To all my friends and listeners in Mastic and Shirley whom I might have offended by making fun of your sweet little town. The truth of the matter is, at that time I didn't know anything about your community. I was only going by the stereotypes and information I had heard from other people. I had no idea that your community was being battered constantly by the local news media and when I made those statements I was just trying to have fun with the listeners like I usually do. It was not my intention to hurt an entire community.

Over the weekend my friend closed on his house in Mastic and I took a ride to see his house. It's right on the beach and I must say the area was beautiful. And a friend of mine who's in the real estate business showed me houses that ranged from 800 thousand to a million dollars. I then went shopping at the South Port Shopping Center, went and saw the Marina and Fire Island, and last but not least, visited The William Floyd Estate.

It was through my research on the area that I discovered that William Floyd was the first New York Delegate to sign the Declaration of Independence, August 2nd, 1776.

I found out that the area also has so many wonderful parks and beaches including Smith Point County Park and Shirley Beach as well as an 18 hole championship golf course called the Links at Shirley. And Shirley is the home to the prestigious Dowling College School of Aviation and Transportation.

And please let me not forget that the 2007 William Floyd High School Football Team just finished its season capturing their third consecutive Long Island Championship and third consecutive Rutgers Trophy Award, recognizing them as the Best Football Team in Suffolk County.

I also saw on the web that there was an article written in the NY Times calling the Mastic/Shirley area the "Best Kept Secret on Long Island" - describing it as one of the Island's last frontiers for affordable housing and talking about the continued revitalization of the communities.

I now know there are no trailers or trailer parks in Mastic/Shirley. I never meant to hurt anyone with those statements. I was just having fun with the caller who understood it to be nothing more than a joke. I love ALL my listeners and like I said before, it is never my intention to hurt anyone's feelings. I can really respect a community so full of pride that they felt the need to cry out the way they did. No one understands pride more than I do. Being proud of who you are and where you come from is very important and I totally respect that.

Every community has their problems, but every community also has things they should be proud of. Mastic and Shirley probably have the most beautiful waterfront property on all of Long Island and they should be proud of all the other wonderful things I mentioned earlier. If anything good can come out of this, I hope it's that I have helped this great community be heard and that they tell all those people who have nothing but negative things to say about them to listen to them and find out more about them. So to my friends in Mastic/Shirley I am sorry to have hurt you and I now have a greater appreciation for the people of your community.

Sincerely,
Randy