What Would You Do? What Will You Do?

I have found these discussions very helpful and I am glad that we have had the chance to review other important topics.

I would like to ask you how you might react to the following situation.

You and I are on a bus and we find ourselves sitting next to a young man and woman. While we are sitting there on the bus, we are talking about an article on the dangers of heroin addiction -- how harmful it is to the human system, how rapidly addictive it is -- sometimes how lethal it is -- and how expensive it can be to treat, how it can lead to crimes against person and property and a degradation of all the values of self-worth that we hold up as party of being a Democrat and an American citizen.

We agree that we should get more people into addiction treatment, to reduce this scourge.
As you and I are talking, we realize that we can overhear the couple sitting to us. The conversation is going like this:

"Listen, it's going to be great. You will feel great," says the man.
"I don't know," says the woman, "maybe."

"Just this once," he says, "If you don't like it you can stop. Lots of people have, all the time."
"I don't know," she says uncertainly.

"You will feel better than you ever have," says the man confidently.

We look over and we realize to our horror that the man has strapped a tourniquet on the woman's arm is about to plunge a needle into her vein, right there on the bus.

"Listen, this stuff is the best. And besides, do you how many poor people benefit from this?
From the jobs, from the economy of making it?" the man says, "Unless you use this stuff, they won't get jobs. Do you want poor people to lose their jobs?

"Well, I don't know," says the woman, "do you use it?"

"Well, no," says the man, "I don't, not personally. But you should. You will free fantastic! It's a form of entertainment. It's your right! And I tell you what, I will promise to give some of the money you gave me to the local school so that they can fund some after-school programs for at-risk youth. Would that make it okay? Then you will be having a great time and doing a good thing for other people! And giving people jobs - in South America, in Afghanistan! "

She looks dubious. "But I have just met you - I can't keep looking for some random person on the bus."

"I will make it easy for you -- in the future I will bring the stuff right to your front door. We want this kind of entertainment as convenient as possible."

The woman hesitates, "Nothing bad can happen?" she asks.

"Nothing," he says, "you can trust me. For one thing, I am a member of the Democratic party. We stick up for the underdog. Would I lead you astray?"

"I guess not," she says -- and she sticks out her arm. He advances towards her vein with the needle.

What would we do then?

Would we sit back and say nothing? Or would say "hold on, miss, what he has been telling you isn't true?"

Imagine how much harder it would be to object if the man could say, "hey, it's legal, my father owns the distribution company, our local school has become addicted to the revenue, and there's nothing you can do about it."

Even as we debate our past mistakes, we must not take our eyes of the question of predatory gambling. This is not a question of "getting distracted" by the issue of gambling. It goes to the heart of the question of whether we are willing to let other people get ripped off in order to "create jobs" and "fund programs." This is EXACTLY a question of our core values.

The arm is out. The tourniquet is on. The needle is advancing. And we are sitting there talking about other stuff. We need to pause and express our values against this abuse of our autonomy as citizens.

If you agree with this, PLEASE COME TO THE STATE HOUSE AT 10:30 ON WEDNESDAY AT APRIL 1 FOR A RALLY AGAINST PREDATORY GAMBLING. I will be speaking at this short gathering and I urge your attendance.

The admission of slot machine gambling to a state is, according to the governor's own report by Spectrum Gaming, an irrevocable decision. It is not something we will be able to review years from now. It must be stopped decisively. IT must be stopped NOW. It must be stopped by US.

for more information, please contact me at rkmassie@rcn.com or michael@casinofreemass.org

Thank you - I respect you all. Please come.
Bob Massie