From the Lexington Herald-Leader Monday, Dec. 26, 2005 http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/editorial/13478743.htm
A wondrous, wintry day in Woodland Park was a welcome break from not only the typical holiday buzz, but also from controversies so out of character for this season of peace and goodwill.
I mused on the ancient oaks and elms, their bare brown branches stretching across the cold, gray-streaked skies. These trees have presided over a past that created our present. And so, I wondered, what kind of Kentucky our majestic friends will find on a future Christmas morning.
For we are most certainly at the proverbial crossroads and the decisions we make now will create a Kentucky worthy of its citizens and character or rob us of the greatness within our grasp.
The most critical obstacle to our ascension is the rush to adopt casino gambling as the answer to our problems, when it will in fact worsen them. Will Kentuckians have the wisdom and strength of character to look beyond the siren call of false profits? Will we identify the wolf in Santa's suit promising money for education and health care if we will only strike this Faustian bargain?
Those most loudly touting casinos ask why we should allow tax dollars to leave the state. Yet that is the wrong question at the wrong time in Kentucky's history. The proper question is not how many tax dollars Indiana gets from Kentucky gamblers, just as it is not how many vacation dollars Florida gets from Kentucky tourists. Rather it is how we best and most fairly raise sufficient revenues for our needs and then live within whatever budget they provide.
Electronic slots are unlike any other form of gambling. As John Warren Kindt of the University of Illinois says, it is the crack cocaine of gambling. It is lickety-split action with manipulated payoffs that hook gamblers, 5 percent of whom become addicts. Many more become problem gamblers.
All academic research, unbiased and untainted by pro-gambling propaganda, conclusively shows that slots are an economic loser. That is, the state will lose more money than it takes in from taxes. Indiana, for example, has approved ever more gambling and still is $1 billion in debt.
Even worse, this economic loss does not take into account the ruined lives, the inconsistent lessons to our youth and the sacrificing of our pioneer tradition of leadership at the altar of false hope and short-term thinking that casinos represent.
The nation underwent a similar gambling scourge in the late 1800s. It got so bad that Kentucky and other states banned gambling and even changed their constitutions to prevent future generations from falling into the downward spiral of economic and societal ruin.
An alternative vision would build on the inherent goodness of Kentuckians, instead of preying on them. We could be the state that welcomes business and industry, as an electronic-gambling-free zone, unlike our neighbors. This is a niche where we win big.
Our very name, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, suggests the winning path. We must think positively and encourage the helping hand of friendship in every field, whether it is volunteer programs for reading instruction, worker training or financial advice. We should teach good citizenship to our young, strengthen opportunities for families and lend a hand to those left behind.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come tells us Kentucky still has time. All we need do is walk the sure-footed path consistent with our highest values. Then Woodland's stately trees will witness a Kentucky that is indeed all happy, merry and bright.
1 comment:
Like the historical perspective here. I have no interest in gambling or casinos, but your comments make me consider how it does affect the commonwealth as a whole....good thoughts, and great writing.
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