Reason #32 to VOTE NO on ISSUE 3
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Because gambling venues make a city an impermissibly and detrimentally attractive nuisance, literally and figuratively.
What do I mean?
Let me give you an example.
A good friend of mine and her family moved to Las Vegas from here not long ago. I've been to Vegas twice now, both times since the friend moved there and one of those two times because I presented at a conference.
My friend lives in a fabulous home in a gated community, bla bla bla. I am happy for her, so long as she is happy for her. But I know that she is counting the days until they're able to leave.
Why? Many different reasons, but the following included:
Because it's an attractive nuisance for people with families. From their home, a 20-25 minute drive from "the strip," you can see everything. Her kids can see everything. They wake up to a double standard: they live and feed off of a place that lives and feeds off of people at a lower place in life. For pious people, and my friends are churchgoers, this is a difficult double-life to lead in particular, but you certainly don't need to believe in God to see the duplicity.
Instead of looking at the amazing round, mirror-reflective moon this evening as the most transfixing sight in the sky, neon and glitz hypnotize her kids. It becomes the norm to say, let's go to New York, New York and ride some amusement ride, meant to entice kids or families into a place better left to adults, if anyone.
Parenting is hard enough without having to tell your child why you don't take them to your office, or why, when you take them to your office, you can't take them somewhere else that's loaded with inappropriate images.
When my friend visited over the summer, her daughter, who is in third grade, started to talk about the naked women on the billboards they pass heading to or from anywhere in their new hometown:
I do not want these images here. I don't want these messages here. I don't want the slots or anything else that accompanies them here.
You think the U.S. members of Congress are so de-sensitized to what is inappropriate contact with minors that Speaker Hastert can't identify where he's gone wrong? That Mark Foley's comments to others about contact with pages should have sent up red flags rather than be descibed as being mentioned only "in passing"? You think that none of these things are related?
You are wrong. It's an environment, created by a trivializing of what's important in exchange for never to be realized profits, that won't even go to those who most need those profits. Slot machines won't even create new wealth for God's sake. Those who support the slots are trading their kids' souls and their own parenting energy for an ephemeral future built on a weapon of mass self-destruction: gambling.
Okay - I'm getting off into another reason and with 31 left, I should be stingy.
When I drive across the 480 bridge just before 77, my kids often look north to see the triumverate of tallish buildings that stick out of the Cleveland skyline. When they were younger, I'd say, See Daddy's building? Can you see Daddy!? And they would say, he'd have to have a really big body, Mom.
I can't keep my kids safe, now or forever, from everything. I can only work to teach them discretion. But the last thing I need, as I make those efforts, is for that skyline and all the attendant media between my home and downtown to reflect the existence of thousands of slot machines.
Previous reasons to vote no:
Reason 33
Reason 34
Reason 35
Reason 36
Reason 37
Reason 38
Reason 39
Reason 40
Reason 41
Reason 42
Reason 43
Reason 44
Reason 45
Reason 46
Reason 47
Reason 48
Reason 49
Reason 50
Reason 51
Reason 52
Reason 53
Reason 54
Reason 55
Reason 56
Reason 57
Vote no on Issue 3.
What do I mean?
Let me give you an example.
A good friend of mine and her family moved to Las Vegas from here not long ago. I've been to Vegas twice now, both times since the friend moved there and one of those two times because I presented at a conference.
My friend lives in a fabulous home in a gated community, bla bla bla. I am happy for her, so long as she is happy for her. But I know that she is counting the days until they're able to leave.
Why? Many different reasons, but the following included:
Because it's an attractive nuisance for people with families. From their home, a 20-25 minute drive from "the strip," you can see everything. Her kids can see everything. They wake up to a double standard: they live and feed off of a place that lives and feeds off of people at a lower place in life. For pious people, and my friends are churchgoers, this is a difficult double-life to lead in particular, but you certainly don't need to believe in God to see the duplicity.
Instead of looking at the amazing round, mirror-reflective moon this evening as the most transfixing sight in the sky, neon and glitz hypnotize her kids. It becomes the norm to say, let's go to New York, New York and ride some amusement ride, meant to entice kids or families into a place better left to adults, if anyone.
Parenting is hard enough without having to tell your child why you don't take them to your office, or why, when you take them to your office, you can't take them somewhere else that's loaded with inappropriate images.
When my friend visited over the summer, her daughter, who is in third grade, started to talk about the naked women on the billboards they pass heading to or from anywhere in their new hometown:
I do not want these images here. I don't want these messages here. I don't want the slots or anything else that accompanies them here.
You think the U.S. members of Congress are so de-sensitized to what is inappropriate contact with minors that Speaker Hastert can't identify where he's gone wrong? That Mark Foley's comments to others about contact with pages should have sent up red flags rather than be descibed as being mentioned only "in passing"? You think that none of these things are related?
You are wrong. It's an environment, created by a trivializing of what's important in exchange for never to be realized profits, that won't even go to those who most need those profits. Slot machines won't even create new wealth for God's sake. Those who support the slots are trading their kids' souls and their own parenting energy for an ephemeral future built on a weapon of mass self-destruction: gambling.
Okay - I'm getting off into another reason and with 31 left, I should be stingy.
When I drive across the 480 bridge just before 77, my kids often look north to see the triumverate of tallish buildings that stick out of the Cleveland skyline. When they were younger, I'd say, See Daddy's building? Can you see Daddy!? And they would say, he'd have to have a really big body, Mom.
I can't keep my kids safe, now or forever, from everything. I can only work to teach them discretion. But the last thing I need, as I make those efforts, is for that skyline and all the attendant media between my home and downtown to reflect the existence of thousands of slot machines.
Previous reasons to vote no:
Reason 33
Reason 34
Reason 35
Reason 36
Reason 37
Reason 38
Reason 39
Reason 40
Reason 41
Reason 42
Reason 43
Reason 44
Reason 45
Reason 46
Reason 47
Reason 48
Reason 49
Reason 50
Reason 51
Reason 52
Reason 53
Reason 54
Reason 55
Reason 56
Reason 57
Vote no on Issue 3.
JBlog Me
2 Comments:
Slam dunk!
Thanks, Daniel.
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