April 2003
Letters to the Editor
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Casinos, Better as a Threat
Casinos are like the Lilies of the Field, in the sense that "they spin not; neither do they sow." Neither casinos nor the Lilies of the Field produce any kind of tangible goods or services which benefit mankind. But at least the Lilies of the Field, to continue the Gospel analogy, have a great aesthetic value in that they are so beautiful that their beauty exceeds that of King Solomon himself in all his brilliant raiment. Unfortunately, casinos cannot match the Lilies of the Field for their beauty.
At best, casinos are a form of entertainment, like a musical or sporting event. But there is a fundamental difference. When one buys toys for himself, or treats himself to a spectator event such as a movie or a sporting match, he generally doesn't spend more than he can afford. And the money he spends does, to some extent, increase the level of tangible goods and services that exist. For example, if one supports an orchestra, one is supporting the factories which manufacture the musical instruments which are employed by the orchestra; one is also supporting the schools and their staffs which helped train the musicians of the orchestra.
This is generally not true in the case of casinos. Here, people often spend more than they have. And all that really happens is that money has exchanged hands, going from one class of persons to another. But nothing tangible in the meanwhile has been produced by the exchange which measurably improves our common lot.
Casinos are parasitical. They drain away money which otherwise could and should have been spent in order to purchase goods or services.
One of the Laws of Thermodynamics states that in a closed energy system, disorder must inevitably become more and more prevalent. Such is the case with casinos, since all they do is take in money without giving back anything useful in return.
I walked into a casino once in Berlin, Germany, and they were very aware of the fact that in a closed system, casinos are a drain. They were also aware of the opposite effect of casinos. If the local population is banned from playing and the casino is opened only to foreigners with passports, then the system is no longer closed and is now taking in money from outside. I had to show my passport to enter. Locals could not enter. The Germans well understood that casinos are a social drain. It was one thing to take money from foreigners, but quite another when it was their own citizens.
It is true that Connecticut casinos drain money from Massachusetts. This is perhaps the sole argument in favor of having casinos here, though when everybody has casinos, then nobody has an advantage.
Casinos are bad things. They harm people, especially the poorer people who can least afford to be harmed. It may be that Romney has the best idea - threaten to build casinos here, and then allow himself to be bought off for a cut of their action, in exchange for his promise not to build any here.
James A. Nollet
Billerica
An Arrest Record - for Life?!
Not only was Eric Sarsfield, Marlborough, falsely accused of a crime and jailed for 10- years, but because this happened in Massachusetts, he will have his false arrest on record in Massachusetts forever!
Is this what Major General of Militia, Dr. Joseph Warren, gave his life for at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775?
Falsely arrested, wrongly arrested, found not guilty by a jury of your peers, but your arrest record is for life in Massachusetts, no matter how wrong or false it is! Even if the police who arrested you are arrested and convicted of falsely arresting you, your arrest record in Massachusetts will outlast the universe.
Don Schwarz
Stoughton
Romney's Budget is Common Sense
Governor Romney's budget is "common sense for the Commonwealth," the voters shouted on Election Day, rejecting tax increases while demanding streamlined government without waste and mismanagement. Romney listened while closing the enormous deficit.
A financial crisis strangles Massachusetts, yet we will persevere despite necessary budget reductions. The things we desire are unattainable when those things that are necessary are extremely difficult to accomplish. Romney spreads the cuts as fairly, evenly and as painlessly as possible, while defending essential services.
Beacon Hill abuse, patronage and inefficiency must end. Romney's courageous governmental reform benefits the citizens of Massachusetts.
Brock N. Cordeiro
Dartmouth
Baby Safe Haven Laws; Common Sense in the Commonwealth
Governor Mitt Romney recently outlined a cost cutting initiative for Massachusetts in his State of the State message, "Common Sense for the Commonwealth." Speaker Tom Finneran has asked for bills to be forwarded that cut costs for the upcoming budget, and also make sense for our citizens.
To both elected officials, we therefore give you the Baby Safe Haven bill sponsored by Councilor John Tobin for immediate passage. Unlike the current policy of prosecuting women, or couples in crisis who abandon newborns in an unsafe way, forty-three states now have the process by which their Baby Safe Haven laws allow these desperate women and/or couples to surrender that newborn at a designated-by-law "safe haven."
Councilor Tobin's Boston city ordinance, a home rule petition, is the vehicle by which the Commonwealth can follow an elected official who has the courage to stand up for real common sense. The cost cutting in states with Baby Safe Haven laws has been phenomenal! We in the Commonwealth are busy prosecuting upwards of six individuals currently for various alleged crimes surrounding six deadly newborn abandonments. The cost of these prosecutions and incarcerations will come with a price tag upwards of three million dollars should they follow processes under the law. These costs include
Medical Examiners, court costs, defense attorneys, jail time, parole procedures, appeals and social work components for the alleged perpetrators.
In New York State there hasn't been a single deadly newborn abandonment in over 14 months. Not one dollar of outlay for any type of expensive criminal procedure, and there have been upwards of ten newborns surrendered in Baby Safe Havens in this exact same fourteen-month period. Many of those newborns have gone to pre-adoptive homes. The adoptive families immediately went out to purchase the necessities of cribs, car seats and nursery paraphernalia which generated sales tax dollars. This is not to mention the pediatricians who saw to the health care needs, whose salaries were taxed by that state, and all of the other goods and services associated with bringing up a newborn baby.
Suddenly you begin to realize that just from a purely financial point of view, New York has saved upwards of $5 million, Massachusetts has wasted $3 million in the same time period, and as of now New York has saved twenty or more newborn's lives while we have seen 6 die in the last three years. And when those twenty New York newborns grow up, there can be a mix of professional and blue-collar workers who will pay taxes on both the local and federal level becoming net assets, or possibly a Governor, state representative, state senator or two.
I suggest to Governor Romney that the process of saving lives by immediately passing our Baby Safe Haven law makes sense! Wasting newborn lives never makes sense from a common sense/ moral level, but the data clearly shows that from a state budget level we are fools for not using the proven Baby Safe Haven process of saving lives, and saving state budget money.
Michael Morrisey
Lexington
Editor's Comment: Although this sounds like common sense at first-blush, we note that there are prolifers who believe this is injurious to the saving of lives. We do not yet have an opinion on the matter
Fistgate Should Be Public
Yes, I believe that Fistgate should be made public because so few of the American people know what a deviant, perverse thing homosexuality really is. And, above all, it is being shoved into the minds of our children.
These vulnerable little beings that God graciously placed in our care are being sacrificed daily on the altar of a sexual behavior that can be controlled, even changed, if the person wants it to be. A sexual behavior is not something you are born to be. These are not, "God's gay children" anymore than were the Sadducees and Pharisees of Jesus' time. 'They are of their father the devil,' said Jesus.
Fistgate would make this clear to all who question.
Janet Hensley
Rindge, NH
Test Funds Replacing Teacher Funds?
How can we justify spending more money on testing when in order to get that money we have to lay off teachers? The inner city schools are at risk for not making sufficient progress. Forty-five teachers in one inner city school were given their 30-day notice a few days ago. In March, these and another 40 or 50 in the city will be replaced by music teachers and computer teachers who don't know the kids and don't know the program. Or the classes will grow to over 40 pupils per class. Does either of these solutions help the students make sufficient progress on the MCAS? The 75 million currently spent on testing could better be spent to save jobs. Teachers educate students, tests cannot replace teachers. Yet, test funds are replacing the funding for teachers, yes tests are replacing teachers. The kids suffer and only the richer communities come out looking good.
Eileen Young
Swampscott
Editor's Comment: There is no budget that can't be cut. In 1963, I was the new Chairman of the Teachers Committee for a 10,000-pupil district where we inherited a $1 million short-term debt because they had spent too much money the previous year. It wasn't easy, but we accomplished it due to the excellent work of a dedicated accountant who was on the school board. But it's ten times more difficult when the teachers are running the schools, as they are now. The teacher unions started about 1974 in Massachusetts and our schools have declined ever since.
Abortion, a Baby's Shower
In the movie Life is Beautiful, one of the most incredible movies I have seen, a father struggled to keep his son alive by making light of their situation in a Nazi Concentration Camp. There was a scene where the people left the train to enter the camp, the men and their sons on one line, and women and daughters on the other. Many with faces of uncertainty, some with despair because they knew from rumors what was ahead. One day, while in the camp, the father said to his son, "Why aren't you playing with all of the other children?" He answered, "Because they all had to take a shower." He didn't want to take a shower.
Then it dawned on me that I had taken my baby to a "shower" the day I had an abortion. I remembered the waiting room had rows of chairs, most of them empty. Then there was a rope section like in a bank or an amusement park. It did not take me long to go through that. But then I entered a room behind closed doors and it was like nothing I had seen before. Women in enormous numbers standing on line with the same facial expression of uncertainty as the women entering the concentration camp. One by one, it was our turn.
I woke up in a room filled with other beds. Then I realized, I was alive but my baby was no longer. What gift was I given? A life of guilt for my participation in the world's most horrendous, selfish, humiliating, cowardly holocaust that is abortion, the ache of years silently missing my child, the unbearable pain of seeing other mothers breastfeeding their children knowing my new son will never feed from my breast. A breast amputated due to breast cancer. Abortion is the most horrific crime against mankind. The Bible says "fruit of the womb" not "knife in the womb." My fellow Americans, we must recognize Life is Beautiful and that every human being has the right to life and not a baby shower.
Charnette Messe
Groton, CT
Real Reform Needed in Courts
Your paper recently reported two significant reforms to be implemented in the state's court system by Gov. Romney and his chief counsel, Daniel Winslow. First, they are constructing a 21-member nomination panel to more objectively select qualified judicial candidates for appointment by the Governor. And today, the administration announced it will shut down eight of the 69 district courthouses to save millions of dollars during the 2003-04 fiscal years.
This is great news. However, I do have a question. Will Mitt and his chief counsel also help families that have been submitted to the indiscretions of judges and social engineers of our state's Probate and Family Court? I can attest first hand from my more than two-year tenure as State Co-Chair for the Fatherhood Coalition (based in Milford, Mass), that I have witnessed the interruption of thousands of father-child relationships as a result of intervention by the family court. In many cases, the court appears to have been extraordinarily intrusive and heavy-handed, literally robbing fathers and children of the opportunity of their most fundamental rights to foster meaningful relationships with one another.
These dads and their kids are missing those precious years, and in the words of Benjamin Franklin, "Lost time is never found again." It happened to my daughter, Victoria, and me; it can happen to you or someone you care about. The affect on us from this travesty is one of the most pervasive social ills of our time - children without the real influence and teaching of their natural fathers.
Try for a moment to forget about Iraq, other rogue states and terrorist entities outside of our nation. Pause and look within. American and Massachusetts citizens must understand that the battle for freedom and democracy begins on our streets, within our communities. We must identify the injustices here first as we rid society of the bigotry and hypocrisy of a judiciary that creeps insidiously into our lives, homes and families.
The trial court forum of the family court, through the devices of its judges and corrupt apparatus, promotes a system so money-driven and politically motivated that it functions predominately to preserve itself at the expense of ordinary families and good people. And many of the appointed authorities, particularly those with conservative-pragmatist or liberal-feminist ideologies resist change by way of their contemptuous power to fulfill an agenda, fill their coffers or both.
Our elected officials, as well, lose sight of what is fair. In the outset of their service they should legislate without waiting for the safety net of popular opinion. What good are "leaders" if we, the citizenry, must lead them? They only squander our time and money, and stand in the way of our liberties and pursuit of happiness as guaranteed by the state and federal Constitutions. They must be held accountable in action or inaction for unreasonably prolonged social injustice.
So please listen carefully and compassionately, misters Romney and Winslow, to your fellow citizens and the victims of the family court. We wish to soon realize your wise and commonsense reforms, because truth be known, our own officials, whom we have entrusted, are cheating us from the most fundamental, natural and God-given rights to parent our children.
Mike Franco
State Co-Chair
The Fatherhood Coalition
Entertainment Elite and War
Recently, there has been wave upon wave of entertainers speaking out against war with Iraq.
I question the logic and sincerity of these so-called activists.
For one, they speak of the civilian toll that the war will bring. What about the civilian toll that Saddam as brought upon his own people for the past 30+ years? What about the toll he brought upon his neighbors in wars of aggression in Iran and Kuwait? What about the environmental nightmare of the burning oilfields in Kuwait?
They speak out against the singling out of Iraq when we have bigger threats like that of North Korea. Iraq has been a menace to the world for the past 12+ years. They have refused to abide by UN resolutions and ceasefire agreements. We already have the hardware in the theater to deal with the threat decisively. Hans Blix himself noted in his latest report that what little cooperation we have gotten from Iraq was due to the looming threat of U.S. and British military action. We cannot maintain troops poised on the border of Iraq for another 20 years. The threat must be extinguished quickly.
They also have spoken out against the UN sanctions against Iraq, claiming that thousands of children are dying each year. Perhaps, if Iraq complied with the UN resolutions, sanctions would no longer be necessary.
So, if I understand the Entertainment Elite Activists correctly, we should remove the threat of military action, lift sanctions and agree to disagree with Iraq's cooperation on the removal of weapons of mass destruction. Allow Saddam to continue to threaten his own people, his neighbors, Israel and the United States. Allow Saddam to look the other way as terrorists receive haven, financial support and training in Iraq. Allow Saddam to continue his quest for the ultimate weapons of destruction (Nuclear) and hold us and the world hostage.
In their eyes I am a warmonger. So be it.
Bill Dutton
Pembroke
Nightclub Fire
At the recent nightclub fire in Rhode Island several survivors said that the emergency lights and exit signs went out shortly after the fire started. How could that be, when these battery-powered lights were just tested two months earlier?
The answer lies in that they were located above the exit doors. Consequently, they were lost in the smoke that filled the ceiling.
There should be exit signs and lights at the floor level, so that those crawling along the floor to escape the smoke can head for them.
The airlines have learned this lesson. Along the aisle on the floor are lights which show which are the exit rows by light, and by feel.
All places of public patronage should have emergency exit lights at floor level that will not be hidden by smoke.
Tom Trottier
Ottawa ON Canada
