Puna Pono Alliance Assault?

[james weatherford]

...that is not Mr "Sparks" holding the man back.

[csgray]

HAAS hosts, and Steve Hirakami facilitates, many many community meetings of all kinds. Hosting a community group does not mean you, or your school, agree with the position of the group, it means you are providing a public space for the community to have conversations and share their opinions. Steve Hirakami is a highly respected in the education community here, he deeply cares about his community and works hard to provide a place for the children of Puna to learn and grow, part of that for him is sharing the facility with the community, but there are standards of behavior for people who are guests at that site that he has every right to enforce.

I think the guy's unwillingness to allow anyone else to talk was what got Steve Hirakami involved in trying to get the guy to move on. Plus no one should get punched in the face for trying to facilitate dialogue instead of letting some wingnut take over the meeting and shut down all other voices. Someone suggested just ending the meeting as a way to deal with the ranter, but that just allows him to shut down everyone else's voice. It is so easy for people to look at a video and say: they should have done this or that. But for the people on the ground in the situation they have to make the call as best they can without the luxury of time to think things through in a highly detailed manner that people watching the video after the fact have.

Carol

Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb

[lavalava]

Steve barely let the guy talk at all - look at the video! The speaker barely gets a few words in edgewise before he gets physically censored by his puna poopoo mentor Bobby and then Steve calls the meeting over.

Steve shows his unwillingness to let someone speak simply because he does not like the volume or the tone.

Not like any of this matters, PGV continues right along regardless of the kooks.

[punafish]

The guy deserved to be shut down, he was obnoxious and disrupting the meeting. Could Hirakami have handled it better? Sure, we all have minor lapses in judgment. But pretty sure Steve has contributed many times more to this community than any of his detractors on this thread. (If not, please set me straight.)

It's so easy taking cheap shots at people from the safety of your keyboard, isn't it?

Lots of folks just grinding their axes on this thread, no attempt at all at being objective. Yes indeed, a mountain out of a molehill.

[knieft]

Lost my sense of humor watching the videos and reading the related comments at the video site and here. This is so sad. How seriously is anyone in power going to take the issue of investigating what happened when so much belligerence and irrationality is presented by the mob? Kudos to the anti-PGV folks who tried to keep it civil.

As for the nutcase at the end, he's probably lucky there were no cops there. They wouldn't put up with that for a second. How everyone around him had the good sense to restrain themselves from his assaults is kind of amazing to me. And then the blame is put on Hirakami and others...?!? Wow.

Further, I know they are supposed to be "the bad guys" according to most of the audience, but my hat goes of to the fellows behind the table for staying reasonable in face of all the accusations. So much hate flying around the room and those guys were completely civil, if growingly weary. I can't imagine them ever agreeing to come to another such meeting. Sad.

Somehow I think of the tea party guys. The discussion of limiting/expanding the role of government (like the discussion of what happened at PGV) is one that is very worth having. But so many tea party folks (like so many anti-PGV folks) come across as so belligerent and irrational that there is little chance for a civil discourse. The message appears to get lost in the medium, so to speak.

Cheers (probably not the right word here),
Kirt

[opihikao]

Well, tonight at 10PM on the statewide local news, Hawaii News Now, the whole mess will be shown to all.

Poor judgement and bad behavior combined, not only loses the focus of the meeting, but now Puna continues to look like a bunch of yahoos.

No one in this case is innocent, except for Mr. Iligan who tried to help.

So disgusting on so many levels.

SMH, again.

JMO.

[pander75]

It's really just sad... no wonder that Puna continues to be written off on so many levels as only being home to crazies. This is a serious issue, and now any change or help is going to be hijacked by this video of a half-naked paranoid hippie-dude. It definitely illustrates why I stopped going to any kind of community meetings. They are always taken over by the most vocal and least intelligent. Thanks a lot Mr Hippie-Dude, you just sh*t all over everyone else's place.

[Rob Tucker]

I am under the impression R.J. filmed this video. So if this video is going state wide and national I guess we get to thank R.J. Hampton too?

[opihikao]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Rob Tucker

I am under the impression R.J. filmed this video. So if this video is going state wide and national I guess we get to thank R.J. Hampton too?

---

Mr. Tucker, this is what the link states:

(ABOVE VIDEO) At least three different residents of Puna ask officials about diverting the current lava flow before it reaches their subdivisions.

Video by David Corrigan

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2014/0...a-meeting/

It was also on our morning news, (HNN) and thankfully, didn't get the "full" coverage of the whole ordeal.

JMO.

[Rob Tucker]

Understood. Mahalo.

Assume the best and ask questions.

Punaweb moderator