Alii Manao Nui Lanny A.

Sinkin

Chief Advisor To The King

U.S. Attorney at Law (Retired)

To: Interested Parties

June 25, 2015

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

The proponents of building the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on Mauna a Wkea refuse to see all the
indicators that their plan is doomed.
When the TMT crews first tried to initiate construction, a powerful snowstorm drove them off the
mountain. While astronomers generally fail to acknowledge the legitimacy of a faith based in Nature,
the storm confirmed for those Hawaiians still attuned to their traditional faith that this project was heva
(wrong) and that there was a sacred obligation to stop the desecration of the sacred mountain.
The TMT proponents fail to recognize that the leadership of this movement is coming from young
people, who learned their language in Hawaiian immersion schools. They speak Hawaiian to judicial and
political leaders who dont understand the language. They learned the true history of the overthrow
and the false annexation. They know that the lands of Mauna a Wkea rightfully belong to the Kingdom
of Hawaii.
These young people see what was stripped from their parents and grandparents, not just their nation,
their very identities. Their commitment to the restoration of their traditional civilization is based on
fundamental principles of justice.
They grow stronger and more numerous every day. They grow wise in the ways of peaceful resistance.
They remind each other of Kapu Aloha, responding to all situations with love and respect. They are the
inevitable future that the TMT proponents fail to understand or perceive.
An astute political observer would have noticed that, on the most popular radio channel on the Island of
Hawaii, where the Mountain is located, the top five songs were all about protecting Mauna a Wkea.
When your project becomes the focus of a mass movement that captures the cultural landscape, it is
time to be searching for alternatives.
Then there was June 24, 2015, when the TMT attempted to initiate construction again. I went up on the
Mountain to witness what was to happen. I was there as a representative of the Kingdom, a haumana
P. O. Box 944, Hilo, Hawaii 96721; lanny.sinkin@gmail.com; (808) 936-4428;
www.KingdomofHawaii.info



(student) of the Temple of Lono, and a legal observer. Throughout the day, I exchanged calls with the
King to keep him informed of developments on the Mountain and to receive information that was
flowing to him from other sources.
To have any hope of reaching their construction site, the TMT needed the coercive force of County and
State law enforcement.
What they encountered were the forces of peaceful resistance implementing a battle plan to protect the
Mountain that eventually resulted in the abandonment of the construction effort.
The TMT proponents fail to see the tears in the eyes of those leading the law enforcement effort as they
abandoned their attack on the Mountain and apologized to the hundreds of people who had massed to
prevent desecration of the sacred mountain. Those tears sprang from knowing the sincerity and passion
of those who peacefully confronted them. Those tears also sprang from having family and ohana
opposite them, standing their ground to prevent heva.
What do the TMT proponents think is going to happen next? Are they really going to call upon the same
law enforcement personnel to go against their own people again? Will they try to escalate the use of
force? Will they continue to attempt to oppose their will on an increasingly aroused community?
Or will the truth of the situation finally be visible to them. The TMT on Mauna a Wkea is not going to
happen. The time has come to cut their losses and move the telescope to another location.

For the Kingdom of Hawaii,

P. O. Box 944, Hilo, Hawaii 96721; lanny.sinkin@gmail.com; (808) 936-4428;

www.KingdomofHawaii.info