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August 21, 2008
Give 'em a dance
"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."
- Japanese proverb
Dating back some time—and culminating at a meeting in March—a group called Maui Dance Advocates has been petitioning the LC to alter, or at least explain and clarify, its strange, murky rules on dancing. The Commission refused and a judge booted the case back down the ladder saying he didn't have legal grounds to make a ruling. In short: nothing changed.
We called Maui Dance Advocates representative Anthony Simmons, who runs the group with his friend Ramoda, to see if there have been any new developments in the past five months. Though he expressed frustration with the way they've been shut down by both the LC and the courts, Simmons said MDA hasn't given up. Right now they're trying to raise enough cash—the few hundred bucks it costs to file—to bring the case to state court with the help of their pro-bono attorney, Lance Collins, a former LC Adjudication Board member. Their hope is to see changes made, but at the very least they want to keep the issue in the news.
"Our biggest goal is public awareness," said Simmons, adding that he's amazed how many people still don't know about the dancing rules and the way they're enforced. (For more info on MDA and its efforts, visit www.myspace.com/mauidanceadvocates.)
The overarching problem will be familiar to anyone who follows this space: the LC is subject to little or no oversight. They're appointed, then let loose to enforce a set of often confounding and cryptic policies without anybody (except maybe us and Anthony and Ramoda) looking over their shoulder.
To end with a tease necessitated by the rapidly approaching bottom of the column, we'll explore the oversight problem further and look at why change of the good variety might be afoot next week. Stay tuned.
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| Entertainment and lifestyle news for Maui, Hawaii and the surrounding Islands. Maui Time Weekly is Mauis only independent and locally owned newspaper.
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