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| Buses are okay; science not so much |
Hang on, the same people who want me to embrace every random doom and gloom environmental theory because "it's science" are also against the construction of a telescope, a tool of real science, because of some antique superstitions?
The people who tell me that they don't practice "organized religion" are suddenly deeply concerned about a religion that no one practices?
A sea of Hawaiian flags billowed through Kaahumanu Avenue Saturday morning as a few thousand Maui residents marched in solidarity with the ongoing protest against the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea.I'm not sure why people are marching in Maui; Mauna Kea is on the so-called "Big Island" of Hawaii.
Also, I've actually been to the top of Mauna Kea; it looks like Mars. It is sacred only to giant centipedes.
If my religion is to be excised from common regard, if my prayers are disallowed from the public square, if the usefulness of all of the schools, hospitals, universities, and social ministries built by my religion are expected to submit to transient, secular authority, if my faith is to be mocked as the mere belief in an "invisible sky god", why is a tribal belief that was of no practical or lasting service, and has no active worshipers, suddenly able to override the needs of science?
And if it’s so danged sacred, why are there long-serving tourist buses going up and down those roads?
[I don't really care, of course. To quote Baker Mayfield, I woke up this morning feeling dangerous.]
Besides, as this is in the Hawaiian Islands, the locals will be against anything that does not produce an exploitable collection of tourists. The Canary Islands are more pleasant and prettier, anyway. I never once watched the locals in the Canaries mock and abuse a gibbering loon in the town square like I did in Lahaina. In fact, the homeless problem in all of Hawaii is rather severe, but, hey, don't put a telescope on top of that mountain. It's, like, sacred or something.
It's a pity human dignity isn't as sacred, isn't it?