WHAT IS WRONG WITH JUST BEING REACTIVE?

Aloha,

Just being reactive allows trouble to brew and eventually bubble to the top, thus confronting us by surprise, and many times our efforts then must be Herculean to stop an unwanted event.  It makes much more sense to educate ourselves, by being in tune with our community at all times.  Let us listen, and observe what is happening around us; let us be informed about rules of law, about rights or obligations we have with respect to our community.  Let us not lose focus once we are confronted with an issue, and let us stay the course.  Usually, confronting forces just have to wait until public interest is waning, in order to strike again; let us not succumb to such a scenario.  Our web-site and Blog have only one purpose, namely, to inform our community, so that we all know what is expected of us, and what interest groups can do to us, and what they cannot, according to the rules of law.

Had we as a community been more diligent in our observations our current dilemma would have never risen to the level it is now.  We could have spoken out much sooner.  While it is true, much of WasteStream’s deliberations did not see the “sunlight”; somebody in our community probably had an inkling, and did not think much of it.  In reality, no community can keep a secrete for that long.  But, we as people tend to wait and see if a potential problem really raises its ugly head.  We can always react then, so we tell ourselves.  In so doing, we not only do a disservice to our community, but also to the designers of nutty projects, because we lead them to think, that we, the community, don’t care or way or another.  We would be more helpful to them, by letting them know right from the start that their plans are not appreciated by us.  It would save them energy on the spot, and us later on.

Had we, as a community, been aware, for example, of the requirements of the ‘sunshine law’, we could have requested from WasteStream agendas for all of their meetings, further, we could have requested that meeting notices are mailed to us, at least 6 days prior to their meeting.  But, we did none of it.  In our defense, we could say, we are too busy to bother, but that just does not cut, does it?

We still have a few people on our email list, who can’t be bothered to keep themselves up-to-date on the issues, it appears; this should not be so.  Keeping up with the issues involved will, to some degree, make up for the fact, that we were initially asleep at the switch.

To request the mailing of meeting notices, including mandatory agendas, please call WasteStream at 889-5025.  I did, and left my name and address on their voice-mail.  Let us make an effort to attend their meetings, whenever we can.  I look forward to your comments; please add them to this blog topic, under "Post A Comment".