Cell out
If you’re going to be a stickler for the rules, you’d better follow them. That’s the moral; now let’s get to the story.
Here’s the scene: It’s the morning of February 5 and a handful of folks has shuffled into one of the meeting rooms in Wailuku’s David K. Trask office building for another LC Adjudication hearing. Joy is in the air.
Everyone finds their seats, the brief pleasantries are dispensed with and the board is about to get down to business—in this case slapping Minit Stop with a $2,000 fine for selling a six-pack of Steinlager to a minor decoy—when the proceedings are interrupted by the shrill notes of a cell phone.
We all look around, as people do in those situations. A couple board members shoot icy glares at the peanut gallery, assuming it must be one of us who forgot to switch to “vibrate.” There is, after all, a clearly visible sign posted right beside the door that asks all who enter to shut off their mobile devices. Surely it had to be a newbie, someone unfamiliar with the rules of the room.
Nope. Turns out the offending ringtone is emanating from the pocket of Vice Chair Darren Lopez, the man who leads these meetings and does the bulk of the talking. Probably the one person with zero excuse to not follow that simple rule. (To his credit, he did look a bit embarassed as he shut the thing off.)
Think we’re being unfairly nitpicky? That we’re holding Lopez to an unreasonable standard and getting morally indignant over something that’s actually pretty silly?
You’re right. That’s exactly what we’re doing. Guess we’ve been spending too much time hanging around the LC.
–Jacob Shafer
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