Puna Pono Alliance Assault?

[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