I once attended a post mortem held by a large local company that had just experienced a major public relations disaster and watched with amusement as executives stood up one by one to say that if the same circumstances occurred again, they'd do exactly the same thing.

It was so Hawai'i, I thought; the more we mess up, the more we defend our right to make the same mistakes over and over without ever learning anything from them.

Which is why I was so impressed that the University of Hawai'i actually did learn something from the Rex Johnson fiasco at the Hawai'i Tourism Authority when UH had to deal last week with a slur against gays by football coach Greg McMackin.

After the state auditor caught Johnson sending pornographic e-mails on his state computer, the tourism board dithered endlessly before finally disciplining Johnson by reducing his pay, which seemed reasonable at the time.

But board members neglected to make sure they knew the full extent of his offenses, and when even worse racist and sexist e-mails were disclosed, more dithering ensued while offended targets of Johnson's prejudice rightly wailed and his high-powered political allies twisted arms on his behalf. Ultimately, the board accepted the inevitable and fired him.

At UH, athletic director Jim Donovan and Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw clearly wanted none of that drama and had the McMackin matter settled before combatants on either side of the gay culture wars had time to get their engines fired up.

The very next day, McMackin was suspended without pay for 30 days and agreed to take a voluntary 7 percent pay cut from his $1.1 million salary, a total of $169,000. He also agreed to work with the leading gay organization on campus to promote tolerance and sensitivity.

McMackin stepped way over the line when he tried to entertain reporters at a WAC media day by gratuitously insulting one of the university's constituencies with a vulgar epithet.

Beyond being crude and offensive, it was more than a little thick of McMackin to pointlessly malign a highly vocal group that is in the middle of a national battle to gain equality and respect.

Not to mention the poor sportsmanship he displayed in his clumsy attempt to disparage the manliness of a Notre Dame football team that had kicked his butt up and down the field in the Hawai'i Bowl.

Donovan and Hinshaw did everything right in what should become a model for dealing with such potentially incendiary situations. They got ahead of the problem before it became a crisis, they didn't let sore feelings fester, they didn't circle any wagons and they didn't overreact.

The result was a resolution that left all major parties reasonably satisfied. How often do we see that?

McMackin deserves credit for resisting any impulse to hunker down and taking his medicine with appropriate contrition — even crying in front of the cameras while delivering his apology.

How long can you stay mad at a dough-faced former defensive back blubbering into the microphone like he got beat deep in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl?

Of course, it's nice to be able to take a pay cut of that magnitude and still be making more than twice as much as the university president.

One of McMackin's atonements will be to help with public service efforts by the office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Student Services to promote understanding and awareness.

Those are videos that Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis is going to very much enjoy viewing.