On July 15, anti-Thirty Meter Telescope protesters gathered at the base of the access road to Mauna Kea. People on both sides of the argument are righteous and resolute. It often feels as if the two sides are making not opposing arguments but arguing two completely different issues — pathos and Native Hawaiian rights on one side and logos and land-use laws on the other. It has now been 30 days and there is no land in sight.

Why?

Because our state government has fundamentally absolved itself from all responsibility. Perhaps it’s hiding in the same bomb shelter it crawled into during the false missile alert fiasco just over a year and a half ago. Come out, come out, wherever you are!

What is governance? At its lowest, it’s cronyism and shortsightedness. At its best — empathy, integrity and accountability.

If we keep heading out to sea with no leadership directing safe passage through these roiling waters, we may just see people from both sides of the TMT issue uniting together in the streets to protest our ineffectual government.

Brooke Nasser

McCully-Moiliili

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