I Came, I Saw, I Spontaneously Exercised My First Amendment Rights.

I came, I saw, I spontaneously exercised my First Amendment Rights.

No, I wasn’t at Occupy Wall Street. I instead found myself at the ‘Mobile Town Hall Meeting’ held by Executive Mangano’s office while returning and picking up a book at the Hillside Public Library around 1:30 Tuesday Afternoon.

I stopped by and asked a simple question to the panel that turned into an unexpected but rather great, friendly conversation: “Where do you see Nassau in 20 years?” It took them a second to think about it and give me the start of a response that would lead the conversation on.

We discussed Nassau's economic situation with the Great Recession in mind and the possible rebound once (I say IF) the economic situation improves. They made a point about our symbiotic relationship to NYC (which I think is dangerous and flawed on many grounds) that, and I’m not quoting verbatim: “Once NYC recovers and improves, so will Nassau”. I of course disagree and feel that while there’s no reason to shut off our borders from Manhattan, Nassau should build and/or expand its own sovereign economy so that we can flourish and thrive with or without the Big Apple; it’s a reasonable idea and certainly well within our best interests to consider.

We also discussed Nassau’s strengths and weaknesses, efforts to revitalize the HUB (a big topic of mine as you know) and what I think is the most important idea: the need for Nassau to upgrade itself, revitalize its business districts, downtowns and industrial centers and effectively advance into the 21st century; and of course the obstacles standing in the way.

An analogy I made comes to mind that I want to share:

We stand at a precipice, our region a constant malformed attempt of preserving an obsolete paradigm: a system and suburbia that no longer exists. We are become an incompatible place for the 21st century and the Generation X and beyond population myself included who will build and live in this new era of fast paced, technologically advanced civilization. Both these realities present to us only one future path for Nassau if this current course is kept: oblivion.

This will be a future of continued stagnation, increased burden, bankruptcy, layoffs, vast emigration, and misery for anyone and business left standing. I would add decay, deterioration and uncertainty but we hit all three of those points for a decade now unless you think the current condition of our highways, infrastructure and vacant buildings are the best civilization has to offer.

So what of solutions, improvement, relief? Natural and ambitious ideas and efforts to grow, rebuild, revitalize, upgrade or even avert disaster are met with pitchforks and torches in the form of picket signs, protesting voices and crusader civic or ‘special interest’ alliances in the name of the worn out mantras we all know: ‘A Bedroom Community of NYC’, ‘Preserving Community Character’ ‘Not the 6th Borough’ and of course ‘Not In My Backyard’ for instance. With every one of their successes there is yet another slip closer to the sheer edge.

And at the other end of this precipice stands the vision of what has been haunting me since 2003…The exact opposite, glimmering sunlight, bright skies: A successful, flourishing economy, massive employment opportunities, bustling businesses and entrepreneurship, innovation, prosperity for the individual and business. A new and vastly greater Nassau that preserves and keeps it’s quaint and best past qualities while embracing equally it’s newest. Vibrant, revitalized downtown areas spider-webbing the familiar, untouched suburbs across the landscape leading to the core of the Nassau HUB CBD with its tech sectors and business districts; Clean, safe, elegant, open modern places, roadways and environments with a touch of the futuristic…I can go on and on.

Actually, take a step into August 12, 2020 in just such a future:

Now where on our current side of the canyon there are those that intentionally or not are pushing us towards the edge and down the canyon wall, the relief I take in the peril of our present situation lies in that our rescue may come from the quiet but awakening emergence of those on the opposite side working hard to build a bridge we can walk across past the present situation and over the ruins of the canyon floor into the sunlit shorelines, prairies and hills of a new Nassau County. There have been many bridges attempted, four which I have helped try to develop since 2009, and many more will be tried until one undoubtedly makes promising successes.

I believe I know who the first bridge builders are. I think that if Nassau’s young and young professional population can be mobilized along with our equally dissatisfied small business community and of course all other members of our society who support this ‘New, Better Tomorrow’ platform, the foundations of this bridge can be built, and these two loudly talked about and crucial to our future but largely unheard communities will be the ones that trumpet the loudest voice and at last carry Nassau forward on the wheels of progress, ambition, vision, commitment and aspiration to achieve success and prosperity for our county.

So no, I was not at Zuccotti Park and I don’t think I will ever be a part of the Occupy movement, that's another story. But I felt that in another way between my unscheduled appearance at Hillside Library and this blog article that I once again picked my sign up as I have in the past and talked about and advocated and campaigned just a little bit more for a better future while looking around for those nearby doing the same.

If right here, right now in Nassau we could capture even a tenth the energy and spirit of OWS and Tea Party alike movements but focus it beyond petty political issues and ideological separatism, focusing the zeitgeist like a laser into a movement to vastly improve Nassau County through productive, fruitful solutions whose merits can be amicably, not negatively; constructively, not destructively debated and addressed, you will see a story of success and a greatness achieved like no other legend or case study you could get your hands on.

Nassau always had, and always will have the potential to achieve the level of success and prosperity that is its destiny. All that is needed is the combined vision and ambition of a new generation. I’m glad I got that through at Hillside Library, and glad that to whatever degree at least some of that vision and desire was genuinely shared by the county representatives attending.