Lighthouse Meeting #180

It's late, I'm tired and I was so hungry that I broke down and had a bowl of Easy Mac. Everyone else in the house is sleeping, and I've got to get a few thoughts out of my head and into the blogosphere before I forget them.



If you didn't make it to the Lighthouse Community Outreach #180, you will have plenty of opportunity to familiarize yourself with the proceedings because it was well covered by the media. Also, Point Blank actually has recording secretary style minutes of the meeting, so you will feel as if you were actually there.



My take on the 2 hour meeting was this:



It was an amazing job by the Lighthouse team. They managed to bring every heavy hitter on their side into this room and give them their turn at the microphone. Politicians and Alumni, Union bosses and clergy, Veterans Association Presidents and Season Ticket holders. They ran out of time to let everyone who wanted to speak have their say. They started at 7:25 pm and went until 9:30 pm.



During those two hours, it was about politics, it was about economics, it was about race, it was about the unions and for a brief moment, it was even about God. Yes, the two hours covered the spectrum of reasons WHY this project is beneficial for Long Island.



Charles Wang has become adept at these meetings, he's done so many of them. He is funny and yet commanding. Town Supervisor Tom Suozzi was powerful and passionate. I've never actually seen him speak. It was eye-opening.



The 92 year-old town resident that opened the Q&A portion was moving, but not quite as moving as the President of the LI Federation of Labor. His imploring "This is our future, we cannot allow it NOT to happen. We will go to DC, we will go to the ends of the earth to make this project happen." I teared up and the crowded hall erupted in applause.



When the Veteran group representative spoke, he requested that other veterans in the room stand. They were greeted with a standing ovation. He reported that the 30 organizations that he represented gave their unanimous support to the project.



We did a lot of standing. When the President of the Building and Construction Trade on LI asked that everyone who was in favor of the project would please stand up, almost everyone in the room stood. "What's holding it up?" he asked. From the back of the room, one woman shouted "I am holding it up. I don't want it in my back yard."



She was encouraged to speak, but did not. As everyone has a right to their opinion and nothing goes without opposition, the only thing I could think of is that we live in a democratic society and while everyone's voice has a right to be heard, no one voice has a right to decide.



A union boss gave such an impassioned speech about Union jobs, I wanted to pull a Norma Rae and stand on the chair holding a sign that said UNION. But since none of my fellow incredibly YOUNG blogger buddies would have know what I was doing, I stayed seated.



Yes, this was a Community Outreach Meeting #180 for the Lighthouse Project. Something that it seems has overwhelming support.



So... What's the freakin' problem?



Check the local news, check CB's Point Blank, check our Islanders main website for a recap by none other than Tiger Track Tom Liodice.



I'll have more quotes and photos over the weekend. For now, this blogger, accounting, mother has to get some sleep as the white knuckle drive in teaming rain from Uniondale to the ass-end of Suffolk county has seriously wiped her out!