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Man (as used in the non-gender sense) is a tool maker. Man is a creature of technology. Man fashions tools to shape the environment.

Other primates use what nature provides such as sticks and stones. The concept of attaching a rock to a stick has yet to enter a chimpanzee’s mind so that it may gain leverage and mechanical advantage as a tool or weapon.

Is there a limit to what we can do? Is there a point where we will be constrained by our resources and/or our abilities such that we will just become a better educated chimpanzee?

Man as the technologist has left the safety of Earth and ventured to its satellite. A feat only dreamed of by Jules Verne a hundred years before it actually happened.

But could the technology of 1869 conceive of such an undertaking as what occurred on July 20, 1969? Powered flight hadn’t even taken place when “From the Earth to the Moon” was written.

We are creatures of discovery. We want to know. The first Polynesians who set sail to these islands didn’t just go without having some rudimentary understanding of navigation.

Clyde Hostetter in his book “Star Trek to Hawai’i – Mesopotamia to Polynesia” suggests there might have been a Middle Eastern connection with Polynesian navigation abilities. He makes a convincing case. Regardless of any outside influence to Polynesian voyagers, they still required tools to find their way around the ocean. They may not have had the technological sophistication we expect from GPS but they managed to get from point A to point B rather well.

Once again the issue of the Thirty Meter Telescope is in the forefront. And again, the argument returns to Hawaiian sovereignty. I respect all cultures but I find that when a belief is subverted for another agenda, we lose sight of the real purpose.

Today we face a crossroads unprecedented in human history. Yet we seem to be taking steps backward.

Now there are people who would put a halt to discovery and exploration. They would rather keep an ability to be able to explore the universe from the rest of us for what they have perceived as hallowed real estate.

I could see its relevance if it were damaging to the environment or harmful to living human beings. But to claim it defiles sacred ground when Hawaiians used the very same area as an observatory of the heavens seems like a lack of understanding. If anything, the telescope should be embraced as a celebration of Hawaiian exploration.

I am reminded of something one of my colleagues once said: “To effectively resolve an issue it is necessary to understand all sides to that issue and argue convincingly for all of them.”

This is a question for discussion. It should be taking place instead of raging controversies that are emotionally based and can never be won. Courtrooms are supposed to uncover the truth. However, hidden agendas, that may not be so hidden, become the true purpose of this controversy.

I can only hope that reason overtakes those involved and the future of all of us is made their primary concern. My concern is also that by preventing the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope we are not put on a path that will indeed lead us to being just a better educated chimpanzee.