Lee Cataluna and U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono both badly need a lesson in civics.

Cataluna asked which group should have more say on building the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea: protesters camped on Mauna Kea or couch potatoes (“Opinions on TMT issue don’t carry equal weight,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 21)?

A good question, but definitively answered by the Hawaii Supreme Court, which ratified TMT’s permit application process.

But I ask Cataluna: Should 1,000-plus protesters, with legitimate but unconnected grievances, have the final say to deny the world’s remaining 7 billion people the scientific knowledge that could be discovered only by a TMT on Mauna Kea?

Hirono visited Mauna Kea, saying everyone has the “right” to civil disobedience, thus joining many other elected government leaders who acknowledged this group’s “right” to break the law and blockade Mauna Kea (“Mazie Hirono visits TMT protesters at Mauna Kea,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 20).

I ask Hirono: When the pickups with upside-down Hawaiian flags are on her street blockading her neighborhood, will they still have the “right” to civil disobedience?

Sam Gillie

Hawaii Kai

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