Wang & Kate Plus Fate

by Brenna Solop

You know that show on cable where the chick with the short, choppy blond hair and the Asian-American dude are always locking horns, and the fates of lots of children hang in the balance? No, not the one on The Learning Channel. I mean the one on News 12, the one determining the fate of the New York Islanders. Turns out a very special episode took place last night, and I was fortunate to catch the tail end of it.

All joking aside, this is not a scripted show. It’s not even reality TV. It’s reality reality, where the outcome affects our everyday lives, our pockets, and most importantly the quality of life for our children. While other fans of other teams are getting giddy as they gear up for another hockey season, I have to find out if my team even has a future at the local town meeting, where the only things missing are torches, pitchforks and a doctor named Frankenstein.

Yes, the Lighthouse Project hearing got heated last night. I walked in about 7:30, and although I missed most of the proceedings there’s nothing like watching the last hour and a half of what was essentially an 11-hour meeting. Everyone’s delightfully loopy by then. The best WTF moment was the old woman who initially melted everyone’s heart by demanding her chance to speak and walker-ing up to the microphone and talking about the future of Long Island’s children. And then whoops! – she entered a five-spiral crash (my fave Bush-ese term) into racism as she accused Wang’s Lighthouse plan of being a conspiracy to bring over people from “his country” and that he only wants to employ people from “his country.” Well, you’re right lady, he does care about his country – the United States. And he does want to employ his countrymen – AMERICANS. More specifically, LONG ISLANDERS. The man has lived here since he was eight. Oh jeez, does this mean the birther movement is making its way into hockey? Should I be worried about a sport filled with so many Socialist Russian names? Is Gary Bettman really the “Hockey Czar”?…okay, okay, I’m getting off-track. Kate Murray shut down the old lady and my faith in humanity was restored. L.I. Democrats and Republicans may not always get along, but we won’t let racism mar a perfectly civil screaming match.

As the meeting came to a close, it was clear that most of the weary audience understands that the Lighthouse Project is not some fancy-schmancy idea for an arena. It’s a blood transfusion for a suffering county. A county we work damn hard to be able to live in, to maintain our homes, to pay our taxes. We are deserving of a first-class facility and surroundings to serve as our main hub for sports, entertainment and culture. This is not Democrats vs. Republicans. This is not young vs. old. This is the short-sighted vs. the long-sighted. Maybe it’s time we stuffed the ballot boxes with some eye charts.