Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 11, 1 November 2008 — TMT benefits all [ARTICLE]

TMT benefits all

There have been articles recently about the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) board evaluating Mauna Kea as a possible site. There is always controversy over development on the mountain - but what if, this time, we on the Big Island substantially benefited from it? What if we were able to use this opportunity to prepare ourselves, and our children, for the future? What if the TMT coming here meant disadvantaged Hawaiian (and otherrace) students ean attend Hawai'i Community College and the University of Hawai'i at Hilo for free? What if we develop a pathway for loeal people to fill jobs during the extensive construction and operation of the telescope? What if we collect all the funds attributable to astronomy and have that money administered by a group of wise people who are chosen specifically to allocate it to the education of this island's keiki? What if these credible people fund education programs about

the Hawaiian culture and Hawaiian language, and about traditional ways of sustainability, the sciences, job skills and other subjects that prepare our ehikken for a new world where we, living on the island of Hawai'i, might have to survive on what exists here on our island? And what if this organization exists far into the future and benefits many generations to eome? It would be the best of the future and the best of the past. What if? Richard Ha Hamakua Springs Country Farms, president Pepe'ekeo, Hawai'i lsland