The River Reporter Online - Letters to the Editor

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The River Reporter welcomes letters on all subjects from its readers. They must be signed and include the correspondent's phone number. The correspondent's name and town will appear at the bottom of each letter; titles and affiliations will not, unless the correspondent is writing on behalf of a group.

Letters are printed as they are received, or at the discretion of the editor, and without correction to grammar or spelling. It is requested they be limited to 500 words; correspondents may be asked to cut longer letters. Deadline is 1:00 p.m. on Monday.

It was interesting to read in USA Today that Brigette Boisselier, top scientist at a company that plans to clone human beings, is moving her company outside the U.S. She was asked by the FDA to wait with her business until the law on cloning procedures is clarified. Her rationale for cloning is reminiscent of the Supreme Court’s rationale for Roe vs. Wade: the right of a woman to choose abortion because she alone has absolute control over her own body. Boisselier says: “The right of an individual to use his own genes as he wants is a basic human freedom.” Human freedom? Abortion has not only denied the unborn child of life; it has denied the mothers of these unborn children the freedom of a guilt free life. Scores of them spend time in psychiatric hospitals; many commit suicide.

The right of an individual to use his own genes as he wants is the right to play God. Since when did the right to play God become a basic human freedom? Germany played that game in pre-Hitler times “to rid the culture of genetic tint.” Germany didn’t use cloning to raise a perfect race; the procedure of choice was euthanasia. Originally the euthanasia program was intended for defective children under the age of three; but by late 1939 the program had expanded to include all children with obvious physical and mental handicaps or severe diseases. More than 5,000 children, presumably German, were killed between 1939 and 1941. The Jews were seen as racial pollution, and we know what happened to them.

The right of an individual to use his own genes to clone a baby in his own image is to play God with a different procedure. This right, fortunately, is not to be exercised in America, where all men, created equal, are endowed by their CREATOR with certain inalienable rights: the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Creator our founding fathers revered was not a human being.

The latest press release from the gambling interests (thinly disguised as a news story) is a real eye-opener.

As reported on local radio, thousands of video “slot machines,” strategically placed at race tracks, would “generate” $1.7 billion in revenue. They would “create” over a billion dollars in new money for schools, sewers, police, playgrounds, apple pie, mom and the American flag.

Let’s be clear about this: gambling does not “generate” any revenue. It does not “create” any new funding. What it does is redistribute cash. Many years of extensive, documented research show that it redistributes cash from those least able to afford it, to those at the top of the gambling industry heap.

Haven’t you ever seen those strings of losing “Instant Winner” tickets lying in the gutter? Haven’t you ever stood behind an hourly worker on payday, buying milk, eggs, bread and $20 or more of Lottery tickets? My friends and I have frequently seen both.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen those losing tickets being thrown from the window of a new BMW. And, it’s been some time since I’ve seen anyone send their chauffeur in for the milk, eggs and Lotto slips.

Gambling has always been a dead-end game. Now, more than ever, it sucks money from the workers who can least afford it, to pay for limousines and diamond rings, not schoolbooks and playgrounds.

I will be representing the Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce at the July 10th scoping session in Bethel. This meeting is part of the legal process and offers the public a chance to list areas of concern they believe should be addressed in the Environmental Impact Statement.

“The Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce has had an opportunity to review the ‘Bethel Performing Arts Center Draft Scoping Document for a Generic Environmental Impact Statement.’ The document outlines the significant issues that the Gerry Foundation must address as it prepares an Environmental Impact Statement for its project.

“The Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce is also familiar with the Gerry Foundation and the series of concerts it conducted on the site in 1998 and 1999. We believe this project would be a major boost to the tourism industry and offer a significant benefit to the area economy. We feel that all the necessary issues have been addressed fully and adequately by this scoping document, and that no additional areas of concern need to be raised in preparation of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.”