Last night I drove back to Hilo from a TMT Environmental Impact Statement meeting that was held at the Waimea Elementary School cafeteria.

I listened to music on my iPhone—from Jimi Hendrix/Purple Haze to Barry White with Earl Klugh and Brudda Iz in between. It never sounded so good. I was in a great mood.

The meeting had gone really well. Penny Keli‘i Vredenberg welcomed everyone, and made everyone feel so comfortable. It felt like we were all in her backyard instead of in a cafeteria.

I talked about the background of how the $1 million community benefit education package came about. I explained that Henry Yang impressed me—he listened. He did not dismiss my advice just because I wore shorts and t-shirts. My advice was for them to go listen to the community.

Henry and Jean Lou flew into Hilo maybe 15 times, and I took them to meet community folks. By last month, they had seen Kumu Lehua and Patrick Kahawaiola four times. At the end, they were old friends.

I told how we advised them a year ago that education for the keiki is the most important thing they could do for the community. Henry committed to this idea.

For nearly a year now, we’ve been working on this on a handshake and it’s very gratifying to now see this in print. But we had no doubt that Henry would make it happen. I’ve said before that Henry is someone I can do business with on a handshake.

I left the meeting feeling really happy. There were people there who were very passionate about their positions. But they, and we, conducted ourselves in a very respectful way.

That’s what I was so happy about. Facing an uncertain future, we need to have a strong sense of community and we need to make more friends and stay closer to our families. And we are doing it right now. It’s all I need to smile.