.
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