CasinoWatch

Groups unite around Bay State to oppose a casino

Anti-casino coalition taking its message to the people
Ten organizations including LWV unite as Casino Free Mass


"The governor has placed all 351 communities out to the highest bidder."
       -Rich YoungBOSTON — A new anti-gambling coalition that is fighting Gov. Deval Patrick's plan to allow up to three casinos in Massachusetts says it will focus on grass-roots education rather than Statehouse lobbying.  CasinoFreeMass, which kicked off its campaign in front of the Statehouse on Monday, includes about 10 organizations that have been vocal in their opposition to casinos. They range from the Massachusetts League of Women Voters to Casinofacts.org to religious groups and social workers. The Interchurch Council of Greater New Bedford is supporting the effort.

"At this point, this is something we are doing not to be concerned with the folks inside the Statehouse, really, but to be concerned with our friends and neighbors outside the Statehouse who have a stake in this debate, whether they gamble or whether they don't, because it will affect all of us," said Laura Everett, a CasinoFreeMass spokeswoman.  The coalition will hold regional meetings across the state, beginning at 7 p.m. Nov. 12 at the New Bedford Whaling Museum...  Standard-Times.  
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Wampanoag display greed their ancestors despised

I am 55 years old, and ever since my adolescent years when I began to learn more than "cowboys and Indians" about Native Americans, I have felt that "Indians" were genuine, spiritual children of the Earth — until recently.  As a deeply concerned naturalist, I regard nature as an incredible masterpiece of creation, where a Great Spirit has been evolving a magnificent diversity of life for millions of years. But increasingly, human civilization has come to regard the world of nature as a vast resource to be exploited for greedy gains.

Chief Seattle's warning that "whatever we do to the web of life, we do to ourselves" seems to have lost its meaning among so many contemporary Native Americans. Perhaps they are too long immersed in the customs of white greed, or perhaps they have become diluted with too much white blood.

In their rapacious quest to build the biggest casino in the world, the Wampanoags have embraced the same ruthless ethics that their grandfathers condemned in the behavior of genocidal Western white men: total disregard and destruction of whatever life may lie across their path to financial wealth.,,  My View in The Standard-Times.  
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Groups Unveil Anti-Casino Push in Mass

Religious groups and small business owners that oppose Gov. Deval Patrick's gambling legislation want Massachusetts residents to know a casino could be coming to their backyards.  Instead of lobbying lawmakers who must approve the measure, the coalition calling itself Casino Free Mass unveiled a campaign Monday to hold forums around the state to encourage people to get involved. The first forum is scheduled for next month in New Bedford.

"The more people are informed about this, the more they're considering seriously this is really something that could happen in my backyard, the better the issue becomes for those who want to represent the quality of life we have in Massachusetts," spokeswoman Laura Everett said...

"The governor has placed all 351 communities out to the highest bidder," said Rich Young, one of the leaders of the new group, at a news conference Monday outside the Statehouse. "The governor's plan is not site specific"...  Houston Chronicle.