GOLISANO: A CASINO IS A BAD DEAL

Everyone living in or near Buffalo has a decision to make. The downtown casino is not a done deal, but it will be unless we each take a stand. It’s time for every concerned citizen, every parent, every politician and every business person to let your voice be heard. Do you support a casino located on a newly established sovereign nation in the heart of our downtown?

My stand? A downtown casino is a terrible business decision for Buffalo’s economy. Based on the Senecas’ own projections and government filings, the Buffalo Creek Casino will take in $154 million to $188 million from gamblers, mainly living in Buffalo and surrounding suburbs, in the first year alone. That’s money that will not be spent at local businesses. In return, the City of Buffalo would receive only $5 million to $7 million annually in lieu of taxes. What a “deal.”

Furthermore, the money the Senecas take out of our local economy goes to them tax free. They pay no local real estate taxes, no sales taxes and, as a sovereign nation, the Senecas themselves pay no income taxes on monies earned from the casino. How can surrounding businesses compete on a level playing field when the casino can offer all its products and services tax free? They simply can’t.

And who will pay for the hidden costs of gambling, including increased crime, addiction, bankruptcy, spouse and child abuse, divorce and suicide? I don’t think the casino will pay for these social costs. That burden will fall to you and me.

Did you know that since the Senecas are a sovereign nation, our courts and our police forces have no jurisdiction over casino property? Once you step inside to work or gamble, the rights and protections you’ve come to expect as an American citizen no longer apply. Yet the Senecas have full access to our courts to sue whoever they please. Think about that.

I have made the decision to join with New Yorker’s Family Research Foundation and others in opposing construction of a downtown casino. Buffalo may not be my hometown, but I have a vested interest in its future—an interest that goes far beyond the Buffalo Sabres. Living and working in Western New York, I do not want to see our region go the same way as Atlantic City, Gary, Indiana or, regrettably, Niagara Falls.

Why do we think the effect of gambling will be any different in Buffalo? Just look at the hotels, restaurants and businesses closing in Niagara Falls, as the Senecas build competing venues inside their tax-free sovereign nation. Casinos are built to keep people inside. Can Buffalo compete with a similar tax-free sovereign nation in its own back yard?

To understand the real dangers facing Buffalo, visit www.TheRealOdds.com. Then take a stand and let your voice be heard. Write the governor, call the mayor, start a petition, do something to make a difference. Let the Senecas know that building a downtown casino will not only be an economic disaster for Buffalo, but that the people of Buffalo will make sure it is an economic disaster for them as well. Take a stand. Send the message that they may build it, but we won’t come.

B. Thomas Golisano

Pittsford

SUPPLES: RIGHT, NOT RACIST

The letter accusing Mother’s and Jimmy Mac’s owner Mark Supples of being a racist was ridiculous (Artvoice v5n30). But, still, I gotta ask, what did he say that inferred racism?

I found Supples’ extemporaneous opinions, regarding how the casino will effect his business and the basic dumbness of it all, brutally uncensored, laugh-out-loud entertaining and dead-on right (Artvoice v5n29). After reading Ms. Brown’s response and condemning assertions, I thought to myself, what racism? For that matter, where does he “berate” and “name-call” people for not being “middle class”? Is it where he illustrates lower-class idiot gamblers walking or riding the subway to the casinos to piss their money away? Or the idiocy of it? That’s not racism. And it’s not picking on the poor for not being middle class. Silly. Maybe poor choice of words to some, but guess what? There will be a great deal of gambling idiots. Idiots handing their bucks to rich guys who want to be richer—in other communities. Poor people do not gamble for entertainment and fun like rich people do. They gamble on the slim chance of winning a decent life. That kind of hope and desperation makes tragic idiots of the poor losers.

Calling out a racist is a grave accusation. The African/Native American reader boohooed she would not be welcome in Mother’s or Jimmy Mac’s. Not-so-news flash: Any smart bar and urban restaurant owner cherishes and usually cultivates diversity among a spending class. I think I can safely speak for Supples and all of Buffalo restaurant owners when I say, if you have a budget to dine out and drink you’re a most welcome customer. Again, I have to ask, what article did she read? There isn’t a hint of innuendo on what color or ethnicity the poor people are that he talks about. Supples goes on about his customers and their spending power. He opines with a sarcastic edge on his experience and observation as a gambler in all kinds of casinos. He trashes casino food and Niagara Falls. Okay, the Falls thing was rough but casino food does “suck.” So where’s the racism? By the way, I pictured poor white people frequenting downtown’s new casino as I read the AV piece. So I guess the color thing is subjective projection of whoever’s doing the reading. If anything, I read a plainly spoken and different explanation on how poor people take a hit when casinos are built in their neighborhoods.

The letter concluded, “Mr. Supples is continuing the cycle of hatred and ignorance within this city.” Ouch! Said with such hatred and ignorance. I say to that reader: Don’t waste your fire on the wrong issue. You want to tear Mark Supples a new a-hole and take a stance on fighting ignorance, decry that most of Niagara Falls is not a “shit hole” filled with “uneducated…morons.” Better yet, make an argument on just how beautiful people look walking to a big shiny casino with the rent money. Until then, save the race battlecry for a real day.

Constance McEwen

Buffalo

BUSH: WRONG ON STEM CELLS

In his July 19 monologue, when Jay Leno lampooned President Bush’s veto of the stem cell research bill, he had Bush saying “Stem cells can be dangerous, especially if you’re driving.” That evoked a modest chuckle, but what Bush really said is just as stupid—that experiments on an embryo do violence to a living human being.

Despite Pope Benedict XVI’s pronouncement, an embryo simply cannot be a human being. To be human, a being must be capable of acting like a human. It especially must be capable of rational thought, which obviously an embryo is not. Members of other than Catholic communions might wonder why the Roman Catholic Church devotes so much energy to this esoteric issue.

It goes back to 1854 when an earlier pope, Pius IX, proclaimed infallibly that the virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, was free from all sin, original or actual, from the very first moment of her conception. To drive this point home, Mary allegedly appeared to Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes and said, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” To be capable of being free from sin, Mary had to be a person from the moment of her conception. This applied to all human beings born since then.

Catholic scientists who want to do research on stem cells are stuck with this papal proclamation. From the Catholic viewpoint, harvesting stem cells from embryos is a massive abortion and the doctor might be liable to excommunication.

I suffer from a moderately severe case of Parkinson’s. I would be happy if Bush were to respond to pressure from the medical community and change his position so that stem cell research could be done on Parkinson’s and other diseases. But that will be a long wait. Maybe Bill Gates will direct some of the billions he received from Warren Buffet toward stem cell research.

Kenneth J. Rummenie

East Aurora