There was a panel discussion in Longmeadow last night regarding casinos. This came up briefly in the discussion. Although the local newspaper report doesn’t really describe much of what took place, it was obvious from being in the room that people from all of the impacted surrounding areas want more facts and transparency. The panel consisted of five speakers. Leo Maley spoke as a volunteer for Casino Free Mass. He talked about his experiences with union organizing efforts at Foxwoods and misrepresentations on potential job creation and wages. Kathleen Norbut, selectwoman from Monson, talked about the myths that are being perpetuated about “inevitability” of casinos and about the concerns of adjacent towns. Richard Fitzgerald, Town Manager of Palmer, talked about his efforts (since 1993) to research all of the facts and to provide non-biased perspectives to residents of his town. The pro-casino speakers, Tom Murphy and Jim St. Amand made impassioned statements about job opportunities, wage statistics and potential economic gains. My impression, rather biased, was that this is just another political battle where local residents stand to lose the most if promises are not kept, deals are made behind the scenes and the concerns of all are not part of the decision making process.
One of the reasons I couldn’t stop listening to this debate when it came up in Middleboro, the town next door to mine, was my utter disbelief at how citizens were being completely left out of the picture. Townspeople would not have even been given the right to vote on the issue had it not been for the local grassroots anti-casino organization, casinofacts.org, which never stopped hammering at the issue. The town never opened it’s mind to any other possibility that a casino was inevitable, even though other towns have beat them. They listened to no one but lawyers – tribal lawyers at that. To this day the town continues to try to insist that they are under no legal obligation to shill for the casino, when in fact, the agreement is quite clear. It was dumbfounding to me that, among many other things, they so willingly offered up their own sovereingty. We don’t even have an unemployment issue in our region! I think I felt I needed make it my business (much to the ire of some) to make the details of this issue more transparent.
There was a panel discussion in Longmeadow last night regarding casinos. This came up briefly in the discussion. Although the local newspaper report doesn’t really describe much of what took place, it was obvious from being in the room that people from all of the impacted surrounding areas want more facts and transparency. The panel consisted of five speakers. Leo Maley spoke as a volunteer for Casino Free Mass. He talked about his experiences with union organizing efforts at Foxwoods and misrepresentations on potential job creation and wages. Kathleen Norbut, selectwoman from Monson, talked about the myths that are being perpetuated about “inevitability” of casinos and about the concerns of adjacent towns. Richard Fitzgerald, Town Manager of Palmer, talked about his efforts (since 1993) to research all of the facts and to provide non-biased perspectives to residents of his town. The pro-casino speakers, Tom Murphy and Jim St. Amand made impassioned statements about job opportunities, wage statistics and potential economic gains. My impression, rather biased, was that this is just another political battle where local residents stand to lose the most if promises are not kept, deals are made behind the scenes and the concerns of all are not part of the decision making process.
One of the reasons I couldn’t stop listening to this debate when it came up in Middleboro, the town next door to mine, was my utter disbelief at how citizens were being completely left out of the picture. Townspeople would not have even been given the right to vote on the issue had it not been for the local grassroots anti-casino organization, casinofacts.org, which never stopped hammering at the issue. The town never opened it’s mind to any other possibility that a casino was inevitable, even though other towns have beat them. They listened to no one but lawyers – tribal lawyers at that. To this day the town continues to try to insist that they are under no legal obligation to shill for the casino, when in fact, the agreement is quite clear. It was dumbfounding to me that, among many other things, they so willingly offered up their own sovereingty. We don’t even have an unemployment issue in our region! I think I felt I needed make it my business (much to the ire of some) to make the details of this issue more transparent.