Dear HCN,
One point which was not
clear to your readers regarding the Mount Graham story (HCN,
7/24/95) was that the scientific justification for all three of the
proposed telescopes on Mount Graham was tragically unclear to a
Congress accustomed to legislating by riders.
Look at Congress’ current rash of riders used to
legislate major domestic policy. Sneaking controversial legislation
through by tacking it to some unrelated, less controversial bill,
avoids public hearings and citizen participation; no wonder opinion
polls find public contempt for Congress at an all-time
high.
Porkbarreler DeConcini sneaked the
University of Arizona’s Mount Graham telescope rider through in the
final hours of the 1988 Congress – without public hearings or
debate. He claimed any delay from completing the lawful studies
would frighten European investors.
In the
university’s brazen rush to sneak their rider through Congress,
they hadn’t even taken time to do the scientific homework.
Five years later, in 1993, they discovered that
in their haste they’d picked the site with the poorest
astrophysical visibility on the mountain, and that the Mount
Hopkins observatory was far superior to any site on Graham.
University officials said Hopkins was so superior that on a scale
of one-to-eight from bad-to-good, their Graham site was was one,
and Hopkins eight. Germany had always planned its radio telescope
for Mount Lemmon, not Graham, and also conceded that Hawaii was
best. The Vatican let the cat out of the bag when its spokesmen
told the press, in 1990, that they didn’t need Graham and that
there were other “very viable sites, and they’re in Arizona.” In
summary, it turns out, the scientific basis for the need for all
three of the proposed telescopes on Graham was
fraudulent.
DeConcini’s insult to Native
Americans was also appalling. Only the culturally illiterate would
be unaware of the role major land masses play in their religion.
Graham is Arizona’s highest base-to-summit peak. The Apaches have
six times officially declared UA’s project “a display of profound
disrespect and a serious violation of our traditional religious
beliefs.”
After 10 years of University of
Arizona evasions, the courts have ruled that the Apaches and that
irreplaceable “sky island” ecosystem will finally receive the long
overdue lawful studies heretofore circumvented by political
chicanery.
Clemens
Titzck
Phoenix,
Arizona
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Speedy action on telescopes ultimately harmed project.
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