Letters to Artvoice

CASINO CHRONICLES:

YOU’RE FIRED

A third world in the offing in the Mid-east; natural disasters plaguing Asia, probably due to global warming; a right-wing junta in Washington ripping away our constitutional liberties; an increasing energy crisis forcing us into almost certain depression.

And, locally, a sudden increase in violent crime; the resurgence of gangstas in the ghetto; an irrational and self-destructive increase in the local cost-of-living; increasing brain-dead conservativism in the dwindling suburbs; a continuing depletion of population in a city built for 600,000 now housing only a little more than 200,000; an out-of-control police force; an irresponsible “bi-partisan” county government continuing to preside over the bankruptcy of the city; continuing loss of industry and jobs and a decrease in essential services at an increasing price.

And poor little Geoff Kelly and Bruce Jackson worry that we may get addicted to gambling. Gosh, oh, gee, I feel saved—not.

We’re talking about one casino—not Atlantic City. And Buffalo is now just about as dead as East St. Louis—who the f#@! cares whether the Senecas make money off of it.

You’re finished; your city is done; wake up and grow up; and do your job as an “alternative” newspaper providing a real focus for a community that needs it—and the casino is not it.

Buffalo’s community has a population 50 percent non-northern-European descent. Yet Artvoice continues to report the culture of white “liberals.”

You’re just another flavor of racism. I’ve lost all respect for you, and my readership stops here.

Fire Geoff Kelly and get rid of Bruce Jackson—now.

Emmanuel John Winner

Buffalo

If Mayor Brown truly had the best interests of Buffalonians at heart he would sell Fulton Street for the appraised value but he would only grant the Seneca Gaming Corporation (SGC) access to the water and sewer infrastructure if two contingencies are met. First, the SCG agrees in writing not to purchase any more land adjacent to or surrounding the existing nine-acre casino site and secondly the SGC must complete a full-blown Envirionmental Impact Statement and adequately address all issues that are identified to have a significant negative impact. Once these two conditions are satisfied, and only then, should the SGC be granted access to the existing water and sewer infrastructure connections.

The main point is not to deny them infrastructure access but to make the SGC address pertinent and significant issues prirr to receiving official and formal infrastructure access. It is not Mayor Brown’s problem if the SGC cannot complete a full-blown Environmental Impact Statement prior to the casino construction/operation deadline. The SGC should have had their casino construction/operation agreement signed, sealed and delivered under the Masiello administration because they were more sympathetic and enthusiastic about a casino. Does Mayor Brown actually have any legal right to demand location and minority hiring quotas if no public money from the state, city or county is subsidizing the construction or operation of the casino?

Drew Shapiro

Getzville

IT’S SIMPLE, REALLY…

Israel needs to be dissolved and transformed into a secular democray. It is a racist, Zionist entity based on the existence of anti-Semitism. Without anti-Semitism, Israel’s existence would be unnecessary.

Israel is a rogue state supported, financed and armed by the US imperialists. It has flouted nearly every relevant UN Security Coucil resolution, possesses nuclear weapons and has perpetrated egregious human rights violations against Palestinians. Indeed, its conduct is antithetical to the basic tenets of Judaism.

The Holocaust was one of the worst tragedies in human history, but it does not justify displacing large numbers of Palestinians to create Israel. The real problem confronting the Jewish people is anti-Semitism and it needs to be eradicated as a pernisious form of racism. Then Jewish people throughout the world could participate in their respective societies with dignity and equal human rights.

Israel’s conduct is currently threatening the peace in the Mideast. The American Jewish community needs to learn from its mistakes and falacious arguments. Zionism is a racist and anti-Semitic philosophy and needs to be repudiated. A democratic secular state of Palestine is the only real hope for authentic peace in today’s Mideast.

David Slive

Buffalo