CHRIS COLLINS:

GAMBLING MAN

I heard and saw the bad news. Mr. Collins went over to the Seneca Gambling Corporation. The TV images showed him and Mr. Johns together, then the glitzy casino image, then Joel Rose who opposes.

It appears that Mr. Collins hadn’t done his homework. He should have seen what was going on in Niagara Falls. It is suffering after five years of casino presence without other new development at all.

He should have read the SEC reports showing that $2 million leave this city to coffers of the SGC monthly since the temporary casino opened. Now he wants to allow expansion to the projected $150 million annual loss of people’s money with essentially no resulting development! His choice is extremely disappointing. It offers short-term gain to some at the long-term expense of many. He was elected to be accountable to his constituents. Oh, yes, he won’t have a disgusting curse of a gluttonous money pit in his backyard in Clarence. He doesn’t plan on suffering from it like the poor unfortunate folks who are glued to the slots now in that smoke-filled shack, and sadly, their families and children.

Eventually, businesses in the city will fail due to the unfair [tax-free] casino advantages. For each one job gained, you can expect nearly three jobs lost locally. Why didn’t he go to the Erie County Restaurant Association to hear their voice of opposition? I voted for him with hope that he would find a sane position on the casino. Alas, I was a fool! He’s the problem now, not the solution. I still hope he will change his mind.

Remember the ABC’s of gambling: addiction, bankruptcy and corruption. My definition of corruption is an elected official standing on camera with the head of a gambling corporation. It makes us all losers.

Robert Schulman, MD

Buffalo

Drop Your

Party Affiliation

How you use your military is your business. If it is not your intent to kill inocent men, women and children, then say it is not, by dropping your political party affiliation. If you don’t, you are saying they—the Democrats and Republicans—represent what you would do. Isn’t the issue important enough to make you take action?

You can be nonaffiliated and registered to vote.

A soldier has a duty to refuse illegal orders; and it is illegal for the US to invade a country unprovoked. You have put the soldier in a difficult position. Support them by dropping your party affiliation. Democrat as well as Republican, they are equally guilty.

The soldiers will live the rest of their lives faced with the fact that they have killed over a million innocents. Will you face your responsibility and burden?

It is not enough to say the war is wrong or bad. Your hands are involved, just by living in America, benefitting from free association and speech. You need to mitigate your participation. Do something the politicians will listen to.

You have to take action. This war is not a spectator situation. You are already involved and guilty. If you leave a party that has authorized the use of force, you become closer to taking responsibility for the military that your party has deployed improperly. Don’t continue your consent for the war and show you mean it!

Chris Weinert

Kenmore

REMEMBER JULIUS RUDEL

Thanks for the articles publicizing the Metropolitan Opera performances to be shown at the Regal Theater on Saturdays. I hope that many operaphiles will be moved to attend by Jan Jezioro’s commentary.

A disappointing event in opera here in Buffalo concerns Opera News, the publication of the Met. Every year Opera News honors five artists who have served opera with extraordinary distinction. This year one of the honorees is Julius Rudel, who directed the Buffalo Philharmonic for several years. In the current Opera News there is a full page very laudatory biographical sketch, along with a full-page photo. What is unpardonably omitted is any mention of Rudel’s tenure in Buffalo.

Such an omission is either accidental or malicious. If accidental, Brian Kellows’s article needs to be amended to include Rudel’s Buffalo years. If malicious, those behind such an outrage should be ashamed. I was singing in the Philharmonic Chorus at the time and remember the thrilling performances of Die Meistersinger, Otello and other masterpieces under Rudel’s direction. When I talked with some who were “insiders” at the time, I was given to understand Rudel’s tenure was far from smooth. Well, nothing is perfect. I can only say that as a nonprofessional, I found it thrilling to be selected to sing under Rudel’s baton.

It’s essential that operaphiles write to Opera News and demand that Kellows’s article be amended, so that the full story of music in Buffalo will be told. Write to letters@operanews.com.

Kenneth J. Rummenie

East Aurora