How can a person know if their religion sucks? Well… if your religion opposes building a world-class telescope, then, yes. Your religion sucks.

It would be one thing if this mountaintop was being used for a casino or a WalMart warehouse or a garbage dump. But a telescope that will show the universe in unprecedented detail? A *good* religion would welcome such a thing.

Mauna Kea: Hawaii protesters delay giant telescope construction

And it seems that his time in the Delta Quadrant didn’t do our favorite Ensign any good…

Hawaii island Mayor Harry Kim gives praise to protesters blocking access to Mauna Kea

And the sickness has spread even as far as Utah:

Utahns gather in ‘sacred’ ghost town to support protest in Hawaii

There is, of course, a compromise: cancel the Mauna Kea telescope and build it on the Moon instead. Such an endeavor would of course cost a bucket of money, many billions of dollars. But there are many areas of US FedGuv spending that could have their funding slashed to fund the scope. During the period of time that say, some foreign aid (humanitarian, military, diplomatic, scientific, etc.) is zero-funded, simply tell the people to thank the Hawaiians for their opportunity to sacrifice for the greater good.

Another advantage of a Lunar relocation: you *can* build  a casino next to it. Perhaps just a few miles away behind a hill to block direct impingement of the gigawatts of bright flashing lights. But by building the whole complex on the near side of the moon, those Mauna Kea protestors can squat in ignorance atop their mountain and look up into the night sky and see the bright lights of New Vegas shining down on them from 240,000 miles away, and they can know that they share in none of either the money being made or the knowledge being learned.