The tyranny of casinos
The afterglow of July Fourth is a great time to reconsider the fight to keep casinos out of Philadelphia, especially if you care about the spirit of Independence Day and the betrayal of it exactly five years ago by our elected officials.
On July 4, 1776, the First Continental Congress passed the Declaration of Independence, stating that government derives its power from the consent of the governed. On the July Fourth weekend in 2004, a group of politicians in Harrisburg, acting without the consent or input of the governed, passed Act 71, which allows casino gambling in Pennsylvania.
Now, many of those same pols are frantically working to amend Act 71 to permit not only slot machines at casinos but also craps, blackjack and other table games. Again, they are operating below the radar.
In 2004, the pro-casino drive was led by Gov. Rendell, a long-time champion of the gambling industry, and by now-disgraced state Sen. Vincent Fumo, architect of Act 71, which was sneaked into law while the rest of us were roasting hot dogs and watching fireworks.
Both men realized that we the governed would never consent to a bill that called for granting 14 state licenses to an industry that aggravates social and economic ills as quickly as it generates profits for itself.
That's why they worked in secret to enlist the support of legislators and investors while completely excluding from the process almost all the people who had, in good faith, voted them into office. It took until 2009 for local pols to show their true colors by supporting the casinos.
One by one, they all said the same thing: It's not their fault, and they'd rather side with their political allies in Harrisburg than with their constituents.
In choosing sides, Mayor Nutter, City Councilman Frank DiCicco and others had to ignore studies indicating that casinos suck more money out of communities than they give back. They had to pretend that Philadelphia, the largest city in the nation proposed for slots parlors, won't experience major upsurges in crime and poverty. They decided to support, without input from constituents, a program that would further destabilize the city economy and betray our cultural character.
The mayor and the others were fully backed by our city's unelected officials, who seem to be equally disdainful of the people they supposedly serve. That disdain was on view when the City Planning Commission approved a plan to build the SugarHouse casino on the riverfront, close to neighborhoods that had no say in the matter.
The key here is "had no say."
As casinos come ever closer in Philadelphia, it isn't with the consent of the governed. It's with the consent of officials who betrayed the public and acted in the interest of themselves, casino owners and a small number of wealthy investors.
But the foes of casinos have stopped listening to the political double-talk and are focusing on other ways to stop the community-crushing gambling complexes that SugarHouse and Foxwoods aim to impose on us.
The alternative would be to roll over and let the casino industry wreck our city. The city where Jefferson, Franklin and other enlightened leaders produced a document that called for a permanent change in the relationship between government and the governed.
Our current crop of politicians ignores the extent to which the Declaration changed the expectations of the governed.
It's up to us to remind them that we, the people, have the right to fight laws that run counter to the public good and, this time around, to vote out any politician who expands gambling without public input.
